Grinding the ways of a 618

Do you have any idea why the lathe was disassembled in the first place?
 
I have a Craftsman 101.21400 which is essentially identical to a 618. I have a couple of thoughts.

1) I doubt paying someone to regrind / scrape the bed is remotely cost effective for one of these lathes. The expense is likely far in excess of the value of the lathe and if that is actually needed, it is likely more practical to just find another in better condition.

2) These are almost exclusively hobby lathes, so even if quite old it seems doubtful that there is much wear. Certainly an abused lathe could need major work, but since these are light duty lathes primarily used for hobby work, it just seems unlikely that it could have seen enough use to cause enough wear to really matter. Its not like a larger lathe running 3 shifts a day for decades, most of these probably only saw perhaps 8-10 hours of use in a month on the higher side of average.
 
At the risk of being a Contrarian, I've ground several machines with remarkably good luck.

Scraping is time-consuming, expensive, and incredibly precise. Nothing beats scraping.
Grinding is quick, cheap, and very precise. I'm good with that.

I just had a knee mill bed ground. I think that 600lb piece of cast iron cost me right at $150 to get ground flat both sides, top and bottom. Fabulous improvement. Also had a 24" rotary table, (another 400 lb) but that was another $100. Same happy outcome.

Ground a Nichols mill. Haven't got that one back together yet, but I'll have to grind the non-adjustable gibs because they're ground-to-fit at the factory, so I'll hafta to do likewise.

So yes, you gotta map out how the grinding is going to affect the fitment and lockup of mating parts. Sometimes it matters and you have to shim and machine other parts. Other times, it doesn't hardly matter at all. I don't know how things will be changed on a 618.

But everything mounts on the same bed, so I really don't see a downside, unless someone did it totally wrong or got crazy aggressive with the grind wheel.
 
Imagine a circle drawn with a horizontal line through exact center.

Now measure center to the spot the line crosses.

Next move said line down 0.030 and measure again.

Very little difference.

Do it in cad and it will show you.

We as hobbyists will miss by that much.

Just be careful and use it while looking for the next lathe.

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I don't. He said he took it apart and never got back to it and has since lost interest.

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Aaron_W said:
These are almost exclusively hobby lathes, so even if quite old it seems doubtful that there is much wear. Certainly an abused lathe could need major work, but since these are light duty lathes primarily used for hobby work, it just seems unlikely that it could have seen enough use to cause enough wear to really matter.
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I had an Atlas 618 that had heavy wear. The bed was worn so that the carriage would either be sloppy near the headstock or would get stuck going towards the tailstock. The headstock spindle was bent! The compound, cross-slide and threading nuts all needed replacement. The related screws really should have been replaced too.

Some of these machines were 'rode hard and put away wet'. I'm sure there are some that only saw a few hours use over their 60-80 year life. But you can't generalize that all of them were babied.

Craig
(I sold parts off the 618 to recoup some of my investment. Still have some left that I should offer up again.)
 
WCraig said:
I had an Atlas 618 that had heavy wear. The bed was worn so that the carriage would either be sloppy near the headstock or would get stuck going towards the tailstock. The headstock spindle was bent! The compound, cross-slide and threading nuts all needed replacement. The related screws really should have been replaced too.

Some of these machines were 'rode hard and put away wet'. I'm sure there are some that only saw a few hours use over their 60-80 year life. But you can't generalize that all of them were babied.

Craig
(I sold parts off the 618 to recoup some of my investment. Still have some left that I should offer up again.)
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Mine appears to be in pretty good shape. Can't wait to get it back together.
Do you happen to have a chuck or a rest?
 
machinistnoob said:
Mine appears to be in pretty good shape. Can't wait to get it back together.
Do you happen to have a chuck or a rest?
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I sold the chucks but have the face plate. What do you mean by "rest"?

Craig
 
WCraig said:
I had an Atlas 618 that had heavy wear. The bed was worn so that the carriage would either be sloppy near the headstock or would get stuck going towards the tailstock. The headstock spindle was bent! The compound, cross-slide and threading nuts all needed replacement. The related screws really should have been replaced too.

Some of these machines were 'rode hard and put away wet'. I'm sure there are some that only saw a few hours use over their 60-80 year life. But you can't generalize that all of them were babied.

Craig
(I sold parts off the 618 to recoup some of my investment. Still have some left that I should offer up again.)
Click to expand...

Sounds abused rather than well used.

Sure you will find exceptions, but compared to something in the 9 or 10" size, you are far more likely to find one of these with very light use because finding one used in a school or shop is fairly rare.

When you can pick up a good one for $500-1000 and considering the cost of replacement parts / tooling I'd never bother with one in the condition you describe unless it was for parts or maybe if it was free. Looks like you parted that one out yourself.
 
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