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Getting a 9" South Bend Lathe Inside

antalog

Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2015
Messages
5
I recently bought a 1929 9" South Bend lathe.



My home shop is in my basement, and my house sits up on a ledge, so all machines must go up stairs and then down. Everything up until this point was relatively easy, I would disassemble and carry in piece by piece. But this lathe has been a totally different animal. After spinning my gears for a bit I decided to just haul it all up in one go. Heres how I did it.

First I bought a HF big wheel dolly. I welded on an "axel" and two matching fixed wheels.



Then I bought a HF hand crank winch and fabbed a bracket mounting plate.


I loaded the lathe onto the cart and strapped it down



Heres the obstacle:
Stairs going up


In an extremely tight corner, stairs going down


For the up, I ran the bracket through the handrailing leading into the house.


At first I positioned it a bit higher in the rail to lessen the cable dragging on the steps, but I know it would be much stronger down low.


Made up some wood ramps, clipped it in and cranked away



(yes thats my car at the bottom of the stairs, just incase)

Going down the stairs it was seriously dangerous so I didnt stop to take photos. But was able to get this. I hand carried it down the first 3 steps while turning it into position. Pretty terrifying at times.

The setup was the same, I set the bracket through the gate at the top of the stairs.

And the most difficult part of the process was getting it into the basement door. Heres a funny photo though


Blood, sweat and a bent lamp post, shes in.
 
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gtr1999

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Joined
Jun 25, 2012
Messages
151
Location
CT
what would you guess that lathe weighs?
Nice job in a tight space. I have my 10K SBL on dollies now waiting to put it on concrete blocks.
 
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A

antalog

Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2015
Messages
5
Re: Getting a 9" South Bend Lathe Inside

It's hard to say. My stab-in-the-dark guess is maybe 600lbs? It was pretty difficult to lift the head stock end up to shift it just a little. At one point I stood the dolly up on its end and the whole thing almost kicked out of my hands and would have wound up completely upside down.

When it comes time to move, as this is a rental, im definetly going to strip it down before I move it. I chose to go all in on this first move cause I'm not very knowledgeable about metal lathes and was real reluctant to take the carriage, headstock pieces, etc. off. Was too excited to start using it and just thought 'in for a penny, in for a pound.' :)

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk
 
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mikegt4

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Joined
Sep 12, 2005
Messages
3,265
Location
sw ohio
That reminds me of moving stuff in/out of a friend's house in West Virgina. The front porch was probably 20' above the street accessed by very steep narrow steps or 300' of sloped sidewalk that had many flights of steps.

Glad to see you were successful and have fun with your new toy.
 
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VocaTexas

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Joined
Jun 20, 2014
Messages
808
Congratulations on your 'new' lathe! You'll have fun, you'll get frustrated, too. Come join us over at the Hobby Machinist forum if you haven't joined already: https://www.hobby-machinist.com/forums/

Some good friendly and knowledgeable folks over there. They can be a big help, especially if you don't have somebody to help you 'hands on'.
 

532r5

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Joined
Feb 27, 2018
Messages
142
Location
Flemington New Jersey
Great job. Had to do similar thing. Guy I worked for when I was young called me up one day and asked if I wanted his lathe. Said I could have if I got it out of his basement by myself. I said I'll be there Saturday. Took most of the day. disassembled it and took out one piece at a time. It was a early 1920s 16 inch south bend. Man that headstock was heavy.
 

WisJim

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Joined
Dec 20, 2010
Messages
2,274
Location
Menomonie, WI
I've disassembled my lathes to get them home. But I had to do that to get one in my Chevy Metro 3banger. I like the winch and cart idea so no one had to be downhill or underneath the lathe.
 

rlitman

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Joined
Oct 18, 2010
Messages
24,591
Location
Long Island
Re: Getting a 9" South Bend Lathe Inside

It's hard to say. My stab-in-the-dark guess is maybe 600lbs? It was pretty difficult to lift the head stock end up to shift it just a little. At one point I stood the dolly up on its end and the whole thing almost kicked out of my hands and would have wound up completely upside down.

When it comes time to move, as this is a rental, im definetly going to strip it down before I move it. I chose to go all in on this first move cause I'm not very knowledgeable about metal lathes and was real reluctant to take the carriage, headstock pieces, etc. off. Was too excited to start using it and just thought 'in for a penny, in for a pound.' :)

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N920A using Tapatalk

The tailstock is held on with a single bolt in the middle.
The carriage is held to the apron section by two large screws on top. The apron takes a few extra minutes to remove from the feed screw, but it's worth removing.

But nice job anyway. :)
 

WisJim

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Joined
Dec 20, 2010
Messages
2,274
Location
Menomonie, WI
There are also a couple of South Bend groups at group.io, some of which had been Yahoo groups in the past.
 

CraigStu

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Joined
May 22, 2014
Messages
4,025
Location
Blacksburg, Va
Great job. I like your style. We brought a 500# gun safe home years ago. Rented an appliance hand truck. Had to get up to the front porch over 4 steps. We used a 2x4x4ft across several door ways to hook the cable to. That was easy, but the stairs inside to the second floor had a landing, a 90deg turn, and then 4 more steps. Got it up, got it turned, and then it stopped. My wife was up top working the come-a-long while I guided it. I said crank that thing some more but still stopped. Finally I climbed over the safe to get above it and realized the over center strap tightener handle was hanging down and had hooked on the step. Moved it out of the way and got the job done. But that come-a-long had bent the **** out of the 1/2 steel rod that formed the handle. I had a heck of a time staightening it before I took it back to the rental place
 
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