South Bend Heavy 10

C

coyotechet

Chet
Just Scrolling the web and found this. Looks like a very nice South Bend Heavy 10 Tool room model (CL8187ZB) L00 spindle with taper attachment 6" Burnerd 3 jaw chuck. Not mine or anything to do with it. Just looks like a very nice South Bend heavy 10 for sell.
Chet

http://www.lostcreekmachine.com/
Click on the link and then go to Lathes (used) then scroll down to South Bend Heavy 10.
 

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Great machine

coyotechet said:
Just Scrolling the web and found this. Looks like a very nice South Bend Heavy 10 Tool room model (CL8187ZB) L00 spindle with taper attachment 6" Burnerd 3 jaw chuck. Not mine or anything to do with it. Just looks like a very nice South Bend heavy 10 for sell.
Chet

http://www.lostcreekmachine.com/
Click on the link and then go to Lathes (used) then scroll down to South Bend Heavy 10.
Click to expand...

Unless you want to do something longer than a foot.

Pete
 
Nice south Bend

Yep, I know but Headstock is still the same size where most should be chambering away. I just posted it because it looks like a very nice lathe. Same as mine and I have chambered many barrels all thru the headstock Quit chambering between centers long time ago.

Chet
 
Same as my beloved South Bend Heavy 10 i do all my chamber and thread work on. These little Heavy 10s are great machines for chambering barrels thru the headstock. My all time favorite lathe for riflesmith work!!
 
I had one for years

from 1969 and sold it last year. Basically because I wanted to be able to do some longer work and to be able to more easily fit a DRO to a lathe. I ended up with a Taiwanese lathe that is pretty dern good and capable of anything the SB would do. The only thing I miss is the clutch. I was able to get a premium price for the 10L I had as I sold it with all the accessories I had for it and got more then enough money to equip with my newer machine with ER 40 stuff, etc, etc. 10L's are not all that robust, all said and done. They are very well made and have great spindles in them but the slides are puny, in my view.

Pete
 
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Pete I totally agree with your last post. 10L is a lite machine but for doing threading and chambering and other type gun work dies or what ever it is a great machine. I have a second lathe with a longer bed can't remember the last time I used it past the length of the short 10L I have and I use them both weekly.
I once asked Don Nielson why he used should a big lathe, His answer was you can do anything on a big lathe that a smaller lathe will do and a whole lot more.

Chet
 
Interesting

coyotechet said:
Pete I totally agree with your last post. 10L is a lite machine but for doing threading and chambering and other type gun work dies or what ever it is a great machine. I have a second lathe with a longer bed can't remember the last time I used it past the length of the short 10L I have and I use them both weekly.
I once asked Don Nielson why he used should a big lathe, His answer was you can do anything on a big lathe that a smaller lathe will do and a whole lot more.

Chet
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What I have found is I am not using the newer lathe for much long work either but I use to have situations where I would need to endo things I was working on and just barely be able to make them come out right, polishing a barrel, for instance. I always figured a 10L with a 4' bed would be ideal . I am only a hobbyist and do a few barrels and other small projects AND i haven't gone for a DRO yet either but I am satisfied with the lathe I have now.

I had done the serpentine belt conversion to my 10L and had the tail stock quill lengthened 2" so it had a lot of good stuff . Cushman chucks, face plate and dog plates, both steadied, the " 50 in one" tool post and lantern tool post stuff. I had never used most of the accessories so don't miss any of them.

If I weren't so old I would buy a lathe with a foot break and I would come up with a way to slow down the feed rate, i.e. a gear motor drive setup but I'm too old now to mess with any of it.

Pete
 
Pete Wass said:
If I weren't so old I would buy a lathe with a foot break and I would come up with a way to slow down the feed rate, i.e. a gear motor drive setup but I'm too old now to mess with any of it.
Pete
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RIght again age has a lot to do with it. If I was 30 years younger (now 80) I would go for the 1340G Acer, my friend has one and it is really a nice machine, but I would keep my South Bend 10L as it is my pet.
Chet
https://aceronline.net/acergroup/el-dyn1340g.htm
 

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The Acer 1340 is what i used in school. Very nice gearhead lathe. I still prefer my 1963 South Bend Heavy 10 for what i do. I have a Enco 12x36 that mainly just gets used for polishing barrels since the South Bend came along.
 
jackie schmidt said:
Acer lathes are top notch in that price range.

Just don't get them confused with Acra, which is A low end Chinese product.
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Jackie,

That's not completely accurate, unless something has changed. As far as I know, the low end Acra machines are made in China, while their high end machines are made in Taiwan. My Acra, a 1440SVS, was made in Taiwan and is badged thusly.

The Taiwanese made Acras have a good reputation. I've been happy with mine.

Justin
 
The Great Leap Backwards?

I have noticed a great deal of disdain for lathes made in China in this forum. It reminds me of how Japanese tools were thought of when I was younger. Are they really that bad? Has any one here actually used one for gunsmithing? If so, what was the result? Tim
 
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Tim Oltersdorf said:
I have noticed a great deal of disdain for lathes made in China in this forum. It reminds me of how Japanese tools were thought of when I was younger. Are they really that bad? Has any one here actually used one for gunsmithing? If so, what was the result? Tim
Click to expand...


Price point. You get what you pay for is an old saying for good reason. I have a feeling if you paid a company in China the same money as the nicer lathes in Taiwan then they could build you a nicer lathe. Most lathe companies today have offerings from both countries. There has to be some difference between a $5000 and a $10000 lathe of the same size. A lot of blanket statements made in this thread. A lot of good gun work done on Chinese lathes. A good operator can probably can cut a couple of inches pretty straight on a lot of machines. Stephen
 
After growing up working on old South Bends, Atlas's, and Clausing's I would say that they aren't even close to a new decent Chinese lathe like a GO709 from Grizzly. The 709 required some work to make it smooth, new start and run capacitors, the link belts and had to remove the sheave on the motor and lathe and clean off the paint drips, some isolation mounts for the motor and it's very smooth at 1000 rpm and down. If I ever wear it out I'll offer an opinion on it VS a worn domestic lathe. The reason I bought it is I didn't want to buy a worn out old lathe and spend months rebuilding it, didn't know how and didn't know where to buy the parts. Some of the machinist on here know how to to that stuff and would like to think that since they can the rest of us should be able to also, not true.
 
From my point of view

It doesn't require much of a lathe to cut an inch of threads and chamber a barrel, especially at the very low speeds involved, etc. I think things tend to get overblown quite often. It becomes a matter of semantics and preferences. I don't claim to be a gunsmith or even a machinist but I have been able to chamber and fit a few barrels that shoot better than I can shoot them, even with my marginal ability and know how.

Pete
 
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