I'm shifting gears from woodworking to metalworking and have
documented the restoration of my 1941 SB at



I hope that that you all will find this site informative. :^)

Mike

开云体育

--- In southbendlathe@y..., "Paul R. Hvidston" <p.hvidston@i...>
wrote:

Beautiful site, BEAUTIFUL SB!

Thanks Paul.

I thought I saw a precision level in one of the pictures. Have you

set up the lathe yet, and how does it perform, precision-wise? How's
the 1/4 HP motor do?


Yes, that's an 8" Starrett level I used to get the ways leveled-off,
in fact, I think you can also see the test bar I started making in
the same photo. The lathe was off .003 over 6", and after some trial
and error tweaking, I was able to get it down to .001-.0015". (well
within my tolerance level)(and ability)

You know as well as I do, woodworking only uses fractions, and I
don't ever remember using them down to 64ths. Now I have to deal
with thousanths? Sheesh!

The motor is suprisingly strong for it's rating. In fact, its much
larger and heavier than a newer 1/2 hp motor I have. I would swear
that it's a modern day 1/2hp equivalent. Sometimes I make too
agressive of a cut, and the belt tends to slip, but I like that
safety factor. At least I know I won't be burning the motor up.
Maybe it's why it is still going strong after all these years.

I'm glad I found this group,

Mike

--- In southbendlathe@y..., "Paul R. Hvidston" <p.hvidston@i...>
wrote:

I'm curious about belt slip. With my current setup, with a
polyurethane belt, I can still grab the chuck or the largest spindle
step and cause the belt to slip. When is too much slip a bad thing?
How soon does your belt start slipping? I also wonder if my belt and
pulleys are starting to get slippery from oil/grease.

Let's just say that when I accidently take too deep of a cut, the
tool bit stops the work, chuck and all, and the leather belt slips
until I turn the motor off and regroup. I have never noticed(heard
or felt since I can't see the belt) it slipping when making normal
cuts or procedures.

Mike

开云体育

--- In southbendlathe@y..., west@s... wrote:

--- In southbendlathe@y..., "Paul R. Hvidston" <p.hvidston@i...>
wrote:

I'm curious about belt slip. With my current setup, with a
polyurethane belt, I can still grab the chuck or the largest

spindle

step and cause the belt to slip. When is too much slip a bad thing?
How soon does your belt start slipping? I also wonder if my belt

and

pulleys are starting to get slippery from oil/grease.

Let's just say that when I accidently take too deep of a cut, the
tool bit stops the work, chuck and all, and the leather belt slips
until I turn the motor off and regroup. I have never noticed(heard
or felt since I can't see the belt) it slipping when making normal
cuts or procedures.

Mike

I think that belt slippage is built in short coming of the SB Lathe.
I have busted many a carbide tool bit when the work comes to a stop
due to belt slippage. I do not know the answer to this, but regular
cleaning of the belt with Acetone will help. I have ordered a new
4-ply power transmission belt for mine. I should have it this week.
One of the features of this belt is its low stretch. You can increase
the tension a bit more without a problem. You can also use belt
dressing on the type of belt.

One thing we should keep in mind is the fact that this little lathe
was never designed for modern carbide tools and inserts. We tend to
get a bit aggressive with this tool bits. As the normal cutting speed
of carbide is about 4x faster than HHS. Momentum from the speed and
the superior cutting properties of carbide will give us the feeling we
can take bigger cuts, but the bottom line is, the poor little gear
teeth may not hold out.

Hope my two cents helps.

Jim