What have you made WITH your South Bend?

I would like to see some of the projects everyone has made on their lathe. I have used mine to barrel a rifle, crown a few muzzels, made many firing pins and assorted gun parts. I have made gears, ingraved dials, made many replacement parts for many different things, made springs and electrical windings,and have ground tools. Here is a Kitchen table and chair set I made.





[ 04-11-2007, 10:36 PM: Message edited by: Paula ]

Gary, no problem -- I resized your pictures.

Wow, I'm impressed! Very nicely finished, and
yet still has "rustic" appeal. Did you do the
artwork? (Or is it decoupagge?) There's a
company not far from here called Flatrock
Furniture that makes similar styled pieces.
Very expensive.

Thanks for the pictures.

Paula

[ 04-18-2007, 09:06 AM: Message edited by: Paula ]

Very nice work Gary, but I'm a little stumped. What part of the chairs and table did you make in the lathe? The tenons?

Or am I just thinking inside the box too much?

Regards,

-Keith

Yes, I did the art work. It is sharpe marker except for the white, and that is white out. There is also some wood burning. Nothing close to your guitar. Gary P. Hansen

Keith: The ends of the table legs were turned to fit into a hole bored into a log under the table. All the top of the chair legs were turned to fit into holes bored into the seat and both ends of the branches I used for braces were turned to fit holes bored in the chair legs. Gary P. Hansen

I don't make anything, my 4 lathes are just big paper weights ...Bob
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/southbend10k/

Golly, Gary,

There's a ton of stuff. For the lathe:

Travel indicator holder, shoulder bolts for the carriage lock and forward/reverse gear bracket, a complete telescoping steadyrest with bronze fingers and knurled thimbles, telescoping tapping sleeve for the tailstock, two different telescoping die holders for the tailstock, a tailstock dauber or two, travel indicator holder for indicating tailstock ram travel, several chuck backplates, a spindle take-up nut, a spindle indexing fixture, a variety of spiders for the outboard end of the spindle, a thread protecting collar for the collet setup, various drill pads for the tailstock, two different milling fixtures that replace the compound, an adapter for the collet drawbar for drawing in M/Taper endmill holders in the spindle, a 15-degree raked HSS toolblock for the QC post, some larger graduated dials for the feed cranks, new Acme lead screws for the compound and the SB shaper toolhead, new bronze nut for the compound, a ball-turning attachment,and I'm sure there's other stuff I can't think of right now.

For gunsmithing:

Reamer holder, a couple of headspace gauges, a variety of barrel blocks and receiver wrenches, a bolt jewelling fixture; a variety of small parts, breeching washers, float-tube torque rings, and so on.

Specifically for the M1 rifle: reamer driver, thru-the-headstock four-jaw crowning fixture, glass-bedding clamps and tension spacers, a throat erosion gauge, receiver wrench and barrel blocks, a set-up fixture for centering the gas-cylinder lock in a 4-jaw so that the chamfer can be timed to 6 o'clock, a set of bore gauges in .0005 increments, a centering ring for unitizing the front handguard, and a set of tooling for converting the windage knob to 1/2 minute clicks, using a spring and ball detent.

Hardly a day goes by that I don't make something on either the lathe or the shaper. Not too long ago, Mrs. SB55 wrung off one of the knobs on a nearly new washing machine, and split the collar that goes over the "D" shaft, and the sheetmetal liner as well. The fix took about 15 minutes, and I'll bet I'm the only guy in the world that has a Maytag with 660 bronze collar around the selector knob shaft.

I wanted a lathe for twenty-five years, and never was in a position where I had room for one. Now that I finally got one, I'm makin' up for lost time.

Cheers,
Mike

Gary;

It's a 1/8.9285 scale working replica of a
1450 English Bombard, that I made for a forum
member. Sorry, I guess I forgot to mention that.

Jamie

I made repair parts for my South Bend lathe, mill, Burke milling machine, car, a co-workers exercise bike and a co-workers watch cleaner. I've been so busy fixing stuff I never got around to actualy making anything, but it is a novel idea!

Ted

Knobs for grill - 2" knurled Titanium; new hinge pins for grill cover, also Titanium, new front panel for grill from Inconel 702; Added DRO to SB 16" (cross feed & carriage travel), brackets and mounts for caliper based tailstock travel indicator (SB 16 again and quill travel for Bridgeport); spindle thread protector for 10K; 2MT die holder; Limit switchs for Bridgeport power X feed to mount in front of DRO which is mounted on front of table; hardware for mounting one-shot oiler to Bridgeport.

Pete

Gary,
Very nice work, and I am very interested in how you cut gears in your lathe, I would like to be able to cut the gear on the workshop power feed cross screw blank, I would welcome ideas on mounting and indexing for the tool holder.
here's a restored shifter and a handle asbmy I have done, and I made the dial bushing for same.

Wonderful looking stuff Steve

John

About half the stuff I make on the lathe is intended to take the planned obsolescence out of things around the house. A little steel pin saved me a couple of hundred dollars by fixing the sliding glass patio door rather than replacing it. It was so old that standard parts wouldn't fit no matter how hard I tried.

The bathtub valves are not only obsolete, the company that made them doesn't exist any more. I was able to re-machine the valves rather than pay a kilobuck to the plumber to replace the whole shebang. I may still have to do that, but now I have time to think about it.

