[Lathe] change gears for Atlas lathe

olddude

Registered
Registered
Joined
Aug 15, 2016
Messages
60
I bought an old Atlas 10F machine that was supposed to be a good deal but turned out not so good of a deal after all. It was supposed to have all the accessories and a lot more junk to go along. I was really busy when the guy brought it by and didn't have time to go through the boxes. Months later I had some time so I decided to set the machine up in my new room that I built for my machine shop. It cleaned up nicely and I mounted it to a large machine table that I built just for this machine.

Now let me get this straight right now........I am no stretch of the smallest bit of imagination 'a machinist' of any sort, just a wannabe machinist at best. After I got the machine set up I decided to chuck up a piece of stock and try my hand at making a few chips. This is when I found out about change gears.

When I started to turn the stock it I could tell right away that the carriage feed was way to fast because when it was cutting the stock it was leaving lines, like threads as it was cutting. I could manual feed it and it was leaving a smoother finish but still rough. I did a little reading that led me to looking at the gear setup and possibly changing the gears to slow it down some.

The machine came with what was supposed to be a complete set but looking at the gear charts I see that the gears I have are no way near enough gears to put together any of the setups on the gear charts I have looked at in the threading manual I downloaded yesterday.

I've been on e-bay all morning looking around for some deals but didn't see much at what I would be willing to pay. The thing I'm wondering is, on the threading charts they list gears like 48F, 64F, 64B, 24, 56B for instance. What does the letter after the tooth number mean, are they a different gear all together than the gears that just have the tooth number like 64 or 64A?

The way this thing is set up is like nothing I have seen in any of the thread cutting charts. It almost seems like the feed is turning about the same speed as the spindle. I put it in back gear to try and slow it down a little and it did slow it down but it's still the same ratio between the feed and the spindle speed.....too fast on the feed.

I've got like a million questions to ask about this machine and figured this was as good a question as any to start off with.
 
B and F means back or front (towards the headstock or away from) when you have two gears stacked together on the banjo. Atlas gears come up pretty often on Ebay, sometimes you have to wait a bit. Which ones are you missing?
Mark S.
ps show us a picture!
 
B and F means back or front (towards the headstock or away from) when you have two gears stacked together on the banjo. Atlas gears come up pretty often on Ebay, sometimes you have to wait a bit. Which ones are you missing?
Mark S.
ps show us a picture!

Well that makes sense, Thanks. I need two 20's, a 48, a 24 and a 56. That should get me to where I have some playing around room. I'll see if I can get some pics this evening and post them tomorrow. I was looking for the two 20 tooth ones and found a couple but they want $40 bucks a piece for them. I found a couple of the others in the $20 range. Those things won't but about 50 cents a piece back in the day.
 
There were close to a dozen full sets on eBay two weeks ago, ranging anywhere from $125 to "THAT'S MORE THAN I GAVE FOR THE LATHE!!!" Just be patient and they'll pop up. I'm looking for a set to go with a 12" Craftsman and am seriously considering making a set. The pot metal (Zamak) gears seem to last a long time, but a bronze set would outlive me and the next four owners.

You've come to the right place to find answers about your lathe. They're popular hereabouts and there's a ton of knowledge to be shared!
 
Have you checked at Clausing to see what the current pricing is for new? At time eBay is stupid on prices as they hope to catch the uneducated.
Pierre
 
Yep they're overpriced, I would agree with you there, and the smaller ones seem to wear the fastest too. The zamak half nuts are equally expensive. :eek: There
are folks on Ebay who offer shop-made brass ones though; pay once and be done with it for a long time.
Mark S.
 
I had not thought of checking with Clausing i'll see if I can find a number and call them. Yeah I know e-bay bought a ton of stuff there. Sometimes you can find a good deal on some stuff but this stuff has always been a little out of the value range. When I first started messing with this lathe I found that the #64 tooth had about 4 teeth broken off and I found one on e-bay for $12.00 but I had to pay $10.50 to get it shipped to me.:faint:
 
I'm building a wire stripper and I need to turn down the ends of these two pieces of 2" round stock on each end to 1" for 3 1/4". I wanted the pieces to be about 20" long but I don't have a steady rest to hold that long stock on the lathe bed so I could clean up and center drill the ends of the stock. With my Bridgeport I could only get a piece 14 1/2 inches long clamped in my vice where I could mill the ends and then center drill them. That's going to cut down on the size I had planned so I guess I'm going to call it a mini stripper. I didn't have a way to use a dead center at the chuck end so I used the 6" 3 jaw to hold the piece on one end and I used a live center on the other. I did manage to get one of the bars cut down to where the bearings had a nice close fit but the other one must be a harder material because it didn't like to be cut with what I was using. I have some carbide cutters but they are 5/16 and the only tool holder I have will only take 1/4" tool stock so I've got to figure something else out. I might have some of the 1/4" ones in carbide somewhere in one my of my huge stacks of stuff I have laying around.

The tool post is the lantern style and I'm guessing it is worn out because I had a really hard time getting it to stay tight and not slip when I started turning. I finally found a sweet spot where it would stay in place but would still slip at times and I would have to start all over with the setup. The bar I finished ended up ok but the finish was rough which really doesn't matter because the rough surface will probably help hold on the the wire better so it will grab the wire and pull it between the two rollers easier.

There are a lot of other parts I need to make for this stripper but I think most of which I can make with my mill. I still need a lot of tooling for that too but I have more tooling for that than I have for this lathe. I also have a small Cummings 7/12 mini lathe that I use a lot with small stuff but that too is lacking with the amount of tooling I have been able to buy for it. I did replace the old tool post and put a QCTP that I got from the Little machine shop and that made a world of difference with that machine. I'm thinking that will be one of the first things I'm going to get for this Atlas but it will have to wait until my ship comes in.Flustered
 
I know what you mean about high shipping charges- sometimes it's a deal breaker for me.
It's funny when I was using a South Bend in high school I liked the lantern type posts- but I wouldn't use one now. I don't have a qctp yet I'm using a plain block type with spacers but it stays put.
Mark S.
 
Back
Top