
dakota
Interesting. Here is a site that has a lot of information on lathes :
http://www.lathes.co.uk/
I had a quick look and all of the South Bends on the site above have their handwheel on the left side of carriage apron, and the half-nut lever on the right. The photo above seems to have them reversed. Note also that South Bend was copied .... even here in little Saskatoon Canada where the John East Ironworks built "EastBends"
Dave
Thanks for the advice and the responses. I think I'm going to hold off for something that is a little closer to 36-40" and something with larger through hole capacity. It is tempting due to the fact that it is 500, but by the time I buy some tooling and get it to do the things I want, it won't be a cheap purchase.
Thanks again,
dakota