Small Atlas Lathe

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Bill Gruby

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Was at Master Machine this morning and this small Atlass came home with me. It was headed for the scrappeds. Just what I need, another machine project. LOL

"Billy G" :whistle:

jaa 001 (700 x 525).jpg jaa 002 (700 x 525).jpg jaa 003 (700 x 525).jpg
 
Bill your getting like me to many projects and to old to finish them all.

Paul
 
I think you should fix it up and leave it in your trunk. That way you'll never be too far from a lathe. :)

Tom
 
I would guess that in this part of the country, either there never was much of a small part industry to shed its old pieces like that, or if they did they are still rat-holed someplace. I never hear of or see much in the way of older, small machines. You want a 5 foot arm radial drill? Gothcha covered. 100 ton punch press? Check. 144" table vertical lathe.....no problem. Small stuff just must not exist.

Good job, Bill.
 
Tony, I think part of that is our years supporting the oilfield. We never had much of a manufacturing base, at least not during the period when manual machine tools were king. What we did have was drillers, who needed big stuff machined, quickly, and to not very tight tolerances.

But those 618s do show up. I think I've had 4 of them, plus the one I have now. Nice little lathe. I think my son will get this one for his 40th birthday next month.
Oddly enough, I seem to see more 618s than I do the smaller AA hobby lathes. We do see quite a few of the later 12x36 Craftsman lathes. I attribute that to the surge in aerospace industry in the 1950s & 1960s.
 
Probably quite correct. Our stuff is larger than many industries needed. Here in the Tyler, Longview, Kilgore area, most mid sized manufacturing was centred around the oilfield. Well, including the petrochemical plants, that is. We do/did have a couple of foundries in Tyler, now down to one. We had two A/C plants (Carrier-United Technologies, closing down, and a GE/Trane plant still here fighting for survival), a Kelly-Springfield tire plant that was closed, but has been bought and plans to reopen at some point. I know a guy who has some stuff from the one foundry that shut down, and yes, it's smaller. But anything except toolroom goods from these places, like Marathon-LeTourneau (offshore platforms and earthmoving, and mining heavy equipment) and Lone Star Steel is all large scale. Too large for most hobby use.
 
I need the Sheeve sizes for the motor the the countershaft. Anyone have these? I know both are 2 gang. I have the manual that I just downloaded. Those two parts are listed by part number only. TIA

"Billy G" :thinking:
 
Here in Ft Worth, I have bought a number of small lathes that originally were owned by machinists at General Dynamics, now very retired or deceased. Those same machines usually endup with people that appreciate them and intend to keep them pretty much forever. So once all those tools change hands, it's another generation before they will become available again.
 
Bill Gruby said:
Was at Master Machine this morning and this small Atlass came home with me. It was headed for the scrappeds. Just what I need, another machine project. LOL

"Billy G" :whistle:
Click to expand...

Now you get to scrounge change gears and tooling. A to Z makes a nice QCTP. Tools4Cheap has some 2nds for cheap, and I saw nothing wrong with the set I bought.
Change gears are the same as AA 109, plus I think someone is making new steel gearsets (ebay)

Make sure the carriage feed gearbox is intact
 
LOL I've driven my Z3 to look at machine tools more often than not.
And I've hauled home at least 3 lathes in the trunk

I had to put the shaper in the wife's Lincoln though.
 
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