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Group: I do allot of research building my machine and find much of the sought information very hard to come by. I had posted a request a few days ago about saddle gib adjustment dimensions and thankfully, no one replied. I say that because I would have stopped rooting around had I received an answer which would have been a lost opportunity to learn something. There is a fellow on my Southbend site who has a shop that rebuilds old lathes. Much of the knowledge on the net being geared toward the rapid machining world of CNC seems to have old manual machine information disappearing at a rapid rate and its nice to run into someone like Turk who is old enough and experienced enough to remember "when it was".
Sleuthing threw old post of his, I found some definitions and dimensions I had been looking for on machine design. Did you know, for example, that Southbend Workshop lathes don't even have a front gib? Me either and I own one, that's embarrassing. Just a keep plate that is part of the apron to keep it from flying off ;) They do, however have some interesting dimensions. Seems as a general rule the rear gib is the work horse. A heavy cast iron fixture that is the same length as the swing of the lathe. Yep, a 10" long gib! These machines, among others of good reputation have a bed width no narrower than the center height of the machine. This keeps, I'm told, the cutter and work not only inside the bed rails, but inside the inner face of the "V", thus all force is basically down and on the back of the "V" on the front and up on the rear with a slight polar moment that the "V" and long rear gib takes care of. Loosely, machines with beds wider than center height are considered "heavy duty" lathes. Those whose beds equal center height are considered "tool room" and those whose beds are narrower than the center height and considered junk (hobby?). Seig 7" machines are about 3.25" across the bed, depends where you measure ;(
Adjusting machines of these dimensions then becomes, whatever on the front and as little as possible on the back gib with drag the limit. Interesting!
Marty