New Project

I recently got my 1944 South Bend 9A Lathe back from the great white north. I will be forever grateful to my friend for bringing it home.
It sat in a garage with a leaky roof and it suffered for it. The rust isn't too bad though, the pulleys and half of the bed have some rust but the rest of the machine is good.
So this is now my current project because I get a great deal of enjoyment from using the lathe. It is very Zen.
I started working on the bench already. It is original to the lathe and is in good shape. The top is made of eighth inch steel and the cabinets are a bit thinner. I cleaned the rust off of the top and sprayed it with dark machine gray Rustoleum.
I'll post pic's later
There is not a lot going on with the bench so I'm not going to dwell on it.
When I get to the lathe I will take it apart in sections and make videos of the work. I have not found a good video of a teardown and reassembly of a SB9A on YouTube so I'm going to make one, or a couple. We'll see how it goes.
So, the lathe is a South Bend Model 9A. It has a quick change gear box and a horizontal drive. That means the motor and associated mechanicals sit behind the head. Other models have the drive in the base under the head and still others have the drive above the head. I think the over the top model I viewed was formally used in a factory with overhead belt drives.
Anyway, I picked the gem up in Brentwood, New Hampshire at an industrial consignment shop for $500 US. It's former home was a local high school. It has seen a lot of use but is not beat up too bad. The bed ways still have a little bit of the fish scaling left on it. The bearings are all buttery smooth and the motor, which is three phase, runs flawless. The bearings in this lathe are all just cast iron, no ball bearings at all. I'm going to replace all of the felts and broken oil cups. I replaced the main bearing felts a few years ago just so I knew they were getting oiled. I was using it a lot so I didn't want it to run dry. Now I have the time to do a proper rebuild.
Ok, more later.

I'm Homeless

I would have never thought that I was homeless but the facts are, I don't make enough to put a roof over my head.
Here is how I look at it.
I take home about 2,200 a month. Food costs are about 700 a month, I have a workshop that costs 250 a month, I pay my parents cable bill that is around 180 a month, fuel costs are around 400 a month and everything else is about 200 a month (cell phone, insurance, van maintenance)
So my total expenses are around 1,730 a month.
Leaving me with 470.
Even if I get my grocery bill down to 400 that leaves me with 770 at the end of the month.
The cable bill can go away but it would be replaced by utilities at an apartment. And it would be more.
I think I'm a little light on the fuel but this is just an exercise. If I sat down and figured out what everything cost down to the dollar I think I would be worse off.
So, renting is out of my reach. And I have no hope of buying a house.
That said, here is a little info about me.
I'm a 51 caucasion male. I work full time 40+ hours a week. I love my job. I have health, dental and vision. And I have weekends off.
Both of my parents are alive and I am currently staying with them. I was living in a shared house but the landlord decided to make it a single family rental and I had to leave in August. I have severe allergies to dogs, not the itchy eye sneezing type of allergy but the lungs close up type. I had to clarify that because I'm constantly told 'they make shots for that you know.'
I would stay with friends but they all have dogs.

What I have discovered over the last few weeks is that there is a growing population of what are called 'Working Homeless.' Link Most of these people work 40+ hours a week and are not junkies or drunks. Most of them have families. They are in the same predicament as me. It was alarming to me that this even exists. Most people stay with other family members or with friends. And some are on the street.

Some ass-hat suggested to me that I move to a more affordable area if I didn't like my situation. Most of my family and my friends live near me, plus it cost a lot of money to up and move to one of these fabled areas of lower cost living. These areas also have no work. I have already gone down that road.

Here, I have the option of crashing somewhere familiar. I don't have that option anywhere else with one exception. Both of my sisters live in New Mexico and they would (and have) put me up for a while. My adventure there is documented in this blog.

Worst of all, I recently had some issues with my back and teeth and I went from debt free to owing a almost 10,000. I forgot to add that to my list of expenses. That monthly payment is about 400. And yes, I do have insurance. FML.

So anyway, the current plan is to live in my van for some of the time especially during the winter because the drive to my parents house is bad during snow storms. I'm going to get to work outfitting the van this weekend.