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So I bought a lathe yesterday, sad story…...

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Strouty

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*UPDATE*

I bought a twin to this lathe, one that works and did not take a face plant. I will be pulling some parts off the original one, then sending it to the scrap yard. I am posting pictures of the new one at the end of the thread.

Here is the original story:

Last week I went and looked at a lathe, it is a south bend model fourteen and I made a deal with the seller. He insisted that he have his "guy" load my truck, I agreed but would not pay until after loaded. You guys get where this is going, don't you? I showed up with my truck, his "guy" shows up with an excavator. :confused:

I had also bought a bridgeport from him, they loaded that first, uneventfully. I was strapping the bridgeport down, when I hear the seller telling his "guy" how to rig the lathe so they can pull it sideways to gain clearance enough to pick it up. It didn't sound good, so I started to head over to them, just in time to see a slow motion horror show of the lathe tipping over. The seller really wanted it out of there, so I bought it for $150 instead of $1500. I wish I had recorded it for posterity (or youtube). Here are some pictures of the carnage.

















 
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Strouty

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It appears to have done no damage to the castings, just really screwed up the handles. A couple of things will need to be totally rebuilt or replaced, but I am going to try and salvage it. The apron needs to come off so I can see why it loses contact with the rack about halfway down the bed. I think it has broken some teeth. I may start a rehab thread, once I get into it.
 
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Kracin

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damn a couple more minutes of doublechecks and the guy wouldnt have lost that 1350 in a matter of seconds. its like throwing money away.
 
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NUTTSGT

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Sounds like the buddy didn't know how to operate the excavator and yanked it over. A good operator could have easily finessed it sideways.


Smart move to pay after it was loaded.
 
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Strouty

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Hopefully it will be repairable, but I won't know until I rip into it a little. I ended up with a bridgeport, two rotary tables (one vertical 8.5" and one horizontal 15"), a bunch of hold downs, some collets, two 8.5" rotary indexers and the lathe for a total of $1850. The bridgeport has an anilam wizard DRO on it as well.
 
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JoeFin

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I feel your pain looking at those pictures. It looks like it would have been a seriously nice lathe had it been loaded on your truck properly.

I was in a similar situation with a LeBlond that had been stored improperly, partially parted out and had some gear damage in the headstock. Thing is this is an all too common theme with lathes.

I didn't know if I should finish parting it out or work to restore it and only made that decision after I had level it out and measured the ways. Once it was detedrmined some one trashed the Reverse Ideler Gear switching it from Forward to Reverse Threading without giving the brake enough time to stop the spindle VERY Early on in its life did I even consider it.

Took about 3 weeks and some interchangeability research to find a machine tool seller ready to part out another lathe with ALL the parts I needed

I let you decide how it turned out

Leblond003.jpg


Leblond-3014.jpg


DSCF0249.jpg


Lemons to Lemon Aid - my brother from another mother
 
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Wayfastwhitie440

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Yeah If some people just thought for a moment then things like this wouldn't happen. You may be able to find another one for parts. That's a lot of parts to track down. Hope everything works out
 
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jmm

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Did you keep your cool? That looked like a fine specimen, pre *******-on-an-excavator.

I'da been inclined to yank him down and talk to his ***.
 
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Zeke

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I tipped and broke an old cast iron Craftsman table saw and broke the motor mount. Fortunately it was only a saw. It was a late 30's model and the guy was on his way to pick it up. Had to call him and tell him what happened to shorten his trip. He came anyway and took it for a lot less.

Some tools are just top heavy. I wasn't being foolish, I just made a mistake.
 
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firebox40dash5

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jmm said:
Did you keep your cool? That looked like a fine specimen, pre *******-on-an-excavator.

I'da been inclined to yank him down and talk to his ***.
Click to expand...

I'd be much more inclined were I the seller who just lost several times what I would have paid for his loading work. :evil: :lol:
 
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X1 Mike

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jmm said:
Did you keep your cool? That looked like a fine specimen, pre *******-on-an-excavator.

I'da been inclined to yank him down and talk to his ***.
Click to expand...


That's pretty twisted, he had no right to lose his cool the lathe was not his until money changed hands. He will most likely make out like a bandit on it.


It would be pretty simple to remake those handles, if only you had a lathe......

Kind of like the chicken and the egg. :lol_hitti
 
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G_P

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What did the seller say/do to his buddy on the excavator after he trashed the lathe?
 
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Strouty

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I kept my cool and I was amazed how well the seller did. They were going to load it in the dump truck to scrap it, so I offered scrap value. It kind of sucked, it was a good hour and a half ride and I only really wanted the lathe. Regardless, I figure I will either find used, buy new or build the parts. That is after I have had a good chance to access what is left. I am currently without heat and today is a reminder to get my *** in gear, it is 40 inside and about 20 outside with 20 MPH winds.
 
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Steinmetz

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Strouty said:
It appears to have done no damage to the castings, just really screwed up the handles. A couple of things will need to be totally rebuilt or replaced, but I am going to try and salvage it. The apron needs to come off so I can see why it loses contact with the rack about halfway down the bed. I think it has broken some teeth. I may start a rehab thread, once I get into it.
Click to expand...

