Atlas 618 Mods Thread

[mattthemuppet2]

thought I'd made one thread to put all my different mods and futzings around in one place.

The carriage on my 618 has way wipers which work really well, but makes it hard to oil under the carriage, so I added a GITS oiler to each side and used a dremel with a ball end burr to cut oil grooves on the underside. Works a treat, but no pictures - I'll take some when I have the carriage off to adjust the shims.

Having oilers and wipers on my carriage made me also want them on my tail stock, so I finished off that project today. Made the wiper holders from some sheet alu (some kind of old filter holder?) and used some of the kids felt and neoprene for the wipers. Cross drilled a 1/8in passage across the base of the tail stock and then drilled oil holes into it from underneath - amazingly the ~3in passage drilled straight and both the oil holes hit it Milled oil grooves with a 1/16 (I think) carbide ball end mill, flushed out the chips and put it all back together again. Works a treat - it's set up tight but slides smoothly.


Also working on a back plate for a 4 jaw I got off eBay recently

some very hefty 26mm thick scrap


blank cut out with an angle grinder and a hacksaw

turning down one side - lots of light cuts due to the slightly precarious hold and the interrupted cuts. The treadmill motor worked great down at 50rpm in back gear
turned around, indicated in to ~0.001 and the last bit turned off. Rough faced it to get under the skin of some kind of crazy hard surface treatment - it kept knocking the tip off my HSS bit, so I ended up using a brazed carbide bit which did the trick


have to make a spindle blank and an internal threading bar before proceeding. Oh and learn to thread too

 

[Bob Korves]

That's the spirit, Matt! What could possibly go wrong? 8^)

 

[mattthemuppet2]

there'll be lots of practice on PVC pipe first, that's for sure! Took me alot of sweat to get that blank the way it is, I don't want to screw it up at the last moment

 

[A618fan2]

Now that's takin' it to the limit! Well done.

 

[mattthemuppet2]

thanks John, it was pretty nerve wracking and because it took forever, it was nerve wracking for a long time

 

[mattthemuppet2]

finally got some time to do some more on this

copy of the spindle nose - this really helped with checking fit when threading, although it wasn't perfect. The register was a couple of thou under (even though I cut it a thou over) and too short, so there was a bit more fitting and fiddling with the back plate than I had hoped.

threaded!

back done

now onto the front Whatever they did to the surface of the plate (case hardening?) wipes the tips off my HSS bits, so it's carbide for the first mm or two.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

nice work on the backer Matt!

 

[A618fan2]

Wow - that's a lot of metal on a little lathe. You worked that 618 to it's limit proving, in determined hands, what a capable machine it is. And your skills ain't too shabby either - nice work!

John

 

[mattthemuppet2]

thanks guys, it was pretty hairy at times. I am somewhat embarrassed by how long it's taken, but it's been a valuable learning experience if nothing else!

Almost finished, I just screwed up one of the holes in the back plate as that corner wasn't full supported in the DP vise and came loose. I repositioned it but I think I didn't do it properly. Bah. Spent yesterday evening and 3 brazed carbide bits turning down the shanks and heads of the 4 bolts so that they didn't bind. Got the runout down from 0.003 1in out from the chuck (0 at chuck) to 0.001 2in out (using 2 different dowel pins, one of which I turned around too). One of the screws is still binding a bit, so I'll take them all out and shave a sniff off them to see if that helps.

 

[mattthemuppet2]

alright, a little bit more off the screws, sharpied the front face of the backplate (not the register) to check for any contact with the chuck body and put it back together again. This time I'm getting a thou or less over 2in and my dti is a little slow when cold so it might even be less than that. I think I can call it good

Now I just need to sell the old 4 jaw..