i worked a deal with my neighbor yesterday and now i have a south bent lathe in my garage. it's in great need of some tlc, but i'm hoping that it will all turn out functional. i've done a bunch of legwork over the last day to learn as much as i can, but i'm still looking for some advice and/or help. i know next to nothing about machine tools, so everything is new to me.
what i want to do is tear it apart as much as is easily possible to clean and lubricate everything. as it sits now, there's rusted metal filings and chips everywhere - both in it and on it. i'm looking for some online instruction books (or printed if i can find them) that can tell me what i can and can't remove for bolts and screws. i know that you can get a copy of the build information from south bend (grizzly now) for $25, but at this point i want to get the basics figured out (without spending anything else) to determine whether there are any major issues that will make this thing too much of a money pit, so i know whether to cut my losses now, or whether to continue with it.
from browsing here i found out about the south bend section on practicalmachinist.com, so i made an account there. i can log in there, but i never got the mail link to get myself activated to be able to post threads. if anyone reading this has an account there and knows who to get in touch with there, could you see if it's possible to get my account activated to post? my account there is also lost_cause. i'm hoping that someone there can just send another mail to my account to get me the link to activate.
following are some shots of the lathe. my first order of business (after a general cleaning and condition assessment) is to try to get that extra leg on the motor mount bracket out of there. there's got to be another way to mount that so i only have the normal four legs. if any of you have any good info or links about dismantling various parts of this lathe, please let me know.
Serial No. 103930
Cat. No. 6577-A
Bed Length 4
Model B9W