Atlas 3982 Restoration Is It Worth It?

[JPMacG]

MrPete222 on youtube has a series of excellent videos on running an Atlas lathe.

And I agree with others - the lathe is beautiful. No restoration is necessary or desirable. A fresh paint job, for example, would likely decrease its value.

 

[SloppyJoe]

Thanks guys for all the encouragement.
Great knowing I've got a good tool worth my time.

I should have been clear but I had to disassemble as much as I dared when removing it from the basement it was located at. But boy it sure was heavy. Luckily I had an electric stair climber. I had to set up a winch to lift it onto the bench where it's located now.

Right now I'm in the midst of disassembling sub assemblies, cleaning off surface rust and old gummy oil residue. Taking things apart is a great way to understand how something operates. Trick is remembering how it went back together without any leftover parts.

I do have one issue though. When removing one of the assemblies off the raceway, a nut fell out onto the floor. I have no idea where it goes and theschematicsc offer no clues. I've included a photo of it below. It just might be a part that was dropped and forgotten about and has nothing to do the assemblies I was removing.













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[SloppyJoe]

Restore ????????? it appears as new. What is to restore? As above noted, find out why the apron is off the carriage, something broken? Hopefully easy to fix.

Well restore as in cleaning and lubing.
Its covered in gummy oil mixed with rust and dust.
If it wasn't worth my time I wouldn't want to spend hours doing so for nothing.

 

[SloppyJoe]

No. You should carry it out by the road and sell it for cheap.

If you don't want my advice though, and you're gonna keep it anyway..... It's well equipped, appears to have been well cared for. I'd clean it up, and if you don't already know the answer, find out why it's apart, give it what it needs, if anything, and take up any and all local offers for assistance in getting started. It's a great "beginner lathe", but at the same time, it's also the kind of lathe that a lot of beginners end up moving up to, and a lot of "not beginners" have settled on as being quite suitable as a perminant fixture for home shop use. If you do want a lathe, I'd call that one a keeper. I sure wouldn't be restoring it though. Just looking at your pictures, I'd venture to guess that a few repairs (or maybe just re assembly?) and a little cleanup should have you a nearly new looking machine.

Ok, it's at curb with a sign on it saying FREE.

 

[SloppyJoe]

MrPete222 on youtube has a series of excellent videos on running an Atlas lathe.

And I agree with others - the lathe is beautiful. No restoration is necessary or desirable. A fresh paint job, for example, would likely decrease its value.

I'll check him out, thanks.

 

[Jake M]

Ok, it's at curb with a sign on it saying FREE.

Probably it'd be like an old recliner. At free it would sit out in the weather for two weeks, but if you hang a $25 dollar for sale sign on it, somebody will steal it in an hour.

That "nut" is not a nut, I don't believe. If this lathe is anything like it's little brother, it's the carriage lock. Admittedly it kind of acts like a nut, but when you tighten the screw, it pinches against the bed to hold the carriage in position if you were facing a part, or using a milling attachment where you couldn't allow the carriage to move under cutting forces. Probably (again, based on your lathe's little brother), probably there was a square headed screw going straight down into the saddle, behind the apron on the right hand side as you're standing in the operator's position.

Now let me decode what I just said. What you called a "raceway", we'd call a bed way, or just a "way". That whole casting that has the ways ground into it, that would be the lathe bed. Sliding on the ways would be the carriage. The carriage is an assembly of the apron (the part you removed from the front, with the lead screw going through it), plus the saddle, which is the "horizontal component" that actually sits on the ways, and the cross slide, and the compound slide, which sit on top of that. I hope you can sort that out easy enough?

The Mr Pete 222 recommendation is a good one. He's a retired shop teacher, a little bit dry, and somewhat dated. Just about as dated as the machines that many of us enjoy using... It's a pretty good match. Highly recommended.

 

[Richard King 2]

That machine with all the accessories is worth a minimum of$10,000.00 . You taking it apart make sense. My friend who lives in Boston is Professor Alex Slocum, who is more famous then Mr. Pete. https://meche.mit.edu/people/faculty/slocum@mit.edu I would bet he can help your or knows someone who can help you in person. It sounds as if your a good mechanic and after you learn how to run it, you will do just fine.

 

[vtcnc]

That machine with all the accessories is worth a minimum of$10,000.00 . You taking it apart make sense. My friend who lives in Boston is Professor Alex Slocum, who is more famous then Mr. Pete. https://meche.mit.edu/people/faculty/slocum@mit.edu I would bet he can help your or knows someone who can help you in person. It sounds as if your a good mechanic and after you learn how to run it, you will do just fine.

$10k?? Umm…hey Rich, my shop is for sale if you want to swing by and take a look!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Richard King 2]

Look at Grizzly and a new machine that size is $6000.00 If I still had the used machinery dealership I would ask $10,000.00 for that like new machine with the bench and all the goodies. I am sure I could sell it for that. Hobby shop forum members are always looking for a deal. I am talking about people in Boston not an area where no one is buying or working. I bet if I asked Phil Perry one of my old forum moderators who is famous for rebuilding a South Bend Lathe that was called "The Gold Plated Lathe" could easily find a customer for it. He sells to Rich hobbyists now who buy rebuilt cars and machines. He told me the Gold Plated lathe is in a showroom between to perfect Etsels.