# Re: History of the Atlas MOLO and Version Selection Chart



## VSAncona (Aug 4, 2014)

Thanks Robert, that was very interesting reading and I imagine you spent a lot of time on the research.

When I bought my 618, it came with a copy of MOLO that is wire-bound, but the covers are blue, not black. Do you have any idea what version that would be? I think it's from the early 1940s.


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## wa5cab (Aug 5, 2014)

VS,

I moved your post down to the regular posting area.

Yes, it took a while.  And more than a few bucks.  To gather the information, I acquired about 16 mostly different Editions.  I'm actually still looking for the First Edition.  I thought that I had finally found one (which won't be here for another week or so) until I read your post.  I have a PDF and a commercial reprint of what I thought was the first edition.  The reprint of course doesn't have original style covers so all that I can say at present is that it is earlier than the versions I ID'd in my writeup as 1937V2.  The one that I have coming is wire bound with the wire in two pieces but has a black cover.  When I found the PDF on a CD that I bought off of eBay and that had a large number of machine tool manuals, the first page of the MOLO PDF was very dark blue but you could barely make out the printing on it.  And you couldn't see any sign of a binding.  In two years of watching eBay, the only original cover colors I ever saw were black and gray.  So I put it down as an artifact of the scanner and forgot about it.  However, if you have the time, could you send me or upload photographs of the following pages:

Front cover, showing the wire.
Title page
Copyright page (back side of the title page)
2
6 & 7 (not actually numbered)
15
16 & 17
20 & 21

That should be enough.  Don't worry about the quality.

If the one I have on the way turns out to contain what I think it does, Atlas may have actually printed the first version more than one year and yours may be the earlier one.  

Also, is the wire binding on your copy one piece running from top to bottom like the one I have with no pages in Chapter 7 or is it two pieces, with a small gap between them?

Robert D.


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## VSAncona (Aug 5, 2014)

Robert,

I will take some photos when I get a chance and post them or send them to you. In the meantime, I took a closer look at the manual, as well as another version I bought off ebay a few years ago (I wanted to have a second copy for my office). The one with the blue cover definitely appears to be older. It has a wire binding that runs the entire length of the spine. It also has photos of the early Atlas lathes (looks like either a 9" lathe or the 10D) all with the vertical countershaft setup. Chapter seven is bound into the book, not loose.

The other version I have seems to be 1937V3, according to your list. It has black covers, is wire bound (two sections of wire binding), and has the Sears/Craftsman lathe threading supplement.

I have a couple of other later versions as well, but they have the cheap plastic comb binding that always seems to break. One of them came with my 1947 10F and one came with a later (early 70s) Craftsman 101.21400. Both are missing the front cover.

Vince


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## VSAncona (Aug 5, 2014)

Here is a photo of the cover. I also have photos of the pages you asked about, but I'm not sure what the best way is to send them to you.

Vince


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## wa5cab (Aug 10, 2014)

Vince,

Sorry for the delay in responding.  I spent almost all day Thursday in a dentist's chair.  All condolences cheerfully accepted.

AFAIK, that has to be the First Edition.  I'll probably put the photo in Downloads as it may be of some interest.  The other photos probably aren't of general interest so just email them at your convenience to wa5cab@cs.com .  I mainly want them to confirm that the PDF I have is the same as what you have.  The person whom I got it from had no idea of where it came from.  Or if he did, wouldn't say.

On the photos being either 10D or maybe 9", some of them may also be of the earlier 10" model that as far as I can tell was just referred to as the "10".  Although it's common to refer to all 10" earlier than the 10F as 10D, there were at least 5 more distinctly different models listed in the 1937 and earlier catalogs.  The 10A, 10B, 10C and 10E were stripped down models but the 10 had everything that the 10D did, but some of the pieces are different.  Like the compound and the bed legs.  Atlas didn't help matters any by using the same model numbers for both versions (1036, 1042, 1048 and 1054).  Or if one had Timken bearings, the model number got a "T" suffix.  Someone turned up with one of those the other day.

Robert D


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## wa5cab (Aug 14, 2014)

Vince,

I finally found time to go through and compare the photos that you sent to the PDF copy I have, and they are all the same.  So I am concluding that the manual that you have is the first version and if my guesses as to when the 2/3 versions came out, probably the First Edition or first printing.

For everyone else's information, I have a PDF of unknown original source of V1.  If you have an Atlas 10D or earlier, 9" (9" is not actually mentioned and there are no photos that I've spotted) or early Craftsman 12" with Model Number ending in 0 or 1, this is the best version for your machine.  As I've mentioned elsewhere, it was concluded that the copyright situation with the Atlas MOLO is iffy.  I might consider making an exception for the first version but as a practical matter, I can't.  The PDF file size is 91+ MB.  If anyone wants a copy of the PDF (which is printable), I'll mail a DVD (I'm out of blank CDR's) for say $10 shipped CONUS to cover postage and hassle (I don't normally sell manuals on CD or DVD, don't normally sell Atlas manuals, and won't be putting this one either in Classified or on my web site).  Foreign $7.50 plus shipping.  You can also buy a hard copy from Ozark Woodworker that is pretty well done (as part of my MOLO research, I bought one).  Price is about $48 plus shipping.

Robert D.


