What is This??

My WAG is a tool support for using a wood chisel on a lathe. That is if this is a wood lathe.

No, it's an old 9" Workshop metal lathe. It runs too slow for wood, and has friction bearings, so you can't speed it up too much.

Any screws or locking devices on the hollow arms?

What is the number on the "face"?

No locking devices or tapped holes, anything like that.

It has M-1262 on the face.

It almost looks like you would have pushed some sort of thin plate, maybe 3 1/2 " wide in there, but why?

My guess is that it is some type of boring bar holder. Are there set screws on the flats and is the IDs accurate? This could have been used to turn the ID and OD of a part in a single pass. Probably made for a specific production job.

No set screws. The IDs appear as cast (of course they may have rusted and been painted. But, I don't think it's right for boring bars.

That first pic looks like a model of R.M.S Titanic .

Any threading in those holes (not sure what you mean by "no set screws") ? NSS has already trashed my weekend with that curious desk type thing.

If you've got time, can you take a few more pics from different angles. The 'where and when did you get it' might also help.

I haven't got a scooby what the thing is, but will read with much interest. CR4 IHS Whoever may have just regained some of it's personality. I can now tell Mrs K that I do indeed visit here to learn curious and interesting stuff ! So long as she doesn't suss that I'm posting via phone down the pub, all is safe .

Here's a few more pix

Nothing is threaded. Not sure how to explain set screws - it's that language barrier, eh? They're short, headless screws, usually hex wrench drive, that go sideways into a hole to grasp a shaft. You see them on shaft collars, pulleys, that sort of thing.

The "thing" came in a box of extra parts that I got when I bought this 1933/34 South Bend lathe,

I got this off the son of a deceased crane repairman/operator. The son was pushing 70, so the old man would have been in his 90s, I guess; no telling how long he had this. He clearly had found a bargain on battleship gray paint at some point; everything he had was painted that way. A shame - these lathes were originally a beautiful blue-gray or gray-green, depending on something that I don't know. There were a lot of weird things in the box I got, but everything else could be identified.

BTW, I envy you guys in the UK. You have access to lots of Myfords, many of which are quite nice. We have only South Bends and Atlas for a similar use. The South Bends are often worn out, and not worth regrinding, while the Atlas lathes are often missing essential parts or are at least $700.

I don't want anyone to think I don't like the lathe. I do. The South Bend 9s make a distinctive sound, not unlike the sweetness of a Merlin or the raw throb of a Harley. Sometimes I turn it on just to remind me of what a shop should be. I hate the efficient whine of a really top of the line Hardinge. I keep hoping I'll run into a replacement bed with better ways (this sucker, because of the Great Depression, came without way wipers and boy did they suffer for that).

There are some very good old lathes around. Yours is just a bit older then the one I have. But, not buy that many years. The bed on mine was also worn. I removed the tail and head stock and re-scraped everything level. This only removed a few thousands from the two ends. Got the unit to cut pretty true again. Not much effort to make better ( but I must add I have a lot of years under my belt scraping ways).

Nice find. Keep it operational PM me if you need gears etc. If I can help I will.

Fixit

I thought about re-scraping (I've only done that once, on a much smaller lathe), but I'm too green at that to undertake it unless absolutely, positively necessary. The trouble (for me) is that I'll still have a lathe with only one carriage clamp, no way wipers, poorly designed oiling ports, change gears, and cast iron bearings. I'm thinking I might be OK with this while I look for a better 9B, or even an Atlas (I saw a beautiful 618, with accessories, go for under $400 at an estate sale where they didn't know what it was. Unfortunately, I didn't see it first).

I mostly turn repair parts, that sort of thing, and I can get by for now. I've got to prioritize my pennies, and I'm trying to come up with a long bed jointer and spindle sander first.

How did you keep everything flat and coplanar on the ways? I can't figure out what to use for a test flat for such a large bed.

OK, a little more directed information is needed here. You claim that this nearly 6" long bracket works with a 9" metal lathe. Do those two stand-off holes have the same spacing as any other holes or pins on the yet to be seen lathe? If not then then I suspect this part has nothing to do with this lathe. It just happened to be in the same box as the lathe.

Redfred, you're a genius! The c-c spacing is 2-1/2 inches. Nothing on a SB9 is 2-1/2 inches. I was fooled by the fact that this was painted with the same ugly paint as everything else on the lathe. I should have been suspicious, I suppose, because the guy I got it from had taken some old straight reamers and reground them to be Morse Taper reamers. It's obvious he did all sorts of repurposing.

I'm still curious what the heck this is. I'll get some more pictures and add. I'll even put up a picture of the beast itself - a almost worn out 81 year old lathe (wait a minute - isn't 80 the new 70?) that I ended up buying for -$11. It actually turns with only about 0.002" total runout in a 9" cut, but you gotta shim and indicate the heck outta it to get that. OK for my home basement.

A long shot but is it some sort of rest for a flaring / metal spinning tool?

Can you take out the leather/fibre to see if the sides of the slot are tapered? If yes it is possibly a sort of vice to hold sheet metal. It would hold buy pushing down on the leather/fibre. The two holes may have attached this 'vice' to a wood vice or something similar that has two guide bars.

Obviously not a big seller!

Jim

Maybe it attaches to a vice like this;-

To hold something like this;-

Jim

Could it be something to do with the belt drive? The gap looks about right. Is it for moving the belt over onto another pulley? Or could it be for attaching the belt link? My Schaublin has a fork for flipping the belt onto an idler pulley without stopping the motor.

contact http://www.southbendlathe.com/home.aspx

ask them if it's one of theirs