South Bend

In the quarter century since its founding, South Bend Lathe Works became the largest exclusive manufacturer of metalworking precision lathes in the world, with customers in over 88 countries. The machines were used in every type of industry, in schools, home workshops, and large manufacturers from Bermuda to Mali, Indochina, and Siberia.

Today, our product line includes much more than lathes, but we still get requests for the 10-inch belt-driven toolroom lathe, a standard for over 40 years. Times have changed since the O'Brien brothers, "the Henry Fords of the lathe," set up their one-room shop. This was a era when South Bend, Indiana, was a manufacturing center, with Studebaker, the Oliver Plow Company, and the Singer Sewing Machine Company, among others. Many of those companies are gone. And certainly, our last twenty-five years were not like our first, yet similarities remain. John and Miles O'Brien set out with the single-minded dedication to build the best lathe they could, and they succeeded. With much sacrifice and hard work, we've maintained that tradition, and will into the next century.