I just saw a couple of lathes for sale in San Francisco. They aren't
what I'm looking for, but I thought I'd post this (with the owner's
permission) for anyone in the San Francisco area who may be looking.
The owner is a locksmith who used them in the past but not any more.
He has a very crowded shop in his garage and it was a bit hard to see
them clearly. Since they were not what I was looking for (too long) I
didn't want to go to too much effort trying to test them under power.

South Bend, 9" Model A, 4 1/2 foot bed, Cat #644R, with QCGB. Has a 5"
3-jaw chuck (Cushman 5430B), 1/2" Jacobs TS chuck, lantern tool post,
GE 1/2 hp motor, F/R switch. It has not been used in a while, the belt
is broken (I didn't see it) so I couldn't see it under power. The
gears look clean and unworn. There is some light surface rust and/or
dirt. The carriage, cross slide and compound all move alright. The
tailstock works alright, although the live center may be frozen in it;
I couldn't get it out. It's mounted on a wooden bench. In the bench
drawer are various cutting tools (wood cutting tools as well) and a
couple odd chucks and miscellaneous stuff. The owner says there is a 4
jaw chuck but I did not see it.

The other lathe was hard to see as it was surrounded by a lot of
things and appeared to have a few years of dirt and dust on it. It's a
Sheldon, KS824 on the label. It says 11" Semi-Quick change on the
thread label. Length is 48", looks about 22" between centers. Has a
1/3 HP B-Line motor (Brown Brockmeyer Co). Carriage, cross slide and
compound seemed to move alright. 3-Jaw chuch on the spindle. There is
a leather belt on it and it had been sitting under tension all these
years. Again, did not try to run it -- couldn't access it well enough
and I was not interested enough to want to deal with it. It's on its
own metal bench.

The seller did not have prices in mind, so that is something to be
negotiated. He does need to get them moved out of his shop soon.
Basically, they both look to be in reasonable shape, mainly needing
some good cleaning to get going. Not a lot of tooling with either,
although there may be more hidden away in his garage that he still
needs to find.

The owner is Steve and his number is 415-731-3718. If anyone reads
this and checks them out, I'd be interested to hear how it goes.

-Bruno