The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Guns, Politics, Gunsmithing & Reloading Gunsmithing What do you think of this LatheGo | New | Find | Notify | Tools | Reply | |
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| One of Us |
I am looking to purchase my first lathe becasue I want to do my own barrel work. I have taken some classes on lathe operation, as well as owning the ATI Training Video set on Lathes. Some folks think 28 inches is a bit short for a barrel lathe. Anybody ever own one of these South Bend older lathes. would you recommend it for barrel work or not. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=016&it...TRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1 | ||
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great make of lathe, though the spindlebore may be too small.. 1 3/8 MINIMUM jeffe opinions vary band of bubbas and STC hunting Club Information on Ammoguide about the416AR, 458AR, 470AR, 500AR What is an AR round? Case Drawings 416-458-470AR and 500AR. 476AR, http://www.weaponsmith.com | |||
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too small through th eheadstock and between centers. Good lathe, but not good for barrel work. I didn't know those old SB's were offered with cam-loc, which is a very good thing. Do you already have a lathe? If not the required tooling and accessories are going to run you considerebly more than the current price of the lathe. | |||
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The ways look very good by what can be told from a pic. One thing to make sure of is the headstock through hole, although I imagine a South Bend 13 inch lathe would be big enough to run a barrel through. You will find that for barrel work you will need either a 4 jaw independent chuck or something like a Buck adj-tru chuck. The tooling for a lathe can run into as much money as the machine itself. If you do get it email me and let me know as I have moved and left a Clausing lathe at my old address, I may have some small tooling that can give you a hand starting out. They do not mention any tooling that I remember in that ad, this is something to consider. Marc, are you sure that the through hole is too small, I know the S.B. heavy ten is large enough, just curious. Bob | |||
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Bob, southbends tend to have small for size spindle bores. jeffe opinions vary band of bubbas and STC hunting Club Information on Ammoguide about the416AR, 458AR, 470AR, 500AR What is an AR round? Case Drawings 416-458-470AR and 500AR. 476AR, http://www.weaponsmith.com | |||
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I said what I said about a 13 in. lathe because I know that the heavy ten is at least 13/8. Just figured a 13 would be as big. Bob | |||
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Hole through the headstock is too small. A friend has one & regretes it.  Doug Humbarger NRA Life member Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club 72'73. Yankee Station Try to look unimportant. Your enemy might be low on ammo. | |||
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My first lathe was a belt driven JET 12x36. It had a large enough hole through the spindle to make the "36 inches between centers" no real concern. After 11 years and countless barrels, I replaced it with a 13x40 JET Gear Head. While coming in at only a mere 4" longer, I have found that I regularly use every bit of that extra length, and sometimes, find even the 40" almost too tight for some of the stuff. I would consider a 36" bed to be minimum for most barrel work. And some of the old belt drive models are hard to beat. There are times I miss my belt driven Lathe. Like when I want to beat on something with a hammer. Ooops, that's lathe abuse! I can't condone that...  | |||
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Hey 22WRF, I got a 12x36 and have turned out some very nice work. It has a 1.5 spindle bore which is good for through the headstock work. I have learned a lot from reading Malm's post. I don't build for work..just for my own fun and its all I needed Dan | |||
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Malm I hear what you are saying, but of course you are doing professional work for other people for money,every day, day in and day out, whereas I am going to be doing a barrel here and a barrel there for myself, and I seriously doubt if I would every install a barrel that would be longer than 26 inches, and most probably shorter than that. I will have to ask the guy the size of the spindle bore. As for tooling, there is tons of it on Ebay for cheap. I am not worried about tooling. | |||
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Sure, but if the lathe doesn't have enough spindle diameter to pass the barrel through, then you will be turning between centers and that takes up a lot of room. And it you are chambering using a steady rest while driving the barrel with the chuck, you won't have much room for the reamer. I think you would quickly out grow that machine. Maybe not. | |||
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i understand you believe you wont ever install a barrel longer than 26 inches but with a 28 inch bed working off a steady and not being able to put the barrel through the headstock i think the longest barrel you could do would be about 18 to 20 inches. you have to take into account the length of your reamer and the reamer driver that you need to feed towards the barrel. i'm not familiar with all of the southbend lathes so i don't know what the bore diameter is. if you can put the barrel through the headstock to work then i think the bed is long enough | |||
