10F with TH54 bed....getting it running again.

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DJ Bill

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10F with TH54 bed....getting it running again. Need stuff..where and what?

Hi guys, I finally put my old Atlas lathe back together and actuall made the first chips in almost a decade with it. I need to go get some tooling for it, and right now my project is bead roller dies. About 3 inches in diameter, with varying profiles from a square groove to a rounded protrusion, and a inside stepped bore.

Is there any advantage to any particular tooling setup? Is there a hot deal out there on a QC toolpost with carbide insert cutter bits?(I think that is the best way to get a rigid toolpost that won't move around like the lantern one seems to want to do) Do I need a set of boring bars or?? to make the step bore inside my die? (3/4 and one inch bores with a square shoulder between the two.The part is about two inches long)

With the lathe I got two steady rests but each is a different style and missing the bed holddown part, and each one is missing one of the follower inserts. I also have a couple of centers, the one that spins has play in it.....and a lathe dog, and a tailstock drill chuck. It was equipped with the lantern style tool post and I have a few regular steel cutting bits with holders but they don't stay sharp very long at all. I have the lathe going as slow as it will without using the backgear, maybe i need to use it and slow down more..

I'll need help figuring how to make a radius externally on a beading die. I guess I could run the x and y directions with the crossfeed and compound dials but how to make it a smooth curve unless I use a file to shape it, I dunno. Any ideas??

$$$ is tight right now, work is really slow, but I need to get cracking on these parts while I have time.


I have a bunch of pictures on my photobucket albums, don't know if you guys allow image links or not but my user name over there is fbillsjeeps. I'd be glad to post some pics but don't want to step on any toes. Can I post an IMG code link? Or is it a must to download to this site?
 
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Bill,

I'll get you an answer to your embedded URL question in a bit. If we have a rule, I haven't seen it. So I just asked.

QC tool posts and 4-way turrets are probably roughly equivalent in terms of rigity. I bought my Atlas 3996 new in I think January or February 1982. I know it was after production ceased so it couldn't have been 1981. Anyway, I took delivery with the full set of lantern tool post and holders. Within a week, I went back and bought a 4-way turret and some carbide cutters. I quickly discovered that you can't always load four tools into a 4-way. Getting cutters on center can only be done with a shim or individual shims. And odds are that the next cutter you need won't be in the turret. So the next month I bought a 100 Series Yuasa quick change set (it was just being introduced to the US market I think and was a bit cheaper than Aloris). I've never regretted it. A month or two ago, one of the known import vendors had some package deals on the same size QC. I think it was LMS (Little Machine Shop) but if I'm wrong, someone please correct. There are two types of QC posts, piston and wedge. The wedge is usually more expensive. My Yuasa is piston and I've never had any issues with it. Generally, holders from different makers will interchange. Phase III (or is it Phase II?) is another import with generally good reports. I have some holders made by them as Yuasa isn't available today other than used. The one thing I would personally avoid, though, is a QC tool post in aluminum instead of steel. I think several forum members have them but I would be afraid of wear over the long haul. The price difference isn't in my opinion great enough to offset that.

Yes, it sounds as though you will need a boring bar. Rough in the stepped hole with two drill bits. Then finish with the boring bar.

The dead center today is more commonly used in the headstock for turning between centers. If the live center has play in it, you probably need to either rebuild or replace it. But I wouldn't be without a good live center. I presume you have photos of the steady rests in your photobuckets album. When I get a chance to look at them, I may have comments. Depending upon make and model number of the steady rests, you may be able to buy replacement insert sets on eBay. I recently bought roller type inserts for my steady rest and follow rest.

If I have the correct mental picture of what you need in a beading die, I think you need to make a form or forming or shape tool in carbide. Find a cutter and die grinding place in your area and have them make you one. You would use it straight in, like a parting tool.

Robert D.
 
Re: 10F with TH54 bed....getting it running again. Need stuff..where and what?

A link to photobuckets is fine.

And tools4cheap might have been the vendor I was thinking of but couldn't remember. Check both.

Robert D.

DJ Bill said:
I have a bunch of pictures on my photobucket albums, don't know if you guys allow image links or not but my user name over there is fbillsjeeps. I'd be glad to post some pics but don't want to step on any toes. Can I post an IMG code link? Or is it a must to download to this site?
Click to expand...
 
a>

Here's a link to a picture from the album. Later today I will lay out the tooling I have including the steady rests and take some more pictures. I appreciate the link to the steady rest clamp part...I think I need to put together an order..

I found a QCTP kit in his ebay auctions, I will need the cutters to put in it as well, I see it does have the knurling tool included.

