I made an extended center drill holder A center drill holder is a common enough project, usually using a scrapped taper drill bit or drill chuck adapter. The trouble with these is that my SB 10K only has 2" of quill travel and the typical holder just isn't long enough. So I read somewhere about an extended version and thought it would be a fun afternoon project. The project started with a $5 JT33 to Morse Taper 2 Drill Chuck Arbor.
When I was lathe shopping last year, I had a list of features I wanted in a lathe: cross feed, tumbler reverse, QCGB and the option of cutting metric threads with change gears. The SB 10K I ended-up purchasing met all those needs well (and I really like it) but I was left scrounging around for the metric gears. South Bend manufactured a set specifically for these lathes (the 9A & 10K) back in the day but they are hard to find.
Having reverse available on a lathe can be quite handy, but getting it working on a 120V split-phase motor with a drum switch can be tough. Here's how to get reverse working with the motor described below. Here's the motor: http://www.grainger.com/product/DAYTON-GP-Mtr-4K913?s_pp=false&= And a pic of the label: First off, a safety notice. While this circuit isn't unsafe, it's not as safe as it could be because the neutral-line is not switched: it's always connected between the motor and the outlet with a wire nut.
I've had my South Bend 10K since this spring and was lucky enough to purchase a lathe that was in pretty good shape. While a large overhaul isn't necessary, I felt it was time to start on some preventative maintenance. Since the lathe doesn't need new paint (although it would look nice), I'm just going to do small repairs on the lathe between projects. The first and most import job on the repair list is pulling the spindle and replacing the spindle oil wicks.
When I bought my SB 10K earlier this year, the 6" 4-Jaw chuck that was included in the deal had a backplate that was for a different lathe. The chuck was a bit rusty and dinged-up, but still seemed to be solid and tight. The goal of this project was to make the chuck usable for this lathe. Here's the Logan 6" 4 jaw chuck disassembled. A threaded lathe backplate was purchased from tools4cheap.
The HF drill press has been performing yeoman service in the shop for a few years now, but one thing that really bugged me about this tool was the quill stop. Instead of the typical nut-on-a-threaded-rod setup, it uses a pinch bolt and sleeve on the collar of the handle. It's not that intuitive to use and if you don't have the bolt really tight it slips. Grizzly has the same style of drill press with the quill stop I wanted, so I d/l'ed the manual for the parts numbers and ordered a quill clamp, bracket and spring-loaded split-nut.
Thought I would show-off my new-to-me SB 10K lathe I picked-up a month or so ago. But first, why I bought it. For a few years now I've been thinking about getting some machining equipment for my small workshop. With my interest in RC models and model steam, being able to make precise parts has and will come in handy many times. At first I looked at the tiny 7x lathes, but after watching quite a few machinist videos on Youtube (Mr Pete, Doubleboost, Keith Fenner), I realized that a 10" lathe would be much more capable and still fit in the shop if I moved some junk around.