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Malm and All. funny how just a couple of inches on so many different things makes so much difference in this world. | |||
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No one said you had to worry about finding the tooling. It is on Ebay ind in a thousand tool houses. But it will cost you more than the current price of the lathe. And after you have spent that money, you will still have a long list of things you really need. Just to be sure you understand, you can't stick a barrel in a lathe at anywhere near the distance between centers. That is why I said there were 2 disqualifiers for this lathe to do general gun work: 1. spindle too small, and 2: bed too short. I have a 13x40 and wish it was bigger. I have an old 12x36 that could be pressed into service, but it is very limited as to what it can do because it has a small hole in the spindle. And that bed runs out of room A LOT sooner than a 40" bed. Trust us, there is an incredibly high chance you don't know how much the tooling is going to cost you in the end. But hell, what do we know? All we have ever done is been there and done that. | |||
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Marc Trust me, I know what tooling I need and what it costs. I am also thinking that becasue that lathe has the Camlock its going to have a spindle that is 1 3/8th (5c collet system) So I think that lathe will do all of the barreling work that I would every do with it. Besides, with the cost of reamers, I might just do long chambered blanks and won't need to ream, just thread and shorten. to put it another way, I am not going into the gunsmithing business. | |||
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And I'd say that 1 1/4 inch hole is a minimum through the spindle. 1 1/2 is a lot better. Do a search for Jet tools and see what they have or look to ebay. Some folks have been happy with Enco tools as well but I'm not too sure about them. | |||
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22, the info. that you are getting is good. I have a 14X48 Clausing and can just get a three foot piece of stock in it with a chuck. The bed length is from the spindle nose, and a chuck takes up a good piece of the bed. You then have to figure the room that your tailstock takes up plus I use a J.G.S. floating reamer holder which is another 5 to 7 inches. I personally think the best way by far to thread and chamber is with a barrel in the headstock ane held in a spider at the outside end and an adj-tru chuck on the work end. This is nothing more than my preference, but I have never been able to chamber in a steady rest without chatter. as someone has already said, do as you wish, but I would wait if the headstock is not at least 13/8 in. Bob | |||
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I have now been assured by the seller that the spindle hole is 1 3/8 all the way through. | |||
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22, give it up. the bed is way too short. | |||
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duikerman, what is the need of a long bed if the through hole is large enough to fit a barrel all the way through it? Bob | |||
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I know you think this is a great deal but, listen to what the experienced people are telling you. I have a 13 X 40 belt drive and it works OK. If I had to do it all over again, I would get a geared head lathe with the camlock spindle. I wouldn't worry about spending another $5-600 for a more suitable lathe as it will be well worth it. I don't know about the South Bend but I suspect it functions just like mine in that cutting metric threads requires that you keep the half-nut engaged throughout the entire threading process. MAJOR pain in the drain even after having to setup change gears to cut them anyway. The modern Taiwanese (JET) geared head lathes take all of that away and leave you with a lathe that will last you a lifetime. The difference in price will be forgotten quickly when you buy the lathe that will rally suit your purpose and that South Bend is barely marginal for what you want. "I ask, sir, what is the Militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effective way to enslave them" - George Mason, co-author of the Second Amendment during the Virginia convention to ratify the Constitution | |||
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My lathe is 17x60 and I would not want to give up any of the so call "extra" bed length. There is an old machine shop saying- "You can do small work in a big lathe, but you can't do big work in a small lathe". Not saying you can't do it with a 28" machine- but after awhile you will find things you won't be able to do- even for a hobby. | |||
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for what its worth I bought a Grizzly lathe 12X36 gear head single phase a while back. I have done a number of barrels on it and found it to be a very accurate machine. Its not in the class of a South Bend but for it suits my needs. Most of my work is a hobby and not used as a production work. The price was right and they have a good warranty. With the 36 inch lenght I can swing a 26 inch barrel with no problem for polishing or what ever. it has a 1 7/16 hole through the head stock. They also have good deals sometimes as I got a quick change tool post at the time I ordered it. Never rode a bull, but have shot some. NRA life member NRA LEO firearms instructor (retired) NRA Golden Eagles member | |||
