# Plain Bearing Atlas Headstock Adjustment.



## mtmudlark (Mar 15, 2015)

I have a bit of a problem with an Atlas 10F Lathe that I acquired a couple of years back.  I noticed today that there is a bit of play in the headstock-- maybe 0.o2 in.    It's not a great amount, but I would like to  correct the condition.
  The lathe  was recovered from an old barn a couple years back and a friend refurbished it and I bought it from him.  Unfortunately he died last December so I need to find help in dealing with the problem.  I am on the beginner end of machining though I have had a Sherline Lathe for years for making some small telescope parts this is my first large machine--it's a whole different world to me.


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## Smithdoor (Mar 15, 2015)

0.020 " is a lot for a small lathe
Is the bearing bronze , iron or lead.
Lead or bronze is easer to work with than iron.
Please post photos 
Also check the play again 

Dave



mtmudlark said:


> I have a bit of a problem with an Atlas 10F Lathe that I acquired a couple of years back.  I noticed today that there is a bit of play in the headstock-- maybe 0.o2 in.    It's not a great amount, but I would like to  correct the condition.
> The lathe  was recovered from an old barn a couple years back and a friend refurbished it and I bought it from him.  Unfortunately he died last December so I need to find help in dealing with the problem.  I am on the beginner end of machining though I have had a Sherline Lathe for years for making some small telescope parts this is my first large machine--it's a whole different world to me.


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## Clausing (Mar 15, 2015)

I do not know if your Atlas is a tapered Timken style for the spindle, but if it is you need to check the front and rear bearings for pitting first. If you have no damage to the bearings then check the spindle shaft for wear. If the shaft is worn you will have to have it re-chromed.  If your bearings are good to go, and your spindle shaft is good, let's go to the manual
 With an oil change (manual calls for No 10 oil, the manual says to run the lathe between twenty and thirty minutes to warm up the spindle. Then loosen the setscrew in the collar that retains the gear on the left end of the spindle, and turn it up to a point where no play can be detected in the spindle. Advance this nut 1/16 turn (equal to two teeth on the spindle gear) past that point in order to obtain the correct preload. Tighten the set screw. recheck the runout.


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## mtmudlark (Mar 15, 2015)

It has the white metal/babbit type bearings-- not tapered Timken roller bearings.   When the head was checked at the time I purchased it, everything was fine w/ only a couple of thousandths variability. I thought that that was pretty good for a 60 year old piece of equipment..  I think that I will do some more checking check  and make sure that it is the not the chuck.  I had trouble setting up the 4inch chuck that's on it.  Need to make sure the problem is not there.


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## Andre (Mar 15, 2015)

Make sure to look for play, not runout from not dialing in your 4 jaw. Put a 12" bar in the chuck and an indicator on top of the chuck and lift the spindle up with maybe 20 pounds, that reading is how much play there is. You don't have to spin the chuck when lifting.


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## wa5cab (Mar 15, 2015)

Mudlark,

I assume that by plain bearing, you mean babbit and not tapered roller.  How certain are you that the machine is a 10F and not a 10D or earlier?  The reasons that I ask are multiple.  Although Atlas continued to offer and sell babbit bearing machines up until about 1944 or 45, babbit bearing 10F's are very much in the minority among survivors.

But in any case, if you have a babbit bearing headstock, download the attachment below.  This was extracted from the original version (Version 1, 1937) of the Atlas Manual of Lathe Operations (MOLO).  It is also in the 2nd through 5th versions Copyright 1937 but printed up through 1953.


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## Mondo (Mar 25, 2015)

Mount a 6" chuck on the spindle.  With power disconnected, stand at the left end of the lathe facing the gear side of the headstock.  Reach over the headstock and grab the chuck with both hands and try to wiggle it up and down, and end-to-end along the axis of the spindle.  If it wiggles up and down you need to remove a shim or two from under the bearing cap at the front.  Disengage the compound gear and try to wiggle the gear end of the spindle up and down.  If this end wiggles then you need to remove a shim from the gear end bearing cap.  These shims are stacks of .002 brass soldered together.  They can be peeled one layer at a time.  Removing one layer from one side of a bearing cap will reduce bearing to spindle clearance by .001".

If the spindle wiggles front-to-back the spindle thrust adjusting nut on the small (gear) end of the spindle needs to be adjusted.  Loosen the set screw (under which there is a small brass plug to prevent the set screw from damaging the fine adjusting threads) then snug up the nut clockwise until there is no more play, then back off slightly.  Tighten the set screw.  The spindle should turn by hand with a slight drag.  Fill the oil cups and power up.  Let it run for 30 minutes then turn if off and check again.

BTW: Snugging up the thrust nut requires some sort of spanner wrench.  I made one from a piece of 1/4" flat bar and a small steel dowel.




Spiral_Chips


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## tony ennis (Jul 4, 2016)

This thread was very helpful. I have an older ragged-out Atlas. I was getting facing cuts that looked like phonograph records. It was not cosmetic. I tracked it down to the spindle having axial play. I didn't know about the adjusting nut. So now I get pretty decent facing cuts! Of course, in doing so I induced some terrible run-out in my spindle so the adventure continues.


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## wa5cab (Jan 27, 2019)

One additional comment on adjusting the shim thickness.  Before removing a shim from one of the two packs, measure the thickness of the two.  The thickness difference should never exceed 0.002".  So if one shim pack is thicker than the other, that is the one that the next layer should be taken from.


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## timmeh (Jan 30, 2019)

Check out a thread called "Repouring a Babbitt headstock." I hijacked it and put a few pics of how checked my journals after finding that my spindle was worn. Ended up making some shims to put in the right side.


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