[Mikbul]

I am strongly considering buying this lathe in the near future so I am looking at this review with a great deal of interest.Please keep the posts coming.I've e-mailed Grizzly about the cost to ship to Canada.Hope to hear from them soon.Looking forward to a review on the 5" D1-3 chuck.Wonder how a CNC conversion would go on this machine?I think with the current sale price they should be able to move quite a few machines and there will be many more reviews.

Have not heard from our Canadian friend, there are two reviews on the 5" chuck, stay in touch. Also consider having it shipped to somewhere across the border and go pick it up, I heard it might be cheaper that way?

[voere]

Have not heard from our Canadian friend, there are two reviews on the 5" chuck, stay in touch. Also consider having it shipped to somewhere across the border and go pick it up, I heard it might be cheaper that way?

Still here and reading the posts on the SB1001 every day.On the fence about buying one since I heard that they are discontinued.Worried about support from South Bend in the future.All the posts that I have read on this and other forums are pretty positive about this machine so it's still in the running.Wizbaa is from Canada and he PM me that the total cost of the SB1001 was $2380 delivered to his door.Not a bad price for quality.

[Mikbul]

At this point I'd have to say the only issue AT ALL I have is not with the lathe but the 4.5MT-3MT sleeve and I think it only fair to call and see if they will send another and see if it's more accurate. If I didn't have a 12" test bar that fits in the spindle it might not be an issue. At the sleeve it's only .0005 out.
As far as the rest of the lathe I can't see how you could go wrong.

[keithmcelhinney]

I am going to work on my grizzly this weekend and see if I can dial it in a little more. Then maybe put it on craigslist along with my mill and see if there is any interest. When I sell my mill I will more than likely pick one of these up. Hope they are still on sale then!

-Keith

[Mikbul]

I am going to work on my grizzly this weekend and see if I can dial it in a little more. Then maybe put it on craigslist along with my mill and see if there is any interest. When I sell my mill I will more than likely pick one of these up. Hope they are still on sale then!

-Keith

Well hurry up will ya!:stickpoke

[keithmcelhinney]

Let me give you my wifes phone number and you can try to convince her that even though I spent $14k in the last month I need to replace a working tool.... (nuts)

[Mikbul]

Ouch! I feel for you brother! :argue:That would be a tough sell, how tough was the first sell?

[keithmcelhinney]

It was pretty hard and then I got SUPER busy. After a month of not having a lot of spare time, the "it will cut twice as fast" really sank in. Of course I only told her the machine price and not all the other stuff I needed...

-Keith

[Mikbul]

I was checking out the 4000, it has a few pluses like QC gearbox and comes with 2 chucks etc. No variable speed is a minus, but a lot of good machinists do without it. What did you have before the 4000?
It's kinda funny when you think about it, The 1001 comes with variable speed spindle but slow to change pulleys for the lead screw. The 4000 comes with QC gearbox but slow to change spindle speeds! I was thinking instead of selling my 7X16 if I keep it I can set one up with a slow speed on the lead screw, probably the 7X16. I haven't changed the belts around yet so if it's slow as molasses I'll keep them both. Actually if all goes well in the future I want a 10K and keep the 1001 for finish cuts and keep the 10K in back gears(Belts). They both have the D1-3 spindle so I could leave the work in the same chuck.
I got my unit heater and all the ceiling insulation in today, so tomorrow I'll spend some more time with the lathe.

[keithmcelhinney]

I didn't have anything before the 4000. The worst thing is that it has the screw on chucks and it just sucks! I learned on this lathe and I have beat on it pretty bad. I think as soon as I sell my existing mill I will bite the bullet and buy one of these. If you would stop posting it would make it easier to put off! Haha!

[juergenwt]

Reminder to all: Don't get carried away on hand scraping. I doubt if anybody sells a lathe that is completely hand scraped to a master. Most likely what you will get is a ground surface with a scraped pattern to give it the look of a genuine hand scraping. There is nothing wrong with a ground surface and the light scraping pattern. Helps with the oil film. To have a lathe where all ways are hand scraped would be to costly. Besides-where would you find the '' know how"'???

''

[Mikbul]

Reminder to all: Don't get carried away on hand scraping. I doubt if anybody sells a lathe that is completely hand scraped to a master. Most likely what you will get is a ground surface with a scraped pattern to give it the look of a genuine hand scraping. There is nothing wrong with a ground surface and the light scraping pattern. Helps with the oil film. To have a lathe where all ways are hand scraped would be to costly. Besides-where would you find the '' know how"'???

''

Good to know! However the v-way bed on the SB1001 is not hand scraped nor does it have a pattern. They are hardened and ground. It's the carriage v's and compound flats that are ground with a pattern.Attachment 205996
Now that you mention it my South bend drill vise has the same pattern which I mistook for being hand scraped. LOL ! One thing I do know is they are soothe and tight! I would imagine as you said it's for oil retention, you don't see the carriage or cross slide pattern when it's assembled. It also has the wicks/wipers on the v's which are nice.

