# 4 Way



## westsailpat (Jun 25, 2016)

I think this is off the HF 7 inch lathe , I'm thinking of putting it on my 6 inch Chraftsman . So my question has anyone put one on their sixer ?
http://www.wttool.com/index/page/pr...+Mini+Lathes?gclid=CKC5jenzqM0CFcVbfgodAB8Lkg


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## Charles Spencer (Jun 25, 2016)

I once had an old four way tool post that came off of a 10" Atlas lathe.  It was missing the rockers and needed some other work.  So I made some rockers, fixed it up and went to put it on my South Bend 9" lathe.

It was 1/2" too high.

Just something to bear in mind.


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## francist (Jun 25, 2016)

I'm not sure if it's exactly the same, but I have one that looks very close. Also the three-way which I made from scratch. I use both on my 618 with 5/16" HSS tools.
As sold, the square one was a bit dodgy and really needed cleaning up to work nicely. All the slots were goofy crooked, and the screws sucked. But after a bit of TLC it works great. It came with my lathe from the previous owner, so I'm not sure where it was purchased. I have to use a shim to get the height right, but on the 3-way I made the base thickness is tailored to not need one.
I have an A2Z quick change as well as a regular lantern, but I actually use these two the most, and they are they most rigid of the lot as well.

-frank

Looking at that photo again, I'm wondering if the block will not be too big? My 4-way is close to 1-1/2" square on the footprint. Kind of hard to tell, and they don't give overall dimensions in the description.


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## westsailpat (Jun 25, 2016)

Charles , yes the height is the thing . I was over at HF today and I was looking at their 7 " lathe but there was no post on it . But the top surface of the compound in ref to CL of the chuck looked close . 
Nice work Frank and thanks for the info .


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## wa5cab (Jun 26, 2016)

Pat.

The critical dimension is height.  When you were over at HF, did you run the compound up next to the spindle nose and measure the vertical distance from the flat on top of the compound where toolposts mount to the C/L of the spindle?  If not, you need to go back and do that.  And then compare the distance to the same figure from the 618.  If they are the same (probably unlikely), then the HF 7" turret will work on the 618.  If the HF dimension is greater than the Atlas one, the turret won't work because it will be too high.  If the HF dimension is the smaller one, then their turret will work on the Atlas with a spacer.block.


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## jpfabricator (Jun 26, 2016)

I have a 4 way that came off a 9x20 I will give you for free. Pm me an adress.
If it works great, if not pass it on.

Sent from somwhere in east Texas by Jake!


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## Billh50 (Jun 26, 2016)

I have a 4 way from my 7x14 that I will give away for free to anyone that needs it.


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## westsailpat (Jun 26, 2016)

WOW , thanks for the responses guys ! Bill could you please give me the measurement from the bottom of the turret to the bottom of where the tool sits . Thanks .


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## Billh50 (Jun 26, 2016)

westsailpat,
I just went to look for it and evidently it got moved and I am not sure where it is. The shop is in a mess right now as I started to reorganize and never finished. Will find it though.


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## jpfabricator (Jun 26, 2016)

Here's the one off the 9x20
View attachment 131443


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## Billh50 (Jun 27, 2016)

The dreaded RED X again


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## Wierd Harold (Jun 27, 2016)

Billh50 said:


> The dreaded RED X again


I have found that if I hit reply to a post with "red x's" I can see the pictures in the quote. Odd.

HWF


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## Billh50 (Jun 27, 2016)

HWF

That is what many have said. but some of us feel it is an inconvenience that can be avoided if the people on tapatalk would post the photos through the paper clip instead of the camera icon.


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## dlane (Jun 27, 2016)

jpfabricator said:


> Here's the one off the 9x20
> View attachment 131443


.  Hit  Reply
Ok that brought up the pics, now what
Edit , pics go away and the dreaded red X after hitting post reply


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## jpfabricator (Jun 27, 2016)

The problem with the paperclip is that the poster can't see the pictures to post. All of them are blank squares.
I will try something in a while at lunch on the picture posting thread.