That thing is never going to be the same again. And that's a real shame.
 
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A_Pmech

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Well, it doesn't look too terrible.

The cross slide and compound screws are toast, as might be the bearings.

The carriage traverse reduction is probably missing some teeth as we discussed.

The most concerning part are the cracks in the quick change gearbox indexing cover. That is going to be a difficult part to repair, but it can be done.

I would also check the apron and carriage over carefully for cracks. The apron, being cantilevered out into space underneath the carriage, usually suffers some kind of cracking where it attached to the carriage.

It looks like the turret came out OK. The depth stop rods can be made once you have the machine working again.

All of this depends on how much time you want to spend working on the machine instead of doing work with it, as we discussed. Overall, I'd guess about 60 hours of work to make it usable again. :)
 
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Strouty

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A_Pmech said:
Well, it doesn't look too terrible.

The cross slide and compound screws are toast, as might be the bearings.

The carriage traverse reduction is probably missing some teeth as we discussed.

The most concerning part are the cracks in the quick change gearbox indexing cover. That is going to be a difficult part to repair, but it can be done.

I would also check the apron and carriage over carefully for cracks. The apron, being cantilevered out into space underneath the carriage, usually suffers some kind of cracking where it attached to the carriage.

It looks like the turret came out OK. The depth stop rods can be made once you have the machine working again.

All of this depends on how much time you want to spend working on the machine instead of doing work with it, as we discussed. Overall, I'd guess about 60 hours of work to make it usable again. :)
Click to expand...

A guy from practical machinist has some of the parts, he also gave me a manual with the part numbers. I think the apron is broken, he suspected that as well. It has movement that does not seem like a lathe. He thinks he has the quick change cover, just not the handles. Hopefully it didn't hurt the gears, then I could try brazing them back together. I don't mind spending the time, I had not planned on it, but it will be a good learning experience. I found another couple lathes in my price range, I may check them out, but I think I am going to try and fix this one either way. I figure worst case, it ends up getting parted out.
 
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WWIIjeep

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What a shame. Those were pretty nice lathes. We had one where I worked in the 70s/80s.

It's worth trying to repair. Hopefully the leadscrew didn't get bent along with all the other damage.

Grizzly does sell OEM South Bend parts, but they won't be cheap, and they likely won't have every single part, especially certain parts in high demand, because they're not replacing inventory as stocks run out.
 
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Strouty

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WWIIjeep said:
What a shame. Those were pretty nice lathes. We had one where I worked in the 70s/80s.

It's worth trying to repair. Hopefully the leadscrew didn't get bent along with all the other damage.

Grizzly does sell OEM South Bend parts, but they won't be cheap, and they likely won't have every single part, especially certain parts in high demand, because they're not replacing inventory as stocks run out.
Click to expand...

Once I tear it apart, I will try and track down what I need. The leadscrew doesn't appear damaged, but I have not had everything apart yet.
 
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zTimbo

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I experienced something very similar but with a brand new lathe at work. My dad and I were gonna unload it. Unfortunately there was a contractor at work that decided he was going to take care of it for us while we very busy at the time repairing equipment. He got it off the truck and up the loading ramp and we didn't witness it falling just heard the loud thud. He didn't have it rigged properly and when he went to sit it down it tipped right over and broke/bent nearly all the handles. I also recall it cracking some covers and it kinda tweaked the lead screw. We spent the next day repairing everything. That was about 7 years ago and the thing is still doing great, gets used on 2 shifts 5 days a week.
 
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Lookin4'67Galaxieconv

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Strouty said:
A guy from practical machinist has some of the parts, he also gave me a manual with the part numbers. I think the apron is broken, he suspected that as well. It has movement that does not seem like a lathe. He thinks he has the quick change cover, just not the handles. Hopefully it didn't hurt the gears, then I could try brazing them back together. I don't mind spending the time, I had not planned on it, but it will be a good learning experience. I found another couple lathes in my price range, I may check them out, but I think I am going to try and fix this one either way. I figure worst case, it ends up getting parted out.
Click to expand...

I think the time you spend will be worth the satisfaction you feel when you finish bringing it back to life. :beer:
 
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CNGsaves

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Good luck rebuilding that nice lathe.

Such a shame that guy selling it SHOULD HAVE known better !! A cheap and easy frame could have been built around that lathe so that chance of tipping over was eliminated. Hell a 2x12 bolted on each end as a skid might have prevented damage.

Measure twice, and cut once !! ;)
 
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Strouty

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CNGsaves said:
Good luck rebuilding that nice lathe.

Such a shame that guy selling it SHOULD HAVE known better !! A cheap and easy frame could have been built around that lathe so that chance of tipping over was eliminated. Hell a 2x12 bolted on each end as a skid might have prevented damage.

Measure twice, and cut once !! ;)
Click to expand...

I think all he needed to do was take a 20' sling and choke it around the base, it would have moved but not tipped. He choked it around where the ways meet the chip tray.
 
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justanengineer

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Oh lordy. The only saving grace with that deal is IIRC several other companies imported and sold those so there might be some interchangeability.
 
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