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SB Heavy 10 cleanup and repair. My adventures with a lathe bought from the internet.

bentwrench

Cast Iron
Joined
Oct 25, 2007
Location
North Dakota
Here she is when I brough her home. I had been looking to upgrade my 9" South bend to a 10l or a 13. Were I live machine tools are not so easy to find, prices are high and condition is often very poor. So I rolled the dice on a machine from HGR surplus. She came form Ohio. $1400 with some goodies included. A little more than I wanted to pay for a 10l over the internet, but it checked lots of boxes, 4-1/2' bed, hardened ways, Camlock spindle, and collet lever setup and bins full of 5c collets and some other goodies including in a DRO on the long axis. There is also line boring fixture for it which is pretty neat. Made in 1978 form what I can find on the Swells registry. While used heavily there were signs it was cared for, every part they replaced in it's life was in a box, gear box parts, feed screws, etc. She was used, but maintained. I got her ruining in the garage to and checked over everything, then tore it completely apart to make some repairs and move it into my basement shop. The worst issue was that the machine was filthy. Decades of dirt, swarf and cutting oil had formed a black crust that looked like asphalt on everything. I don't normally paint machine tools, paint does nothing to make a tool work better or be more accurate, honestly, I have better things to do than paint. But after I scrubbed the crud off this machine there wasn't any paint left. Since I had it all apart and cleaned up I bit the bullet and painted everything. But don't judge me, paint is a preservative so it ain't gonna look pretty. I got some old Ford Gray tactor paint form Ace hardware, I like the look and it and sort of matches the OEM color.



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I tore it apart and moved it downstairs. Man the cabinet on these things weighs ton, getting that down the stars with an appliance cart was about all my bother an I could handle.

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The 6" 3 jaw chuck I kept form my 9" machine, the 4 jaw cam from HGR, I got them to throw it in for another $200. An 8" buck with 2 piece jaws and D1-4 back. Looked almost new, and was a smokin' deal. A bit big but certainly useable on a 10l.
 
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So here is the bad:

Front spindle bearing was scored badly and had been run loose. The spindle itself was spared any serious damage.

The lead screw had a bad spot, it had done a threading operation in it's production life that had worn the leadscrew, about 1-1/2 inches of the leadscrew threads were worn to a point.

Apron needed some bushings on the worm drive

Tailstock ram needed the feed nut replaced

Cross feed screw and nut were toast

The QC gearbox needed some attention

Make no mistake the machine was serviceable they way it showed up. However since I had to tear it part to clean everything and move it, repairs were no to going to be a big deal. I made some replacement parts while it was running in the garage, and bought a few parts that I needed. A few things I was able to machine once I got the lathe back together....I should have waited before selling my 9" machine.

Here is the headstock going back together. I replaced the front bearing, SBlatheman hooked me up with a replacement. When all was said and done I got the clarences to .0008" and it runs cool while cutting. Very happy how that turned out.

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The apron was filthy they always seem to be. Here it is all back together. I had some bearing bronze and made new bushings for the worm drive. There was set of replacement half nuts with the parts that came with the lathe, they needed some machining to fit and I had put a small spring on the interlock so the the controls would shift properly. Everything else was in good shape. All the felts had to be be placed as well.


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Tailstock got a replacement nut in the ram, this had already been repaired once before in it's life. I also used a Morse taper reamer to clean up the ram. Turned out really nice.

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The motor needed new bearings and was packed full of swarf (that can't be good for an electric motor). It took an entire can of electromotive cleaner, and my poor garage workbench will never be the same color again! That underdrive sucks to lift back in place, even with a floor jack it was a bit of a fight.
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Bought a used VFD and a start-stop switch on e-bay. Man VFD's are cheap these days. I welded up a mount to put the switch on the headstock where the old rotary switch would be. I like that location it seems natural to run the spindle control from there.

