The Home Machinist!

Hi All,

I've been reading how EO had a 9" SB lathe bolted to an 800 lb steel plate (billet..?) Is there a picture of that machine floating around somewhere?

-jlakes85

Not sure about that one, but a guy on practical machinist poured a concrete slab on the top of his workbench and bolted his lathe to that.

He couldn't believe how the surface finish on the work improved because of reduced vibration.

Steve

jlakes85 wrote: ↑Sat Feb 03, 2018 7:02 am Hi All,

(billet..?)

Uhhhhh---no!
That word is used to death, and is rather misleading. Plate is made from billet, but is not billet. It's plate.

H

As I recall, Emory had two SB lathes that he used.... And I think they were mounted on heavy plates.

Rich Carlstendt would be the one who could verify for sure.

LL

Thank you LL and you are right
Em had two ( 3 at one time) Southbend 9 inch Lathes and one was used for making cones and parts for his injectors.
They were mounted on Maplewood table tops (Butcher block) and under the wood top was a solid 2 inch steel plate that was about 24 x 50--54 inches long. The lathe was hands down the smoothest lathe I have ever run, but Em did not tell me about the plate as the reason at that time. I found out later when his basement shop was taken apart and the lathe could not be lifted by two strong movers. I asked Em and he said that having "Mass" was very important for small lathes and that's what was skipped by most small lathe manufacturers ( 10 EE is excluded of course ) He needed the rigidity in order to make injector cones as vibration was a killer for seriousely crital parts. The lathe went to his son Harold . Harold passed away last year and the lathe may have been sold in the auction of his shop ( was not at the auction unfortunately ) . I'll ask Harold's son what happened to it. While I ran the Lathe, I never took a picture of it as it looked like every other Southbend Lathe .
I never realized the install of the plate as I thought it was part of the bench ...yes it was !
Rich

Another comment. The lathe was bolt through the wood and through the Steel Plate like a sandwich .
Oh yes, the plate was blanchard gound on it surfaces . Em never did anything halfass.

For someone serious about duplicating this , probably better would be a cast iron plate as it absorbs vibration 10 times better than steel.
You never heard of a cast Iron tuning fork !
Rich