# Atlas 618 Mods Thread



## mattthemuppet2

thought I'd made one thread to put all my different mods and futzings around in one place.

The carriage on my 618 has way wipers which work really well, but makes it hard to oil under the carriage, so I added a GITS oiler to each side and used a dremel with a ball end burr to cut oil grooves on the underside. Works a treat, but no pictures - I'll take some when I have the carriage off to adjust the shims.

Having oilers and wipers on my carriage made me also want them on my tail stock, so I finished off that project today. Made the wiper holders from some sheet alu (some kind of old filter holder?) and used some of the kids felt and neoprene for the wipers. Cross drilled a 1/8in passage across the base of the tail stock and then drilled oil holes into it from underneath - amazingly the ~3in passage drilled straight and both the oil holes hit it  Milled oil grooves with a 1/16 (I think) carbide ball end mill, flushed out the chips and put it all back together again. Works a treat - it's set up tight but slides smoothly.




Also working on a back plate for a 4 jaw I got off eBay recently

some very hefty 26mm thick scrap



blank cut out with an angle grinder and a hacksaw
	

		
			
		

		
	




turning down one side - lots of light cuts due to the slightly precarious hold and the interrupted cuts. The treadmill motor worked great down at 50rpm in back gear 


turned around, indicated in to ~0.001 and the last bit turned off. Rough faced it to get under the skin of some kind of crazy hard surface treatment - it kept knocking the tip off my HSS bit, so I ended up using a brazed carbide bit which did the trick



have to make a spindle blank and an internal threading bar before proceeding. Oh and learn to thread too


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## Bob Korves

That's the spirit, Matt!  What could possibly go wrong?   8^)


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## mattthemuppet2

there'll be lots of practice on PVC pipe first, that's for sure! Took me alot of sweat to get that blank the way it is, I don't want to screw it up at the last moment


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## A618fan2

Now that's takin' it to the limit!  Well done.


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## mattthemuppet2

thanks John, it was pretty nerve wracking and because it took forever, it was nerve wracking for a long time


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## mattthemuppet2

finally got some time to do some more on this

copy of the spindle nose - this really helped with checking fit when threading, although it wasn't perfect. The register was a couple of thou under (even though I cut it a thou over) and too short, so there was a bit more fitting and fiddling with the back plate than I had hoped.
	

		
			
		

		
	





threaded!
	

		
			
		

		
	





back done
	

		
			
		

		
	




now onto the front  Whatever they did to the surface of the plate (case hardening?) wipes the tips off my HSS bits, so it's carbide for the first mm or two.


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## Ulma Doctor

nice work on the backer Matt!


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## A618fan2

Wow - that's a lot of metal on a little lathe.  You worked that 618 to it's limit proving, in determined hands, what a capable machine it is.  And your skills ain't too shabby either - nice work!

John


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## mattthemuppet2

thanks guys, it was pretty hairy at times. I am somewhat embarrassed by how long it's taken, but it's been a valuable learning experience if nothing else!

Almost finished, I just screwed up one of the holes in the back plate as that corner wasn't full supported in the DP vise and came loose. I repositioned it but I think I didn't do it properly. Bah. Spent yesterday evening and 3 brazed carbide bits turning down the shanks and heads of the 4 bolts so that they didn't bind. Got the runout down from 0.003 1in out from the chuck (0 at chuck) to 0.001 2in out (using 2 different dowel pins, one of which I turned around too). One of the screws is still binding a bit, so I'll take them all out and shave a sniff off them to see if that helps.


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## mattthemuppet2

alright, a little bit more off the screws, sharpied the front face of the backplate (not the register) to check for any contact with the chuck body and put it back together again. This time I'm getting a thou or less over 2in and my dti is a little slow when cold so it might even be less than that. I think I can call it good  

Now I just need to sell the old 4 jaw..


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## mattthemuppet2

Made an ER25 collet chuck - posted in Shop Made Tooling http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/er25-collet-chuck-for-atlas-618.41636/






I'll make a face plate at some point, but that's way down the list. I want to install my iGaging scales first.


