Made in USA by ILION Industrial Services, LLC
To help prevent premature wear to the bed on your vintage South Bend Lathe, it is absolutely essential to keep the ways clean at all times. Since the bed is the part which is most exposed to the “elements” during turning operations, just using lots of oil on the ways is not sufficient protection from premature wear. Mixing large amounts of oil with iron or other gritty metal particles makes a great lapping compound so there is another line of defense that the South Bend engineers added to all new lathes starting in the 1930’s: the felt Way Wipers. These small felt components are absolutely the cheapest and easiest-to-replace part on the lathe, yet they are the single most over-looked maintenance item and the most detrimental to the machine if ignored. The way wipers are made from hard, die-cut felt which is precisely sized to fit the profile of the lathe bed V-ways or flats. The wipers serve two purposes. First, wipers act as a primary filter to catch and prevent any dirt or turning debris from entering the gap between the lathe saddle and the bed where it can cause damage. Second, the wipers act as a wick to absorb and retain the heavy way oil so that the saddle and bed bearing surfaces have a constant supply of oil during use. The replacement operation is 10 minutes maximum. Since every size of South Bend Lathe had different sized ways, every lathe had its own specially designed wiper set that compressed tightly against the way. If you don’t replace the wipers with new ones periodically, at least remove and clean the old ones in a suitable solvent before re-oiling them.
After receiving many requests to provide these aftermarket wipers as a set, we are pleased to be able to offer these replacement felt bed wipers to owners of these fine vintage American machines. Our precision die-cut F1 hard felt wipers cross-reference directly to the original South Bend part number PT59R1 for the 4 saddle wipers and PT582R1 for the 2 heavy tailstock wipers. Wipers are sold as a set which allows one complete change outs of all the bed wipers on a Model 10L or Heavy Ten lathe. These parts are very reasonably priced compared to OEM or re-used parts so don’t miss out on a chance to pick up a set for your lathe. See our other listings for rebuild kits and manuals for the complete line of Southbend lathes . Please email if you have other questions, Thank you!
Disclaimer: ILION Industrial Services, LLC is neither affiliated with South Bend Lathe, Inc nor successor companies and makes no claims as such. Any information or product offered through this manual is done so in good faith in order to assist vintage machinery owners and is not sanctioned by South Bend Lathe, Inc. as OEM information, parts or products. ILION Industrial Services, LLC makes no warranty and accepts no liability for injury, property damage or any other costs incurred and/or damages suffered (including direct, indirect or consequential damage or damages, as well as loss of income or profits) as a result of the use of any information or product contained or referenced herein. By the purchase and/or use of the information or products referenced in this document, the user expressly accepts these terms and conditions.