Vintage 9" South Bend Lathe

[Maui]

I recently brought home a vintage 9" South Bend Lathe (see attached photos) that I purchased in late December. On the ways where the serial number is located I found something unusual. The serial number appears as "DPC 96 OBER 151793". The number would indicate that the lather was manufactured in 1944 I believe. I don't have a clue what the DPC 96 OBER is supposed to signify. I contacted South Bend directly and they said they didn't have any idea what it meant either. I'm hoping somebody here might be able to enlighten me.

On the Practical Machinist forum I just learned that DPC stands for Defense Plant Corporation and since this was a lathe manufactured during WWII, it was probably used by a defense contractor for the war effort. The previous owner said that his father purchased the lathe from GE. Has anybody here run across markings like these before, or does anyone recognize this specific model of lathe?

Maui

 

[cvairwerks]

Might drop John Oder a note over on PM and see what he says. He's a great resource and might can tell you.

 

[paulsomlo]

Garden variety 9" Southbend, Model B, UMD (underneath motor drive). Looks like you got some change gears with it, that's a good thing.

Just like they said over on Practical Machinist, the current SBL Co. can't help you, other than sell you the serial card, which I think is a waste of $25. Ebay and PM forum are probably the best sources for parts.

Have fun.

 

[bczygan]

Yahoo Groups Southbend Lathe Group:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/SOUTHBENDLATHE/conversations/messages

Bill

 

[marinusdees]

My 9" Model A has an emblem on it which says "This Machine meets the standards of the War Production Board" If my memory is correct, it was shipped in September of 1942. I have that info, but it's out in the shop and I'm in the house.

 

[L5wolvesf]

So I got curious and googled OBER. Found this "Office of Biological and Environmental Research" which doesn't sound like a place that would use a lathe. But, it has ties to the Manhattan Project per this:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK230607/

 

[rsanter]

So I got curious and googled OBER. Found this "Office of Biological and Environmental Research" which doesn't sound like a place that would use a lathe. But, it has ties to the Manhattan Project per this:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK230607/

Could have been in their maintainence shop

 

[Maui]

I did find that there was an Ober Manufacturing Company that built lathes starting in the late 1800s and through the war years. Maybe South Bend had so much demand that they subcontracted a few of their lathes out to Ober?

 

[Nelson58]

The definitive guy who would know this is Ted Pfugner, [email protected], since he worked there.

 

[Maui]

Nelson, thanks for the suggestion. I wrote to Ted. This is his reply,

That is probably a contract number. SBL did not subcontract machine building to any US company. There was some kind of deal with Hercus in Australia.
There is nothing special about your machine other than it was built and used to help in the war effort. Use it and be happy.

Ted