Carriage Assembly - 1936. An art-worked picture - in reality the cross-slide casting was one piece from front to back, there being no detachable swarf plate at the rear.
The compound slide, typical of South Bend (and other lathes of the time) had micrometer dials that were far too small - although they did allow the cross slide to be drawn over them, so improving the length of its travel. As an option in later years a larger dial was offered but, as these would have limited the slide's travel, the stem that screwed into the face of the saddle was increased in length. Unfortunately the cross slide that was devoid of T slots - an omission that precluding the fitting of a rear toolpost or the mounting of third-party vertical milling slide - both useful accessories for the model and experimental engineer. For many years the English Boxford lathe (a South Bend clone) was available with a T-slotted cross slide and one of these can, with considerable advantages as to rigidity and versatility, be fitted as a direct replacement on all versions of the South Bend 9-inch. The larger Boxford micrometer dial and its inner datum collar can also be fitted but this does involve some light machining to get everything lined up.
On lathes with a taper attachment there is a bed bracket, held by two bolts, which connects it to the saddle. These bolts, if fully tightened when the taper unit is not in use, can cause the cross slide feed screw turn stiffly; loosening the bolts slightly will allow the slide to turn smoothly.

Plain (non-power cross feed) single-wall apron from a 1936 machine. Note the oil pipe (a cast-in lip was used on the very first lathes) that fed lubricant into a channel that ran along the top of the upper leadscrew clasp nut.
Whereas all the larger South Bend lathes had aprons with "double walls" - allowing the gear-carrying studs to be supported at both end - all types of  9-inch apron, even the power sliding and surfacing versions as fitted to the models A and B, were all constructed from single-thickness castings.

Power sliding and surfacing apron as fitted to the Model B and Model A. A little-appreciated benefit of the Model B (in addition to the power cross feed) was the ability to produce much slower rates of power sliding feed - the drive being taken from a worm and wheel arrangement driven from a key sliding in a slot on the leadscrew.  Although the screwcutting charts for the model B and C are the same (the drive coming from the claps nuts) the former (because of the added reduction in ratio through the apron worm gear) has a selection of finer feeds marked.
It is tempting to convert a non-power feed South Bend by using the apron from a scrapped Model A or B. However, although this can sometimes be successfully accomplished, it is not always the case - with gears being either to tightly or not sufficiently engaged. The problem has been traced to South Bend being less particular in their machining of the saddles fitted to non-power apron models.