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When working on barrels, having a lathe that can not take barrels between spindels is quite worthless. Likewise if it can not take the whole barrel through the spindle. Listen to all the good adwises above, and get a larger lathe. Bent Fossdal Reiso 5685 Uggdal Norway | |||
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Have the machine owner measure the spindle behind the chuck. I think they are measuring the hole in the chuck or the closer which is smaller than the spindle itself. That is a great lathe for chambering because you can chamber in the headstock but you won't ever be able to profile or polish barrels because of the short center distance. | |||
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Bent, why do you consider a lathe that can be used to chamber and thread through the headstock but has a short bed useless? A barrel most certainly be polished in the headstock and other than profiling a barrel I can see no real need of a long bed. I have two barrels that have beem recontured and both went back to Hart to have it done. I personally would not trust doing it myself, after talking to barrel makers about the procedure, and what I use my barrels for. I am not trying to continue any of the disagreements on this post, I am just curious. Bob | |||
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No probs, man, no worries!  I just think If you work on barrels, why not do it all? If one feel confident enough to chamber a gun, contouring it should be no problem, IMO. I do A LOT of threading for silencers, and it saves considerable time to set up the barell-threads in the 3-jaw-chuck and then set the muzzle on the spindle to thread the front end of the barell. I can do barrels up to 38" on mine. Same with threading barrels from blanks and profiled, I can still use the 3-jaw-chuck. Saves time. Then again, I bought the Lathe brand new, and have cared for it like a baby. My 3-jaw-chuck is veru accurate. For those who would claim this is not accurate enough, just forget it. Bent Fossdal Reiso 5685 Uggdal Norway | |||
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Sorry to be so long getting back but it seems Bent has answered that question. Simply to be able to polish using emery etc. between centers. I truly believe a 40 inch bed to be almost a minimum. | |||
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That is a great lathe. I know, because I have one. Mine, however, is a 6' bed length (aka 13x40) as opposed to the one in the auction, which is a 5'. I can actually swing a 40" barrel between centers if I use a deadcenter and a dog driver plate on the headstock. If I do my usual trick of turning a center in a chuck, I can easily swing a 36" barrel. The spindle bore on these lathes is 1.401 inches +/-. They are plenty big enough to insert reasonable sized barrels into the headstock. I do have a 5C collet setup for mine, as one of the other posters suggested. The Camlock spindle is a big plus for this particular unit. My lathe has a threaded spindle nose. While I have never had a problem other than a stuck chuck with the threaded nose, I would have chosen a Camlock if I could have. Bottom line: Short bed on this particular lathe could be an issue for gun work, particularly if you chamber in the steady. Price as it sits is not unreasonable. If the bed length is not an issue for you, go for it. Otherwise hold out for a 13x40. Clemson NRA Endowment Member US Army Veteran CWP Holder Gunsmith | |||
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On this South Bend, how short of a barrel will fit through the headstock and still be supported by a spider at the other end? | |||
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I have been convinced me that it is not prudent to chamber in the steady (torque issues for one thing). This lathe is looking better and better all of the time. I only wish I knew what else to do with it besides thread and chamber barrels. Might be time to run over and run a test bar.  | |||
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There is absolutely nothing wrong with chambering using a steady rest. There will be times when you have no choice such as working on barrels with permanently fixed sights and other attachments. Converting the steady rest to roller bearings makes chambering with the rest a breeze. | |||
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22wrf PM sent Roger | |||
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Ray Price used a very similar lathe for most of his gunsmithing life and did very good work. That said, he also told me a number of times that he wished he had something better and always had to make do with what he had. Some tasks could not be done because of the spindle hole. | |||
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If you use a lathe for chambering and polishing the ways don't matter. Butch | |||
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Assuming perhaps you always use a pre-threaded barrel. If however, you thread your own, then the ways do indeed matter, greatly.  Aut vincere aut mori | |||
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Z1r, Think about it. How bad would the ways have to be to affect the threads. Your carriage bridges several inches of way and you are threading just a little more than an inch in most cases. Butch | |||
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The Accurate Reloading Forums THE ACCURATE RELOADING.COM FORUMS Guns, Politics, Gunsmithing & Reloading Gunsmithing What do you think of this Lathe
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