The little lathe I've been using for 20+ years bit the dust (actually I'll be repairing it) but made me look on Craigslist and I went and bought a new (to me) lathe it's a pre '47 south bend lathe and I'm looking forward to learning how to use it. I think it'll be a pretty big upgrade to what I've been using. Going through a maint apprentice program I actually started on a south bend lathe. A buddy and I put together the bench for it today and got it running. here are some pics it's smaller than it looks from the chuck to the tail piece is about 20 inches...

Thats a goodie Brad..
Ive Chambered a few Gun BBls in one just like that.. Its an oldie but a goodie..

You will love it..

Thanks Kerry! I’ve never done any gun smith work, I’d like to learn!

Don’t know anything about lathes, but that’s looks like a solid piece of machinery from when stuff was made right. Reminds me of some of the equipment my grandad had in his garage when I was a kid and he would let us help him work on things and then built us a go kart.

Not sure what I am doing wrong but the pictures are not showing up for me in a lot of the threads on here.

I enjoy working with older equipment and have a 1943 Wade 8a which is just a gem of a machine regardless of many years of hard use. You can pretty much bet your "old" Southbend will outlast many of the new Chinese machines which have flooded the market in recent years.

I used my Wade for truing and re-barrelling two Mauser 98 actions (one for myself and one for my wife) and I was able to dial it in to two ten thousandths for threading and chambering the barrels. It took me a whole lot more time than it should have to dial it in but I was impressed that it could still hold that good of a tolerance after the years and use it had seen. I can pretty much guarantee the lathe is better than I am but I am going to chalk it up to it having more practice!

I've been on a lathe rampage here lately. I accidentally noticed another 9" south bend ("c" model though no quick change gears for threading) up on an auction site and practically stole it.



What I wanted was the cast bench it was on. I swapped them out and cleaned the 9C up and made a little profit on it.
This is the 9A on the cast bench.



Then found a South bend heavy 10, 4' bed, large dials and a D-3 chuck, 1 3/8" hole through the head stock, for an unbelievable price... drove 4 hours to get it and have been cleaning it up. Guess I'll be selling the 9A, I'll try to break even on it (don't think that will be hard to do).

Here's the new toy, SB 10L



Oh yeah and during all this I fixed the little Jet lathe that I make calls on! I'm lathe poor right now, not enough room in the garage to spit on the floor!