I made a wheel puller to get the back wheels off the riding lawnmower so that I could work on the tires. That saved a hundred by not having to load the mower in the truck and take it down to the mower shop.

I made a little fixture for the back of the lathe that lets me turn wood platters bowls, and lazy susans out of hardwood for Xmas presents. Folks appreciate something that's hand made and I love turning wood just as much as I do metal.

Now, I'm thinking about taking an old weed eater motor and seeing if I can turn it into a light duty tool post grinder/buffer. It's hard to find something that will fit a little SB-9 and I have a hunch that a weed eater motor has the torque and rpm to do that job.

I haven't had the SB13 that long but here are a few items I did with it.
Had to get rid of the bolt in the tool post, I got tired of reching for the wrench:

The ends of the fender struts were turned and threaded:

Also made various spacers and threaded inserts:

I am working on restoring a circ 1895 15" springfield shaper. I have been cutting a new lead screw. This is a 1" 4 tpi LH square cut screw.

The results can be seen here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/?saved=1
I also just finnished an MLA steady rest but that had only a little lathe work, mostly milling.

Jim B

I've made alot of parts for my old tractors on my 10" SB. My 1936 farmall F-12 fan assemaly was worn to the point of almost hitting the radiator and I couldnt find a better one at a reasonable price so I just made up a new shaft and bushing set. Took about 4 hours, but once it was all back together the fan hub is nice and tight and I wasnt out a dime

In fact it was a project that I did on the SB that prompted me to look for a turret lathe. spent a long night making identical pins one at a time for a cultivator, after that I went and picked up my #4 W&S. The only problem is now I've gone and spoiled myself, I dont think I've run my 10" 3 times since I got the big lathe. Just like the power and feal of it but for some things the SB is far better so I'll be keeping it around.

Didnt do it on the south bend but my latest projects have been turning down front spindles for a 54 ford jubilee for my uncle. Ran those out on the #4 Warner Swasey at a nice leasurly 60rpm. Had to turn the king pin section down to build it back up to original size for the bushings to ride on, should tighten the front end up a bit. Those were one of the scarier things I've turned. having that spindle sticking out to one side while its turning in the lathe really keeps you on your toes.

On a side not the W&S did make me a little money a few weeks ago, had a coustom job down to work and a few bushings that we ordered in for pin bosses didnt fit, so I brought them home and bored em out. Just seemed nice to be making some money with the old girl after putting so much time into getting it back into shape.

Had to bore 4 of these out to fit excavator bucket pins. The first one took a little over an hour to get everything set up and get to the right fit, once I had that the next three whent pretty quick. One evnings work got me 150 bucks, not bad for a 62 year old machine that I paid 300 bucks for

Fireman, thats what turret lathes are for, making money!

That they are, and it sure did a nice job of it too. This one lives in a semi retired state doing odd jobs for my restorations and on ocasion makes me a little $. When I decided to look for a turret lathe I origanly was looking for a bed turret for my 10" or a 16" Sb with a bed turret.

I bid on a nice 16" on ebay before I got the W&S but it fell through, now I'm glad it did. The W&S used to belong to my grandfather and it was only about 5 miles from home so there was no shipping costs Some day I may strip the white paint off and give her a fresh coat of paint but for the moment she'll stay just the way she is.

Here are a few more things I made on my South Bend. A couple a years ago I recall a long thread on another web site about where to find a good file handel. I found the file handels on the left in my yard after a wind storm in the form of a broken off maple branch. If you need a file handel just stick a hunk of branch on your lathe and turn it down. Turn down the end to fit the inside of a copper pipe or electrical conduit and conect the furrel to the handel with a couple of center punch dimples. The bigger ball peen hammer heas was a fifty cent grage sale fine but the handel had seen better days and was replaced with a hunk of ask from a tree that died in by yard. The bronze hammer handel came from a broken swelge hammer handel (No I did not break it). I made the small ball peen hamer years ago when I first bought my lathe from hot rolled steel. I case hardened the head with Kasenite. It comes in handy when a light rap is needed. The wooden hammer was made from beech and works well when building cabinets and book cases.

Years ago when I first got my lathe I was a licence gunsmith, and a guy brought in a 1906 Winchester pump .22 rifle that was missing the forarm. He wanted me to make him a new one. I just happen to have my Dad's near mint 1906 Winchester at the time and made my customer an exact copy on my lathe along with brass escutchens for the screw heads. In the mean time, my customer had "refinished" the but stock sanding it down and rounding over the inletting in the process and there by making a rifle that would have been worth $300. with my new forarm into one that was worth all of $25. Gary P. Hansen

Neat thread! I love seeing what everyone is
making with their machines.

I haven't really done much with my current lathe
(9A), other than stuff for the lathe itself. The
most recent exception was a steel base to
convert a floor lamp to a table lamp. I had one
of those $9.99 "torchier" lamps in my office,
but I wanted to reclaim the floor space that it
took up. Here's the result:



The cylindrical part was made from 2-1/2" dia.
CRS, and the base from 1/2 x 4-1/2" CRS. The
base is fastened with (4) 1/4" socket-head cap
screws. A plastic grommet keeps the cord from
shorting out. The base is heavy enough to keep
the lamp from tipping easily. I think it turned
out pretty well.



Paula

[ 04-17-2007, 11:55 PM: Message edited by: Paula ]