# My Atlas 618 lathe restoration



## jster1963 (Nov 25, 2012)

Hi guys,
I’m restoring my father’s Atlas 618 and would like to share it with you and would LOVE any advice. This is my first machine tool restoration so forgive my ignorance. Oh yea, it my first post too.

This is how I got the lathe from my Dad.  The face plate was as rusty as the rest of the parts, but I put it in Evapo-rust.

I’m also posting videos on youtube if you want to follow me along.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obvA83_EFPk


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## Richard King (Nov 25, 2012)

It looks like a lot of fun!  A student showed me how cool Evaporust worked last summer.  I have seen picture's  where a guy made a wood box a little bigger then his lathe and put a plastic sheet in it, set his lathe bed in and poured in he EVR and it came out looking like a new casting. ..after its cleaned up mic the bed and see how much wear there is and let us know.  Welcome to the site...everyone is here to help and have fun     Rich


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## dennis98277 (Nov 26, 2012)

would love to watch your journey because i have an old craftsman 109 that i am going to start restoring)


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## jster1963 (Nov 26, 2012)

Rich: Thank you very much.  I hate to show just how ignorant I am, but I have no idea how to mic a bed.  The only precision tool I have is a dial caliper.  The only experience I have with a lathe is my high school metal shop class.  35years ago;-)

I did clean up the bed ways and put a metal level on it.  It seems flat. (I know that doesn't mean much)
*dennis98277*: Thanks for watching and you get to see ALL of the "don't do that" stuff.  This is all new to me.......


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## chipmaker51 (Nov 26, 2012)

I have a similar Atlas/Craftsman lathe to this that I have used for many years. The accuracy isn't too good, but it's still better than the machinist that's running it (which would be me);.) It also has a bent leadscrew, so that kinda knocks out any threading. I was looking at your lathe, thinking of mine, and wondering if it could be converted with some sort of collet set up to take lamp pipe and thread 27 tpi? I also refurbish and build lamps on the side, and I usually thread my own lamp pipe. When you restore yours, I would like to follow along because I need to restore mine too.


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## jster1963 (Nov 26, 2012)

Chipmaker51: I'm not sure about the tpi. However, I'm been looking around the net on this machine and there are tons of guys using collets.


This is my latest on the teardown and start of cleaning. The bed is put in an electrolysis tank and then the ways are cleaned with scotch brite and wd40.  In the photo I show one of the ways rite out of the tank, and one after cleaning with the wd40.  Also, those are new parts (compound rest stuff) I got from ebay.


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## jster1963 (Nov 27, 2012)

Hey boys and girls,

I'm going to move this restoration over to the [h=2]ATLAS & ATLAS-CLAUSING MACHINES Forum here.

*I think I will get more Atlas guys help there.  I'm going to try to copy and paste these postings. Thank you very much........*[/h]


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## Richard King (Nov 28, 2012)

jster1963 said:


> Hey boys and girls,
> 
> I'm going to move this restoration over to the *ATLAS & ATLAS-CLAUSING MACHINES Forum here.
> 
> I think I will get more Atlas guys help there.  I'm going to try to copy and paste these postings. Thank you very much........*




Good Luck there...  If I were you I would buy a set of 1", 2" and 3" of Micrometers on E-bay and go to a library and get a book how to read a Mic.
Once you learn how, you can get a more precise measurement.  If you have a dial indicator vernier that's a lot simpler then a old add up the number vernier.


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## jster1963 (Nov 29, 2012)

Richard King said:


> Good Luck there... If I were you I would buy a set of 1", 2" and 3" of Micrometers on E-bay and go to a library and get a book how to read a Mic.
> Once you learn how, you can get a more precise measurement. If you have a dial indicator vernier that's a lot simpler then a old add up the number vernier.



Excellent advice!  I do know how to read a mic, but not sure how to mic a lathe bed.  Also, I plan to get a set of mics as my budget (wife) allows;-)  I hope to be one of those guys that happen upon a great CL find of precision tools.  Once I have the lathe up and running (I hope soon), I'll have more of a need for the precision tools.

Thanks again.......jj


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