Set this up in "3 wire mode" and was able to set the center of the 10k pot as the 0 rpm point. Turn it to the left and motor runs in reverse, turn it to the right and it runs in forward. I also set up dynamic and DC braking. The spindle stops in a fraction of a second. It's bad ass, I love this set up.

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The compound needed a new nut and the cross slide needed a new nut and a screw. I got the kit form e-bay to fix that. There is a taper attachment but it was never fitted to it, I will put it on but not for now. I have some things I need the machine for so I put the carriage back together without the taper attachment. The gib on the cross slide was also messed up, it was bent, or twisted, something weird was going on. I found a new gib, they need to be cut to length and fit. I used a mill because I don't have the time to scrape it in and the dovetail isn't exactly new either. It isn't perfect but it is 95% better than it was.

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Once I got the machine useable I did few projects then I finished the gearbox and got the power feed up and running again. The gearbox had one tumbler the was buggered up, and the tumbler shaft and a few bushings needed to be replaced. The tumblers were really sticky and the bearing surfaces were scored up and worn down. I machined a piece of sifting to replace it. If your tumblers don't slide back and forth smoothly this the cause, with a new shaft the tumblers lever shift very smoothly. The previous owner had made some replacement gears for the gearbox at some point, but one of the tumbler gears had some damage. I replaced that one, and took a small file to clean up the teeth on the rest. I spent a day cleaning gears and filing teeth and fitting the parts back in the box.


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This took me about 6 months messing around at night after the kids were in bed. It was a mixed a bag. While the machine had clearly seen a lot of work in it's life it wasn't anything that couldn't be fixed. I had quite a repair list when all was said and done. However my old 9" machine sold for significantly more than I bought this one for, with all the parts, and some new tooling I brought for the 10L, and few things for my mill, I traded up form a 9" change gear machine to a deluxe heavy 10 for essentially even money. Yeah I put some time into it, but I find that enjoyable.

Here is everything( almost) that was replaced.

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I kept my nice 6" Bison chuck (fit a new back plate), my tool post, and most of my tooling from the 9" machine so the change to a 10L was pretty seamless. I sold the hand lever collet setup for the 10L on e-bay for a small fortune ( I'm not kidding), then used those funds to by a brand new toolmex 5c collet chuck, a full set of decent collets and some other goodies for my shop. So the dust has settled and I have a sweet machine all tooled up and ready to go.

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I also added a steel drawer for tool holders and turning tools. It looks a bit goofy, but it works. The center of these cabinets is just wasted space. I wish I could have found a drawer that matched the styling better.

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I still have the DRO to finish, but I need to redo the mount if I plan to put the taper attachment on the machine so that will be on hold. I need to make some feet for the cabinet too.

After owning a 9" for 15 years this machine is HUGE upgrade. The VFD is awesome, I am looking for an identical unit to set up on my mill.

Hope you guys enjoyed seeing another SB given a second life ( or maybe a third in this case).



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I came across this one person who found the perfect drawer solution for the space in the middle. It was drawers made by Kennedy part number DR265 that would fit into a modular workstation that could have shelves or drawers. Problem is I think they have been long discontinued. They aren't in stock anywhere online, maybe someone has some in the back of a warehouse but they will either let it go cheap or think they have the last one and will demand a small fortune. The harbor freight 14.5" end cabinet fits if you cut off 2 of the drawers, but it is deeper than the lathe cabinet, so it will either stick out the front or the back.
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Wow....great project and fantastic results! I recently bought a 10L as a fun project and was really surprised how nicely they work.
 
The fix for the worn lead screw is to turn it around so that the worn thread is at the tail stock end. Some lathe work is needed to accomplish this.
That is great tip Gary, I suppose one will almost never cut a thread that far away from the spindle. I just happened to come across a leadscrew for the correct length so I replaced it.
 
You can clean out your lead screw by putting in in a slow feed rate & wrap a string or small wire around the screw in the slot & power on . Move your carriage down the tailstock end & do the left side of the screw then move the carriage to the left & do the rest of the screw .Just walk the string down .
animal
 








 
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