In order to make a useable lathe out of this collection of parts I was going to have to do some searching. I was able to find everything I needed and then some. In the end I wound up with a very nice 4.5' bed with the leveling adjustment in the tailstock foot that was a nice improvement over the 3.5' bed that I had. I also replaced the entire apron and found an original style toolpost and several toolholders. The real bonus was a totally free (read that one again, totally free) original Southbend bench for the horizontal drive lathe that already had all of the holes correctly laid out and drilled for the 4.5' lathe and drive assembly. It was well worth the 600 mile round trip drive I made to go and get it. I had purchased an underdrive cabinet for my Heavy 10" and several pieces for both lathes, I drove 300 miles to pick everything up and the seller casually mentioned that he had a big ole' Southbend bench that just might fit the bed I'd just bought. It had been hanging around and getting in his way, he offered it to me for free and we were loading it up a minute later. Of course I had to take the table almost completely in order to get it through the hallway and down the narrow stairs to my shop.

Southbend made the 9" lathe in 3 flavors. The basic 9" lathe is known as a Model C. It has a set of change gears for threading and a standard apron with powerfeed (I believe it came with a powerfeed but I may be wrong). The next 9" lathe was known as the Model B and that came with (again I'm not entirely sure on this one and may well be wrong) either the quick-change gearbox in place of the change gears or a power crossfeed in the apron. I think it was the QCGB, I'm sure someone will correct me. Finally there was the 9" Model A which has a power crossfeed, Quick Change Gearbox, back gears and a leadscrew reverser. With the 4.5' bed it's a pretty slick unit in my mind.

The only true disadvantage I see to this lathe is the footprint of the bench and the sheer volume of space that it takes up. I don't have a large shop and this thing is just huge for that space. If I had an entire garage or basement to work with it would be different I'm sure.

You can see in the photo above that I've already stripped off all of the old paint. This was done all at once with the Heavy 10" parts in a lathe-boiling weekend. I used a large 40 gal turkey pot filled with a TriSodiumPhosphate (TSP) solution and heated over a propane burner until boiling. It did a great job removing all the old paint, grease and dirt. After everything had been boiled in the TSP the same large bucked was filled with 6 gal of carburetor cleaner and all the parts including the beds were cleaned a second time. Contrary to the many warnings and horror stories I'd heard about the chemical solvents removing or softening any putty or Bondo in the castings I had no problems. Everything came out looking great. I dried off each piece and strayed it liberally with penetrating oil then set it aside for later.

I've managed to prime the bed but that's it so far. I used a zinc based self-etching primer and plan to paint the lathe itself some shade of gray.

I hope to find more time for this project. The Heavy 10" is about halfway done but this 9A doesn't need quite so much work. Sine I've started on this restoration I've decided that I really don't need both a 9" and 10" lathe. Since the Heavy 10" has both a greater capacity and a smaller footprint it's an easy choice in my book. Rather than sell the lathe off in pieces I decided to finish if off and sell it complete for a better price or better still, trade it for a small knee-mill or maybe a very nice shaper. I'll continue to post pictures and updates as the project advances.

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