Absolute Rookie Needs Restoration Advice

I use 3in1 motor oil on my atlas lathe for pretty much everything except the ways. It's 20 weight non detergent.

Let's see some pics.
 
Years ago I did a complete motorcycle tear down and rebuild. I took photos from every angle at every stage. And I had a separate camera doing a timelapse of the whole thing (except a couple times when I didn't notice the battery had died), with one shot every 5 seconds or so. I put it up on YouTube under an ancient account. YouTube is blocked at work so I can't grab the link right now. I think I called it "Motorcycle Strip Show" or something like that. Anyway, it proved to be very useful as well as the photos, because it showed sequence better than the individual photos.
 
If your completely disassembling the machine I find it best to use one of the water soluble degreasers like Super Clean or Spray 9, let it soak a few minutes and pressure wash the parts.You have to use compressed air to blow the excess water off then wipe down and oil the machined surfaces right away. I find solvents alone won't get the dirt out of corners and threads where the pressure washer leaves it spotless. An added bonus is painted sections are ready to spray if youkeep the protective oil off them.

Greg
 
looks great man...you can learn a lot from the site lathes uk...look at the mk2 atlas...there is lots of pics and info there...also if you're looking for a quick change tool post...check a to z cnc they have a really nice one for about a hundred bucks....thats what I use on mine and I love it...but I made my own t-nut for it...I didn't like the way the one that came with the atlas mount kit fit...the round ones came with the kit ...the bigger rectangular one is the one I made...IMG_0885.JPG IMG_0887.JPG
 
Took the tail off, scrubbed the ways with mineral spirits. Had to scrape a bit of dried oil and what looked like dried paint with my brass cabinet scraper. Ways are now clean and smooth but several dark spots. Slathered a bunch of 30 wt. ND oil on them just to keep the rust at bay.
The carriage is really rough feeling and the lead screw is so covered with oily sawdust that I think I need to pull them off and get all up close and personal with them. The screw has a bunch of L to R play (1/8 "). Is that normal? I'm guessing that the way to get it apart is to unscrew the bearing on the right end. Any hints about parts that might come flying loose if I do that?

Should I be moving this post to the Atlas Forum? I'm still trying to figure out the etiquette and nav for this site.
 
There should not be that much play in the lead screw. At least there isn't on my atls 10. Should be a couple nuts at the end of the leadscrew, you should be able to tighten things up a bit there I think.
 
download the manual off this site and check out the parts diagrams, they'll show you any hidden or unexpected parts. if you take off the rh support you'll need to take a woodruff key from the end of the lh side (and possibly a pinned collar, can't remember) to pull it through the lh support.

soundslike it would be worth tearing it all down for a thorough clean!
 
I decided that I REALLY need to make some chips with this so it wont be a full restoration; just tear down and clean. The last cleaning step is to get the sawdust that is packed in the gear train out and to get some gear lube on them.
The only issues I've uncovered so far are:
  • the slop in the screw mentioned above (seems to be a collar on the left side- maybe that can take the play away)
  • the gear on the end of the lead screw is missing about a third of one tooth
  • the nut holding the handwheel on the carriage is missing - I think it's just a plain 1/4-20 x half inch.
I also don't have anything in the way of tooling. There are a couple of holders but they don't have any of the pointy bits in them. I'm not sure what I would be looking for; the only experience I've had with a manual lathe had Aloris toolposts and replaceable, indexable carbide inserts that I didn't have to pay for;). I couldn't grind a tool bit if my life depended on it. Two semesters of CNC programming but virtually nothing on shop basics like how to clean a file - remind me to rant about the deplorable state of technical training
 
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