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## Rodney Young (Apr 2, 2016)

I have a copy of the MOLO that appears to be a version 1 but seems a bit different than what I have seen described so far. The cover is black, the wire binding runs full length. The thread cutting section is included in the book (marked pages 95 to 156), not seperate so not a newer version. The contents page on mine shows as 1.....Lathe care and construction, 2.....Theory of metal cutting, etc. but doesn't have a description beside the number of the chapter?
  It doesnt have the title page and copyright page that I can see so must have been lost.
  On the cover is an outside micrometer with Manual of Lathe operations and machinists tables over it. Also has the Atlas quality shop equipment since 1911 Atlas press company co. Kalamazoo. Michigan logo.
  At the bottom of the page in the shop notes section where they show the Atlas Metal Lathes itsays Printed by IHLING Bros. Everard Co. Kalamazoo Mich. and also WIRE-O Binding Patents Pending Michigan Book Binding Co. Detroit.


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## wa5cab (Apr 5, 2016)

Can you upload a photo of the front cover, first page inside with printing, and the page in Part 7 - Threading that has the threading chart?  My guess at the moment is that they did more than one printing of V1.  Which pushes the subsequent versions back.  Maybe Atlas wasn't as quick to update the manual to cover current production lathes as I had assumed.  There is already some evidence for that.  The QCBG for the 10" came out in late 1947 (in Catalog L47) and the 12" versions in 1951.  The first MOLO to cover them didn't appear until 1955!!  I forget the exact details but there is evidence that a Sears store sold a lathe in 1943 with V3.of the MOLO.  I had previously assumed that they were just cleaning out their inventory.


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## Rodney Young (Apr 5, 2016)

wa5cab said:


> Can you upload a photo of the front cover, first page inside with printing, and the page in Part 7 - Threading that has the threading chart?  My guess at the moment is that they did more than one printing of V1.  Which pushes the subsequent versions back.  Maybe Atlas wasn't as quick to update the manual to cover current production lathes as I had assumed.  There is already some evidence for that.  The QCBG for the 10" came out in late 1947 (in Catalog L47) and the 12" versions in 1951.  The first MOLO to cover them didn't appear until 1955!!  I forget the exact details but there is evidence that a Sears store sold a lathe in 1943 with V3.of the MOLO.  I had previously assumed that they were just cleaning out their inventory.


Hi Robert,
  Pictures from Molo
  Rodney


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## wa5cab (Apr 6, 2016)

Rodney,

I have a blue cover original, an Ozark Woodworking reprint, and a scan of a blue cover original of what I have been calling Version 1 (or 1937V1) of the MOLO.  After comparing your three photos to them, to originals of 1937V2 and 1937V3, and to several originals of 1937V4 and 1937V5 that I have, my conclusion is that yours is a later printing of 1937V1.  Your photo of the TOC appears to show a blank page to the left.  I currently have 19 originals of the MOLO.  In all of the originals that I have except for the blue cover 1937V1, the first sheet inside the front cover is blank both sides.  So I'm thinking that your copy is a later printing of 1937V1 and someone ripped the title page out.  In December of 2014, someone here sent me a PDF excerpt from a black cover wire bound 1937V1.  The PDF shows 6 pages (three sheets) of catalog info in the rear.  And at the bottom of the last page shows the IHLING Bros. etc. information.  I can't recall who sent me the PDF but either your copy is the same as his or you are he.   

Atlas Catalog No. 37 dated November 1937 shows a MOLO for sale.  The scan was gray scale and too dark so I can't say whether the covers are blue or black.  But it does not have the round Atlas logo below the micrometer.  So could be blue.  I have an earlier catalog No. 26 so probably early 1937 or late 1936 that lists the MOLO for sale.  This is the exact bound (glue and staples) version that I called 1937V0 in the MOLO History document for want of any more information.  Probably the contents are the same as in 1937V1.  The scan of the page showing it was done with better contrast and exposure settings and although I can't say for certain that it is blue, it isn't black.  

Next time that I revise the MOLO History, I'll add that apparently more than one printing (edition) was done of 1937 V1 and that the later printings had black covers and the logo.  As with Versions 8 and 9, I don't think a different cover warrants calling it a different version as it doesn't appear that any changes were made to the contents.  I didn't do that for the various binding methods of 1937V4 and 1937V5.  If an original ever turns of of the exact bound one and the contents prove to be the same as in 1937V1, it will revert to just being the earliest printing of 1937V1.


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## Rodney Young (Apr 8, 2016)

wa5cab said:


> Rodney,
> 
> I have a blue cover original, an Ozark Woodworking reprint, and a scan of a blue cover original of what I have been calling Version 1 (or 1937V1) of the MOLO.  After comparing your three photos to them, to originals of 1937V2 and 1937V3, and to several originals of 1937V4 and 1937V5 that I have, my conclusion is that yours is a later printing of 1937V1.  Your photo of the TOC appears to show a blank page to the left.  I currently have 19 originals of the MOLO.  In all of the originals that I have except for the blue cover 1937V1, the first sheet inside the front cover is blank both sides.  So I'm thinking that your copy is a later printing of 1937V1 and someone ripped the title page out.  In December of 2014, someone here sent me a PDF excerpt from a black cover wire bound 1937V1.  The PDF shows 6 pages (three sheets) of catalog info in the rear.  And at the bottom of the last page shows the IHLING Bros. etc. information.  I can't recall who sent me the PDF but either your copy is the same as his or you are he.
> 
> ...



  Thanks Robert,
  I just think its cool that the book would have come with the machine when new and has survived in very good condition except for the cover which is crumbling every time I touch it so it will be put away in an open plastic bag with the tooling so it doesn't get seperated from the machine some day in the future.
  Rodney


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