Sent from somwhere in east Texas by Jake!


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## jpfabricator (Jun 27, 2016)

How's this


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## jpfabricator (Jun 27, 2016)

What Nels fixed with the Tapa talk app is that Tapa talkers don't see red x's. I had to download the photos on the web site


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## Billh50 (Jun 27, 2016)

Well it doesn't help those of us not using tapatalk


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## jpfabricator (Jun 27, 2016)

Did the pictures I downloaded on the website show?

Sent from somwhere in east Texas by Jake!


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## wa5cab (Jun 27, 2016)

Jake,

Your photos in your post #16 did show up fine.


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## westsailpat (Jun 27, 2016)

Jake , thanks so much for the pictures . I think I'm seeing 3/8 as the base thickness , as they said in Young Dr. Frankenstein " it could work ! " . Now if you could " walk this way " and tell me what the over all square dim. is I would be most " oh abby something " appreciative . Thanks !


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## jpfabricator (Jun 27, 2016)

2.25" across.


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## Billh50 (Jun 28, 2016)

Jake, your pics showed up fine in both #16 and #22.
So what are you doing different than the one's with the red x ?


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## jpfabricator (Jun 28, 2016)

I'm going on the web and using the Xenfro site. It's no problem when I'm on wi-fi, but it really burns the juice when I'm not.
I personally will use Xenfro when I can, as I hate not being able to see pictures  also.


Sent from somwhere in east Texas by Jake!


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## Billh50 (Jun 28, 2016)

Well I hope Nels gets it fixed somehow.


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## westsailpat (Jun 28, 2016)

Jake buddy , thanks for the offer . The tool stack would have been fine but the 2.25 is way to big for the 6er . It needs to be more like 1.5 . Thanks again .


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## jpfabricator (Jun 28, 2016)

No problem. If you change your mind, shoot me a pm.

Sent from somwhere in east Texas by Jake!


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## Round in circles (Jun 29, 2016)

westsailpat said:


> I think this is off the HF 7 inch lathe , I'm thinking of putting it on my 6 inch Chraftsman . So my question has anyone put one on their sixer ?
> http://www.wttool.com/index/page/pr...+Mini+Lathes?gclid=CKC5jenzqM0CFcVbfgodAB8Lkg




Yes I put a Myford  total size approx 2.25  x 2 .25 x 1.75 inches high four way on my Sphere /Atlas as . I emailed the seller to see if they knew the centre height to the bed measurement and the top of the cross slide measurement .  It came to just below being three hacksaw blade thicknesses below dead centre when adding in a  5/16 tool steel bank  , so I purchased it . Had to put it in the four jaw chuck and use a Morse taper drill to open up the centre blot hole as it was tiny compared to the width of my cross slide slot .

It was about as much good as a chocolate teapot. the area of the base seemed insufficient to stop the tool pushing it round when taking any cut of more then 6 thou. On investigation I discovered that some hero had use the wrong thing to tighten the original lamp post tool holder . they, used a high tensile hex headed bolt and as a result had pulled up a mole hole on the mounting face of the cross slide .

Once I'd filed & scraped it flat , checked for true with engineers blue , the tool post still tended to slide round especially if I was trying to turn a hole or  an internal thread where the leverage of the tool is amplified due to the length of the tool .

I made up a " T " nut that fitted the whole length & width of the mounting slot , used a high tensile centre stud & nut to try and get things really tight but  it still turned ... resulting in me having conical holes .
In the end I gave up the idea of fitting the Myford tool post and went for a big as possible QCTP . My bank account said " OUCH!" .

Once set up on the new anchor plate etc  that came withe new QCTP it made a tremendous difference .. I suspect that the greater surface area of the new QCTP's base allowed a much better friction grip on the cross slide . As I have an early cross slide I also had to extend the flat mounting surface about an inch towards the hand wheel end so if needs be I can rotate the QCTP without it fouling the slide body , by grinding ,  filing & scraping the new extended flat surface. It  took about 25 min including engineers blue grade scraping , using a 12 " hacksaw blade with the teeth ground off to give a nice sharp square scraping edge .

