Bought a 1940s lathe blind, took 2 tries to get it running

Last month I picked up an old South Bend lathe from an estate sale in Ohio for 400 bucks, no test run or anything. The gearbox was frozen solid and the previous owner had it sitting in a damp barn for 20 years, so I spent a full weekend stripping it down and soaking the parts in kerosene. Anyone else here take a gamble on old machinery and end up with a surprise rebuild project, or did I just get lucky with this one?

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1 Comment

reed.eva25d ago

The rust belt special always hits different. 400 bucks for a South Bend that just needed elbow grease is a steal, even if you had to cuss at it for a weekend. Sounds like the damp barn was the real enemy, not the machine itself.