The South Bend Machine Tool Co. was founded in 1906 by identical twins John O'Brien and Miles O'Brien. They had both spent their early working years at the Stanley Works; Miles worked for Thomas Edison for a time, and then the two of them studied engineering at Purdue University. After working for several years around Indiana, they founded their own firm to build a machinist lathe whose design they had been refining for many years. In 1908 they changed the company name to South Bend Lathe Works.

Their lathes were enormously successful, and they eventually manufactured a wide variety of engine lathes and general-purpose lathes. For many years, most machinists learned their lathe skills on machines from this maker. In about 1948 they introduced some new products including a 14-inch drill press and a 7-inch bench shaper.

The company was acquired in 1959 by American Steel, later known as Amsted Industries. They expanded the product line to include drilling and tapping machines, and mechanical presses. In 1975 the company encountered financial difficulties and it seems that a number of product lines were discontinued. They survived and continued making lathes, turret mills, and roll grinders until April or May 2007. On 16 May 2007 the remaining assets were auctioned on-site, at the Bendix Dr. location.

Sibley Machine & Foundry Corp. produced castings for South Bend machinery until the early to mid-1980s.

Address (1949 Popular Mechanics): 425 E. Madison St., South Bend 22, Indiana.

Final address: 1735 N. Bendix Dr., South Bend, Indiana 46628.

Other Resources

• Information on lathe serial numbers is given below. Other South Bend product lines did not use the same serial numbering system; we currently do not have serial-number information on those non-lathe products. Lathe serial numbers can be interpreted using the following resources:
  • 1919 to 1947: serial numbers from 700 to 186,514 may found in our South Bend serial numbers wiki page. That wiki page was adapted from published serial-number books that in turn were based on information provided by the manufacturers. We have had reports of some inaccuracies in the South Bend info. A more detailed source of information is the collection of serial-number data from Steve Wells' "SBL Workshop" website.
  • 1947-present: serial numbers with letters codes are explained on South Bend Lathe Co.'s serial number page.
• Steve Brooks of Ilion Industrial services has written two books on renovating South Bend lathes. These books have been recommended by people who have used them in repairing or restoring these lathes:
  • A Guide to Renovating the South Bend Lathe 9" Model A, B & C Plus Model 10k
  • A Guide to Renovating the South Bend Lathe Models 10L 13 14-1/2 16

Information Sources

• The primary information source was the history page of the South Bend web site or the Wayback Machine.
• The 1914 book, How to Run a Lathe, for the Beginner, by the O'Brien brothers, confirms the old and new company names.