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Southbend lathe, $3400, Calgary, AB

Screenshot 2023-08-19 at 5.27.41 PM.jpg
 
Newer than mine with the two lever gear box and I paid $2500 over 10 years ago. OTOH, there wasn't anything from Busy Bee or House of Tools that came close to it with a taper attachment and the user group for South Bend is great!
 
Yeah. Dunno if the guy is being too optimistic or not, would need a better idea what the 'other stuff' is.

FWIW, circa 1985 or 1986, I was quoted $13K USD, for the barest, smallest, SB Lathe available, when I inquired directly. Didn't keep the correspondence, as that was half a years wages at the time, but I never thought it was a shocker that they tanked, after that! Esp. as there were a LOT of Asian machines (that were not totally crap, and were not 50 years old designs!) coming available at the time!

Wish I HAD thought to keep all that stuff, as I was inquiring to Emco, South Bend (the REAL South Bend), and a couple other outfits at that time.
 
Is this a good beginner lathe? I am now fully retired and looking for a machine I can use to learn on. will it cut both sae and metric threads?
 
I sold two of these in Calgary for around $2000 each like a year and a half ago. This one has tooling & feels it may be in better condition. So say 3k vs 2k.

This looks like SB 13 - but of course I could be mistaken.
 
It's an excellent lathe to learn on, probably why most schools in North America at one time had them in the shop classes. You will need transposing gears in order to cut metric threads, at one time that was an expensive problem, now with 3d printers, they are almost a dime a dozen...
 
140mower said:
It's an excellent lathe to learn on,
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Agreed. What makes a great beginners lathe? Only thing I can think of is et a solid, high quality machine in good nick (i.e. someting like this or a Standard modern) ...... it'll be way less frustrating giving you a fighting chance of making it through the long, tough flat part of a steep learning curve.

This one as a good selection of tooling so might be a good one to pounce on (if inspection shows it to be in good condition) I would avoid bare bones offerings. You want chucks, ideally collets, taper attachment, steadies.....more up front but much cheaper (and WAY less time) in the long run. Then when you want to do something, you can.

Do you really need to cut metric threads? Maybe you do, but just for fun, I'd argue it unless its something specific you have in mind where you are mating to some existing thread (which may be the case, I don't know your intentions). There is usually not a great need to. Most projects in my experience are in imperial, and you can always substitute one for the other and a huge percentage of of threads are gut with tap and die. Finally, on most lathes you can make it happen but adding a couple of gears between spindle and quick change gear box as the guys have noted. To insist on both will likely mean having to move to a newer machine meaning you wont (imo) get the same quality, or waiting for one of the rarer old ones that have both (like a DSG for example but that is a who different level of endeavour)
 
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Mcgyver said:
Agreed. What makes a great beginners lathe? Only thing I can think of is et a solid, high quality machine in good nick (i.e. someting like this or a Standard modern) ...... it'll be way less frustrating giving you a fighting chance of making it through the long, tough flat part of a steep learning curve.

This one as a good selection of tooling so might be a good one to pounce on (if inspection shows it to be in good condition) I would avoid bare bones offerings. You want chucks, ideally collets, taper attachment, steadies.....more up front but much cheaper (and WAY less time) in the long run. Then when you want to do something, you can.

Do you really need to cut metric threads? Maybe you do, but just for fun, I'd argue it unless its something specific you have in mind where you are mating to some existing thread (which may be the case, I don't know your intentions). There is usually not a great need to. Most projects in my experience are in imperial, and you can always substitute one for the other and a huge percentage of of threads are gut with tap and die. Finally, on most lathes you can make it happen but adding a couple of gears between spindle and quick change gear box as the guys have noted. To insist on both will likely mean having to move to a newer machine meaning you wont (imo) get the same quality, or waiting for one of the rarer old ones that have both (like a DSG for example but that is a who different level of endeavour)
Click to expand...
Awesome advice.....thanks for taking the time to help a newbie!!!!
 
6.5 Fan said:
I think it has a tailstock.......did you have something else in mind.:)
Click to expand...

So it does! My phone chopped off that side of the photo. But I was able to download it to see the rest. Yup, it has a tailstock.

@Blue Wall - this one has a tail stock, but that is something you have to watch out for. Many many used lathes are missing the tailstock. You can use a lathe without one, but for many jobs it's a HUGE challenge. A missing tailstock would slaughter the price in my opinion.

ALL - Take a gander at that E-Stop!!!! Holy Cow Pies!

Screenshot_20230824_081620.jpg
 
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