To all,

Do you have any contacts that either have new or used Southbend lathes for sale?

Thank you for the info.

Good Shooting!!!

50

www.southbendlathe.com
Its not so hard to find a used southbend, however, I would never *recomend* a dealer on any used machines. I find that used machine dealers are like the old used car salesman you use to hear about. In addition I WOULD NEVER BUY A USED MACHINE THAT I CANT THOROUGHLY INSPECT MYSELF. I cannot understand why people buy these used machines over the internet without seeing them in person. They must have more time and money than sense.

Log onto "Metal Web News" several sources of machines (and everything else) are listed.
Good luck!

Sign up for the southbendlathe group on Yahoo!. They have a message board with a lot of info, a lot of participants, and help each other out a lot. I presume since you are interested in gunsmithing, you are interested in a larger size. The heavy 10 and the 13 are the smallest that are useable. Be advised that the bulk of the 10's are the regular ones with a small spindle bore. A number of the 13's even have the small spindle. There were a lot more of the small ones built. Of the postwar lathes, for instance, there were well over 100,000 of the 9 inch and about 20,000 of the 13. I looked around for 3 months before buying a rebuilt 13 from an old guy about 75 miles from home. I still ended up doing a lot of work and buying parts, but I ended up with a great lathe for about $1600.

Don't discount ebay. I found several near me that I wished afterwards I had bought, but I couldn't pull the trigger because it wasn't just the right lathe. I found a number in my area that I could drive to and examine. That may be more of a problem for you, given your location.

For my own knowledge, what does the 9 or 13 signify? I saw a lathe listed as a 9 x 36. I assume the 36 means you can put a 36in. long piece on the lathe, but what does the 9 signify? Is that diameter or radius of the piece of stock you can use?

Thanks, Rob

It is the largest swing diameter work piece.