Now the only slight problem I had was that most of the set screws in the new QCTP were made of liquorice , several rounded out as I tightened them on the cutting tools. So I changed all of them  out for  T grade set screws which is the highest grade of high tensile steel set screw I can get here in Great Britain  The boring bar tool holder also got all new high tensile screws all round for I sheared one of the clamping bolts .

  TIP ..If you go for a QCTP get as many extra tool holders at the same time  .... that you can reasonably afford , an extra six or more is not unreasonable and I'll guarantee that it won't be long before you're hankering for even more .


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## westsailpat (Jun 29, 2016)

Quite a story there David , I have never heard of a "Sphere" / Atlas . What size is it ?  The compound on  the Atlas / Craftsman 618  is very small , the flat area that the tool holder sits on is only about 1. 75 square and to make things a little more interesting that area is below the upper most part of the compound . All you have to do is shim it up about .12 to overcome that . I have been looking at this tool holder , but there are some things I don't care for , like the "T" nut could be a little more robust and the fact that the 1.75 dim might be to big . These things could be modified so I'm not ruling it out . 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/191295054914?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT


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## Round in circles (Jul 2, 2016)

My Sphere ...It appears to be mainly an Atlas 10 inch with several British made parts that were added ( perhaps ) after they were shipped to the UK for part of the lease lend help we got from the USA in world war 2 .  I think it was made about 1943 it has several differences to eh Atlas  in that there is no switch hole in the head stock housing .
It has " SPHERE Made in Great Britain " cast in the feet,  Timkin taper roller bearings in the head stock spindle and surprise surprise brass screw down gits grease caps to lube the shaft bearings , The gear box cover is Bakelite so are all the drive belt pulley's . The cover on the back of the cross slide is also black Bakelite . The tail stock is slightly different as well , so are the hand wheels , all of mine use taper pins to fix them on the shafts . The screw threading dial is also quite different in that it has 16 ( IIRC) markings on it ( for multi start threading ?) . The compound slide had a rounded top surface and only had a small flat ground  on it to mount a lantern type tool post  ( why I had to make the flat bigger ) It also has the original General Electrics 1/3 Hp 240 volt motor and the original MOLO issued with the machine .   The bed numbering bears no relationship to an Atlas number set .

The machine was imported by The Acorn tool Company ( 1936 ) Ltd
610 , 612 , 614 High Road Chiswick London W4 ....
Should you have any informations regarding this place or anything about shipments  of the Atlas / sphere lathes during the second world war  I'm not the only one on here who'd be interested to read what you have .
Wscab has pretty much all of the info available as do " lathes .co.uk " .

I'm the third owner of it from new , it was a model used in the armaments production industry in WW2 , this one  would have been used to make the precision screw threads for the torpedoes timing gears had it ever been taken out of it's packing case . It was purchased brand new still in it's grease & packing crate in a war stock emergency sale auction in Feb 1946 for £ 5 as the government was desperate to get hold of cash to pay for things .

If you find my name in the introductions threads I have /had a few pictures of it .
 In this picture the tool clamp is absolutely rubbish it came off a Myford and was only meant to grip a 1/4 " cutting tool not the 1/2 & 3/4 one s I got with the lathe 
* 

 *


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## westsailpat (Jul 5, 2016)

Hi David , great story thanks for all that W II info I love that stuff . Multiple start thds. for torpedos ! My head is spinning ! It is interesting that your machine has Timken bearings being 36' and all . Bakelite , that brings back some memories and tapered pins that is top shelf . Anyhow I think you have a very nice machine despite that Myford tool holder . I'm using the lantern right now (rocker but no tool holder just the bit) and it is fairly rigid only a hint of sponge haha . Great post  David , thanks ! P.


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