Manufactured in Taiwan by the Lin Huan Machine Tool Company and branded in various ways for sale in export markets, the "Select" was yet another development of the South Bend 9-inch. The Select organisation, based in the USA, are known to have marketed Taiwanese machines during the 1970s and the complete headstock of this lathe (with it's neatly-enclosed, V-belt countershaft assembly) bears a strong resemblance to those also used on other Select-branded models, the widely-distributed 1320BH and 1320GH.
Typical details also found on contemporary Taiwanese machine tools were the type of knurling used on the tailstock and screwcutting gearbox levers, the shape of the handles used on the carriage, cross-slide and top-slide feed - and even the texture of the major castings. Although information suggests that most parts are not interchangeable with the original American machine, the complete carriage assembly was certainly styled along very similar lines with the cross and top slides appearing to be identical. One part that had been subjected to some development was the apron where the engagement mechanism for the power cross-feed was completely different - an instant-engage lever being provided in place of the wind-in-and-out star wheel - and even the leadscrew clasp-nut control altered. Unfortunately, removing the original apron-mounted worm-and-wheel reduction gearing meant that extra-fine rates of sliding feed were lost, only power cross feed enjoyed this facility, at 1/3 the leadscrew-driven longitudinal rate.
Constructed with bed, feet and chip tray cast as-one (and originally supplied on a pair of stout, cast-iron legs) the Select was very heavily built, though the lack of capacity between centres - most 9-inch South Bend lathes offered rather more - must have reduced its appeal. With its rigid, box-like construction and roller-bearing supported spindle, the headstock would appear to have been an improvement on the original - unfortunately the designer unaccountably chose to use the earliest form of 9-inch tumble-reverse mechanism, one that required a bolt to be slackened before the leadscrew drive could be put into neutral or reversed. 12 spindle speeds were provided, from a rather fast bottom speed of 90 (that would have made screwcutting awkward for a beginner) to a usefully high 1800 r.p.m. For a Far Eastern belt-drive lathe of the period the high top speed was distinctly unusual, and probably allowed for by the use of grease-packed bearings.
Presumably fitted with an internal arrangement identical to the original, the screwcutting gearbox took it's drive from a train of changewheels carried on a single instead of double-slot bracket. Although that part of the bed near the headstock was cut away to form a slight gap, the rest of the lathe - the complete carriage and rather Boxford-like No. 2 Morse taper tailstock - conformed to standard South Bend practice. Push-button electrical switch gear was built neatly into a housing on the front edge of the chip tray and a capacitor-start 1-phase motor appears to have been part of the standard equipment.
If any reader has a Select lathe, or any knowledge about their production, the writer would be interested to hear from you
Links to South Bend 9-inch clones here