# Atlas Mfc Horizontal Milling Machine Rebuild



## BradH (Sep 22, 2016)

I would like to share my project of rebuilding an old Atlas MFC horizontal mill. Purchased 3 months ago, the mill had not been run in over 20 years. As you can see in the beginning picture, there was a fair amount of "light" rust everywhere. Initially I didn't think this would be a problem, until I tried to disassemble the mill. Apparently Atlas built this machine with VERY tight tolerances, as a tiny bit of rust literally froze the parts tight. After a few gallons of Evaporust and some gentle persuasion, everything came apart and the rebuild began. All-in-all the mill was in pretty good shape, with only 4 gears needing replacement, which were available on EBay.



Here are the pictures of the re-assembly after all the parts and components were de-greased, de-rusted, primed, painted and refurbished.




































It runs very smooth and I think it will be a great companion for my Atlas 618 lathe, which I restored 6 months ago.




Hope you enjoyed the pictures!
Thanks,


----------



## Randall Marx (Sep 22, 2016)

WOW! Those look great! Nice work and thanks for sharing. Also, welcome to the site!


----------



## pollardd (Sep 22, 2016)

Really nice job! I bet you are pleased with the way it came out.
I have wished I owned one of these for a while.  Sadly there aren't many of them around in Australia.
I live in hope 

Another chap on this forum was recently asking about "Normal"  backlash on one of these machines. (or very similar machine)
He might be interested to know how much backlash ended up with once you readjusted everything.
http://www.hobby-machinist.com/thre...n-an-atlas-mfc-mill-x-axis.50497/#post-424605

David


----------



## wrat (Sep 22, 2016)

I positively adore these kinds of resto-threads.  Good pics.  Good work.  Good job.


----------



## Ulma Doctor (Sep 22, 2016)

nice


----------



## Fairbanks (Sep 24, 2016)

Very nice!

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk


----------



## 34_40 (Sep 28, 2016)

WOW, that's SWEET!  You've done an amazing job.  What's the color?


----------



## BradH (Sep 29, 2016)

34_40 said:


> WOW, that's SWEET!  You've done an amazing job.  What's the color?


It's Rustoleum "Dark Steel". Kind of a nice metallic.


----------



## westsailpat (Sep 29, 2016)

Really nice Brad , as a 618 owner I'm very inspired by all this . Thanks for sharing .


----------



## ndnchf (Oct 31, 2016)

Wow -that's beautiful.  I'd love to add one of those to my home shop.  Besides disassembly, did you encounter any other big challenges?


----------



## BradH (Oct 31, 2016)

ndnchf said:


> Wow -that's beautiful.  I'd love to add one of those to my home shop.  Besides disassembly, did you encounter any other big challenges?


No real problems rebuilding everything. The quick change gear box had 4 gears that were chewed up, probably from someone changing travel speed with the mill running (I found replacement gears on EBay). The mill came with an index head for cutting gears and splines, but it was missing the tailstock unit that goes with it. Those tailstocks by themselves are hard to find, so I adapted one off an Atlas 618 lathe (also bought on EBay). Just had to make an adaptor plate so everything lined up. The adaptor plate was the first thing I've really made on the mill. Lots of fun!


----------



## wa5cab (Oct 31, 2016)

Nice save.  Probably half of the horizontal indexer headstocks that turn up are without the tailstock.  Don't know why that is the case.

On the gears, as I'm sure that you noticed from the part numbers, most of the ones on the mill and all of the ones on the Indexer are Atlas 618 parts.  I haven't actually bought any for the mill from Clausing but assuming that they probably have them, Clausing's price is probably competitive with Boston, without the need to machine it before you can use it.  I recently bought the 44/52 combo for my 12" from Clausing and paid $30 something and $40 something.


----------



## ndnchf (Oct 31, 2016)

Great idea adapting that tailstock. Your machine really came out nice. Thanks for sharing.


----------



## BIGPAULY (Nov 1, 2016)

Nice job Brad.  3 months is fast work! I have a couple of these mills in different states of restoration over about 3 years.  Almost done with first one, decided to convert to large dials I transplanted from an atlas 12 inch late model lathe.  I'll have to post some picts in the future.