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## mattthemuppet2

A bit more organising - here's my treadmill motor and tach install, one of the best things I've done so far to this lathe. Full thread http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/atlas-618-treadmill-motor-install.38074/


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## utterstan

excellent work I  really like it.keep it up


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## mattthemuppet2

thanks, plenty more to come, just have to find the time to do it!


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## westsailpat

Really nice machining Matt . Love that treadmill motor .


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## mattthemuppet2

thanks Pat, it's the bomb! Love it to bits. I'm starting to put a similar set up on my drill press/ "mill", but go side tracked with replacing a few bushings on the lathe first..


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## utterstan

i'm slowly getting parts for  drillpress too


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## mattthemuppet2

neat! I can't wait to do mine, the available speeds and the hassle of changing speed has bugged me since I got it.


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## mattthemuppet2

added Gits oil cups to the carriage handwheel and half nut lever, in addition to the carriage ways. Makes oiling a lot easier! Just have the countershaft to do (next on the list) then all the oiling points bar the cross slide with have oil cups.


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## wa5cab

The original wiper covers all have an oil hole that fits the Eagle 66 nozzle perfectly.  I didn't realize that the 6" didn't have an oil port for the half nut lever and scroll.


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## mattthemuppet2

interesting, I didn't know that these lathes had way wipers as an option, I'm pretty sure these are a later addition. The carriage hand wheel and half nut lever both had oil holes, but the carriage wheel one at least was always getting chips in and was a fiddle to oil. For $2 each I figured it wasn't much of an effort to add the oilers, plus it gave me the excuse to take out some shims so that the carriage didn't lift


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## wa5cab

They didn't.  And neither did the 9" or the 10" up to the 10F.  I thought that you had added them.  Now that I think back, it was someone else that I did the wiper retainer sketch for.  I think that he had a 101.07301.  Whomever made the retainers for your machine (nice job, BTW) didn't drill the holes.  As you have already added the oil cups, there's probably no reason to add the holes to the retainers.


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## mattthemuppet2

ah right. some previous owner did them, either with some performed brass or a die and a press. the ones i did for the tailstock are far more amateur


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## T Bredehoft

Just a suggestion, On your tach picture, the two wires hanging on the wall, I'd give them a wrap of Electrical tape, or perhaps some shrink wrap. You never know when a wild piece of swarf will settle on there.


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## mattthemuppet2

Thanks Tom, it's an old pic - someone else gave me the same advice and I wrapped them soon after I finished the install


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## mattthemuppet2

made a little bit of progress. I've been chasing down vibration issues for a while, which lead me to replace the spindle pulley bushings. that helped a bit, but not completely, plus I knew that the countershaft bushings were badly worn.

So, bought the right ones in one of Enco's sales, pressed out the old ones, gave the countershaft bracket a lick of paint, then pressed the new ones in. They didn't line up. Turns out that, among many other things on this lathe, the countershaft bracket (bit that holds the shaft and pulley) had been broken in multiple places and welded/ brazed back together. Unfortunately, whoever did it didn't maintain the alignment between the 2 bores. Some creative work with an expansion reamer going at a slight angle managed to make them line up so I could get a 1/2in shaft to fit. It's not perfect, but there's no play. Also added GITS oilers  Each side has 2 bushings, so there's a reservoir in between for oil that's fed by the GITS oiler.

Mounted everything up temporarily and most of the rest of the vibration is gone. Now I need to turn up a hub so I can use the original multi-V flywheel on the treadmill motor and multi-V pulley on the countershaft.

It's nice to finally find some time in the shop


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## mattthemuppet2

finished the countershaft mod with the poly-V pulley





Bit of fiddle farting around, but it works really nicely and I think has reduced vibration to as low as I can get it without balancing the motor. Big benefit is that it has dropped the speed range down to ~25-140rpm in back gear and ~250-1000rpm direct drive in the smallest countershaft pulley, so now I can do more turning in direct drive without having to resort to back gear so much. Also gives me a super low speed for large stuff or threading if I need it.


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