Tool Gloat !!!

P

papermaker

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Thursday afternoon I responded to an ad on craigslist advertising an atlas lathe for sale. I went to look at it that evening and found that it was all in pieces. no problem if all of the pieces were there. To my surprise it was an Atlas Clausing 12"x36" lathe. He also had an Atlas horizontal milling machine. I was super excited so I went for it and left a deposit. Friday afternoon I went to pick these up and that was when I got the big surprise. We started loading the parts and pieces and the guy started rummaging through a bunch of stuff. He uncovered the original cast iron lathe stand. Bonus! the mill had its original stand too!
I was super excited by that but then he kept pulling out vises and collet chucks and on and on.
so for a $1000 I cleaned out this guys garage! Super deal super guy!
 
Everything looks to be in good condition too. Why did he take it all apart, Did he say?
 
:yousuck3:good find, always strike while the iron is hot.
 
Divorce forced him into a rented garage. He had 4 lathes , a Bridgeport mill and the Atlas mill in half of a two car garage. He broke it down in pieces to fit under a work bench.
The owner makes high-end salmon flyfishing reels and was very fussy about his stuff.
I loosely put every thing together on the garage floor and everything was there. Tomorrow I take I back apart so I can mount it on the lathe stand. I can't wait to try this one out. This makes 4 lathes in my shop. Then it will be on to the Atlas mill.
 
Wow, I can identify with the divorce putting a major road block on these kinds of things. I went through a divorce 15 years ago. It put everything on hold for a good 7-8 years before I could get back on my feet and enough $$ to get a house of my own with a garage. In hindsight, it was probably the best thing that could have happened, but boy did it suck going through it.

I think you'll be really happy with those machines. It looks like he took good care of them.

Marcel
 
Well I'm green with envy. How bout some more pics when you get them all together and when you get it running and do your first projects? If your anything like me you will be chomping at the bit while your doing the final assembly and getting ready to give em a test run. I saw an RT and a couple other higher end tools so I have no doubt that you got a killer deal and will be thrilled when you get everything back together and running again. Good luck and hope you have a ton of fun on your way.

Bob
 
Yeah the little rotary table was a bonus. I got it home and found that it had some issues but I got those corrected today. Now to make the two missing indexing plates which is simple with my little CNC milling machine.
 
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