Thanks for the info!

[keithmcelhinney]

Just put my 4000 on craigslist. Hopefully someone will buy it.

Question : what QC toolpost are you using?

-Keith

[Mikbul]

Just put my 4000 on craigslist. Hopefully someone will buy it.

Question : what QC toolpost are you using?

-Keith

I'm using the Tormach OXA from the Little Machine Shop, bolted right on. I bought the premium package and I'll be using everything but the 1/2" chuck. I'm letting that go with the 7X16 and I bought a South Bend 5/8" instead. The Tormach is a wedge style and takes up to 1/2" tools but I've got 3/8" except for the cut off which is 1/2". Tools are US made AR Warner Co. carbide insert. Parting blade is AR Warner Co. M2 HSS

[pnut]

I'm using the Tormach OXA from the Little Machine Shop, bolted right on. I bought the premium package and I'll be using everything but the 1/2" chuck. I'm letting that go with the 7X16 and I bought a South Bend 5/8" instead. The Tormach is a wedge style and takes up to 1/2" tools but I've got 3/8" except for the cut off which is 1/2". Tools are US made AR Warner Co. carbide insert. Parting blade is AR Warner Co. M2 HSS

On the Tormach OXA tool post, did you have to do any modification to the lathe to install it on the lathe? The guy at Little Machine Shop said that I might have to modify somehing to get it to mount on the lathe. And Grizzly told me I'm out of luck trying to get one to work with the South Bend 8K.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since no one answer back I took a gamble and ordered the Tormach OXA tool from the Little Machine Shop (3112 Quick Change Tool Post Set, Tormach 0XA - http://littlemachineshop.com/product...ory=-419988835). It was a direct drop in, took all of 2 minutes to install.

[keithmcelhinney]

Well a guy is coming to look at my lathe this Sunday. If he buys it I am ordering one that day. I had a feeling they were going away...

-Keith

[Mikbul]

On one hand I got a really good price but I would have paid more! Actually I made the bench for it the year before when the price was still up there. I'm just kinda !@#$%^& at all the crap people had to say about it without ever seeing one! Now the world can't buy a small South Bend when their gone. You asked me once why I bought it and one answer I left out, I wanted a South Bend, and nothing else. Also there were no reviews, I think there were buyers but people like to see a review! How many jewelers, watchmakers, etc. etc. are going to buy a 10K, they don't need that much machine.
Sorry about my rant.

BTW hope your sale goes well and I'll be continuing with this thread. I have heat in the shop but the insulation's no done and I don't want to continue with the spindle break in until I can warm it up some in there. Don't want to mess up the spindle bearings.

[keithmcelhinney]

This review has been so helpful and informative. Not people saying stuff that they "heard" or that I had one 20 years ago,etc. It is the only reason I am really thinking of getting it. I still have to give consideration to how small it is. 18" is not that long and that is right at the distance for one parts I want to make. I would hate to have to buy another lathe 2 years from now because I need something bigger. I would love a 10k but my wallet just can't do that. The G4002-3 already have the QC toolposts, 2 bigger chucks, live center, etc. Completely more of a pita with the gears and the quality isn't close to the SB. I don't cut threads on anything (at least yet) but I probably will in the future.

Why can't the 10k come down to $3.5k!

-Keith

[Mikbul]

This review has been so helpful and informative. Not people saying stuff that they "heard" or that I had one 20 years ago,etc. It is the only reason I am really thinking of getting it. I still have to give consideration to how small it is. 18" is not that long and that is right at the distance for one parts I want to make. I would hate to have to buy another lathe 2 years from now because I need something bigger. I would love a 10k but my wallet just can't do that. The G4002-3 already have the QC toolposts, 2 bigger chucks, live center, etc. Completely more of a pita with the gears and the quality isn't close to the SB. I don't cut threads on anything (at least yet) but I probably will in the future.

Why can't the 10k come down to $3.5k!

-Keith

With the rock bottom price on it right now if you can make most of your parts on it I still think it's a bargain. I think with Yankee ingenuity you can get around the 18". How much bigger are we talking? Can't you get the 5" chuck and slide some of the part in? Also the 5" chuck is shorter than the 4". Are you chucking something up and holding the other end with the tailstock? It's a long heavy tailstock. You can hang the back of the tailstock off 2" and it's still solid, that gives you two more inches. If I can get home from work at a decent hour tomorrow I'll order that 5" chuck and we'll see just how much shorter it is. If you can gain an inch at the chuck and the two inches in back maybe that will work for you, maybe not?

[Mikbul]

Talked to tech support today about the chuck he said not to worry about it it'll tighten up over time. So I won't worry about it but my concern is documented for warranty purposes. Also received new spindle sleeve today from Grizzly and tomorrow I'll stick it on the test bar and put it between centers to see what I've got.