----------



## NTHER91 (Feb 12, 2017)

I want one of these so bad a kidney just poped out and went to eBay to the guy selling the one for 3500$. Lol. Love the resto man great work.


If anyone is ever selling one please pm me seriously


----------



## 34_40 (Feb 12, 2017)

BIGPAULY said:


> Nice job Brad.  3 months is fast work! I have a couple of these mills in different states of restoration over about 3 years.  Almost done with first one, decided to convert to large dials I transplanted from an atlas 12 inch late model lathe.  I'll have to post some picts in the future.



YES! We need to see the large dial conversion!  I know my eyes will appreciate this!  Please consider doing a thread on this topic.


----------



## Billh50 (Feb 12, 2017)

hmmm. will have to check into that large dial conversion


----------



## Randall Marx (Feb 12, 2017)

Me too...Me too! I would like to see the large dial conversion, too!


----------



## wa5cab (Feb 13, 2017)

See another recent thread here for a source of generic large dials that can be whittled to fit your machines.


----------



## Silverbullet (Feb 15, 2017)

Large dials here too. I need to go over mine, plus I need the support from overarm to croslide, that should be easy to build. My pulley guards gone . Make one too. I like the paint you used looks like it will clean up easy.


----------



## BIGPAULY (Feb 28, 2017)

34_40 said:


> YES! We need to see the large dial conversion!  I know my eyes will appreciate this!  Please consider doing a thread on this topic.





Billh50 said:


> hmmm. will have to check into that large dial conversion





Randall Marx said:


> Me too...Me too! I would like to see the large dial conversion, too!


Sorry taking my time with the reply.  Been goofing off out of the shop for a while and haven't finished the x- dial graduations.  I attached a few picts to show the idea I had.  The knee Z-axis part fits with no mods right off a 12 late late saddle.  For the  y axis, I just made a backplate for the large dial and modified the handwheel nut for length.  I got fancy with the x-axis as I wanted to get the most travel possible.  I made a custom length leadscrew but the original was pretty worn anyway.  When I finish I'll do a full thread to show more of the picts along the way. 
	

		
			
		

		
	





.


----------



## Silverbullet (Mar 1, 2017)

Very nice , someday maybe mine will have them too.


----------



## Billh50 (Mar 1, 2017)

That came out nice !

Wonder if mike would like to get his back looking like that after I am all caught up with my projects.......hmmmm


----------



## 34_40 (Mar 1, 2017)

Billh50 said:


> That came out nice !
> 
> Wonder if mike would like to get his back looking like that after I am all caught up with my projects.......hmmmm



2 Things Bill,
1 - You gotta get your to do list first..   and,
2 - I get input and pay for materials.    
If you can agree to that, we can do the deal!  LOL..


----------



## Billh50 (Mar 2, 2017)

We can work with that. I enjoy doing that kind of work. It reminds me of when I used to build special machinery.


----------



## 34_40 (Mar 2, 2017)

Ok Boss.  I'll flip  you a pm / conversation and we can make a plan.


----------



## Billh50 (Mar 3, 2017)

I have used that metallic paint a couple times when rebuilding motorcycle engines. It holds up well under some heat as well. Made the cases look like new too. Will have to post some pics if I can find them.


----------



## JPMacG (Mar 5, 2017)

I really like what you did for the X axis.  I need to do the same for my dial upgrade .


----------



## ThunderDog (Mar 6, 2017)

Very nice work on the handles and the tail stock mod is very resourceful!!  
So jealous with missing an arbor, vise, and the dividing attachment.  I see on ebay those things but the prices are beyond what I even paid for the whole machine.

Any further write up/measurement on those dials would be appreciated.


----------



## A618fan2 (Mar 8, 2017)

Those are sweet!  I'd love to make mine less of an eye test - more details please.

John


----------



## JPMacG (Mar 12, 2017)

Regarding the dial on your Z axis (knee)... for the stationary part of the dial:  How did you accommodate the tapered shape that it mounts to?  I turned a mating taper on mine, but when I tighten the set screw that holds my stationary part in place, the part slides down the taper and pushes against the rotating dial.


----------

