I am cleaning and getting ready to paint anew an old 9" Southbend. I
took the spindle out of the headstock, so I could clean the oilers
etc, and to my astonishment saw a bunch of micro-fine brass particles
around the rear bush. I continued cleaning, and after I had cleaned
the grease and particles out, I found myself looking at a pressed in
brass bushing inside the original South Bend brass bushing....I
think.... The front bushing had a similar pressed in bushing. I am
saying that the headstock casting has two concentric pieces of brass
in each spindle bearing location.

So...My question is what do the original bushings look like? Are they
in two pieces like my lathe? I might add that the workmanship in these
inserted bushings is very high, judging from the finish. Haven't
miked them for accuracy yet. But, if it was not done at the factory, I
need to make a bunch of measurements to make sure I have an aligned
spindle. And be wary of the fit when re-assembling the headstock. I
cannot imagine boring the two holes to great accuracy at the correct
height and parallel to the bed without considerable fixturing, such as
would be available at the factory, but not in the local machine shop.

All in all, a bunch of complications I could do without!

Original SB9 bearings were just highly-finished holes in the iron headstock.
The polished hardened spindle let a setup like this run almost forever. Sounds
like your original bearings wore out and were bushed.

GTO(John)