I'm more interested in the QC tool post as a more solid way to mount the tooling than the lantern style TP I have right now. Just in the little bit of work I have done I notice it flexing. Not at all like the lathes we ran in college. The quick change feature is probably one I won't fully appreciate for quite a while.

I also discovered I am missing the tailstock's locking lever after reading the online version of the Atlas book last night. Wow, that book is chock full of stuff I need to absorb. I don't know if it is broken off in the tailstock, all I have is the hole it goes in to, and I haven't looked closely to see just what is up yet. Hopefully I can put a standard bolt in there and use a wrench? Or not...??


I will also put up a few pictures of the bead roller die designs...A custom cutter would be good but I am only making ONE of each design, and don't know what will work until I actually make one.

THANK YOU for the great replies!!
EDIT: another link to the album itself, maybe...

http://s1296.beta.photobucket.com/user/FBilljeeps/library/Altas 10F lathe cleanup
 
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Hi Bill, go for the QCTP, I got very fed up with the lantern and the four way very quickly just like Robert, got an import piston type and it works fine, love it!

As to the tailstock ram locking lever, if the bolt is broken off inside, and you remove the ram you should be able to drive the broken bolt and wedges down into the space below. clean up and use a nut and bolt till you can make a new lever.

Have fun..

Bernard
 
Here's all the stuff I had. I thought I had two different steady rests but I have one that clamps to the ways and one that clamps to the compound I think as it has a dovetail on its base. The third one I don't think is for my lathe, as it doesn't fit either..

The album has closeups..

Found out I have quite a bit of the old style tooling, more than I remembered...but it is all state of the art stuff, for WWII times.. One of the boring bars has 1943 stamped in it. Cool! It is as old as the jeeps I work on!.

Going to try an image code...if it doesn't work or it is not wanted, no prob.

DSCN1648_zps41973619.jpg

And here is the shaft of my bead roller along with a bead roller blank. I need to make dies twice as wide as the blank, with the step in them. One will have a u shaped groove, the other will actually be the profile of the bead I am attempting to make. It is an assymetrical bead, with rounded edges.
DSCN1666_zps69f40c51.jpg
Shaft is 1 inch, necked down to 3/4 inch, dies are 3 inch diameter. Need to be two inches wide instead of one inch, with the bead and step centered on them.
 
Bill,

As you've apparently figured out, the smaller steady rest does not fit an Atlas. It might even be for a milling maching, as I've never seen a lathe with the ways so close together.

The larger steady rest is the later pattern, with hinged top. I didn't actually know that Clausing ever made one for a 10". The third item that fits a dovetail is a follow (sometimes follower) rest. It mounts on the back of the carriage dovetail (with cover removed) and is used to support long thin workpieces to keep them from bowing or deflecting away from the cutter.

The three chuck jaws don't appear to fit the 4-jaw (there are only three and 4-jaw chucks don't come with two sets of jaws anyway). There must once have been a 3-jaw chuck with the set.

Look at the tailstock drawing in the 10F illustrated parts manual in Downloads. The tailstock ram lock consists of four parts - an L-handled nut, an upper hollow lock sleeve/cylinder that has a bevel on its lower end , a lower hollow lock sleeve with a bevel on its upper end and a square recess on the lower end, and a square head bolt that fits through both cylinders with its head in the square recess. The bolt sticks out of the upper cylinder and the nut screws onto it. If you remove the nut, the bolt can drop down far enough to lose it. On my headstock, the hole that the cylinders drop into is a blind hole. I've never had an earlier tailstock but someone once told me that they have a through hole and the bolt can drop through. In any case, if you have all of the parts except the special nut, you can as you or someone said use a plain nut and wrench until you find one of the correct parts.

Robert D.
 
Yes, there is a 3 jaw mounted on the lathe, and I think that is the second set of jaws for it. I guess I will buy just one of those clamps that they had on sale...Maybe I can steal an insert from that small steady rest and make it work somehow.

This afternoon I tried turning and facing a 2 inch cylinder abut 6 inches long in the Atlas, and decided I really need to learn how to sharpen my tooling.... I have a cheapo bench grinder with a really coarse wheel on it, and it is not doing too well as a tool grinder.

I wonder if maybe could use my 6 x 48 belt sander for better results? I do have flap wheels and 4 inch angle grinders all over the place too, not how we were taught for sure but hey, any port in a storm. :thinking:

Going to look at some tooling tonight online.. wish me luck.
 
OK. I hadn't seen a photo of the lathe. The three chuck jaws are probably the large diameter set for it, commonly and incorrectly called the Outside or OD set.

Yes, you can sharpen HSS cutters with a belt sander.

Robert D.
 
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