Another 618

B

BrianT

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Good Morning All,

I picked up another 618 yesterday. Already have one but it seemed like a very good deal and came with a lot of other things. I believe the "new to me" 618 is not as old as the one I already have (both are Timken Bearing) and is in very good condition based on my initial inspection.

Couple questions...On the 618 I just picked up I found the doors/covers for the gears and spindle pulley are cast iron? The one I have originally are not and likely Zamak. Is the cast iron doors/covers unique?

Also is there any use for the armature setup other than its intended purpose?

Thanks...Brian
 
Greetings Brian, i too have one those great lathes. According too Lathes UK. they came with both Aluminum and cast iron covers.
The Jacobs #100 chuck is very handy for a live center.
I used the dove-tail locking bolt for the taper attachment i made.
 
Rooster,
I looked/read the Lathes UK info about 618s, I must of missed that.

Interesting idea/use for the Jacobs 100 chuck
Thanks
 
Other than a possible use for either of the two Jacobs chucks, in general the only thing that the armature maintenance set is useful for is working on armatures. I guess that if you needed to slit a a piece of tubing, it might be useful for that. But that isn't an operation that most people ever need to do.

FYI, all 618's have Timken bearings. You will sometimes see people confuse the 101.07301 with the 618 but it shouldn't be if they had only done their homework. And I don't think that I ever heard anyone mention before that their 618 had cast aluminum belt and gear covers. They may have been made for some specific market. I'll have to try to remember to ask Tom about that next time that I need to call him.
 
The original 618 I have definitely has covers that are cast aluminum or some lighter cast metal. The "new to me" 618 are cast iron and the difference in weight were very noticeable. The cast iron seem much nicer and substantial. The newer machine seems to have come out of professional environment, the chuck has engraved "asset" numbers as does the extra sets of jaws. Its painted light green and nicely done, I could even believe its original from manufacturer. I received a folder of paper work along w/ the lathe, all from atlas. I will look through it to see if there is anything of interest when I get the time.
 
Greetings Brian, my 618 has cast aluminum guards. If you find any date info in the paper work please let me know, as i am curious about the age of mine.
 
BrianT and Rooster,

Unfortunately, we don't have any annual production figures on any of the Atlas built lathes. The official story at Clausing is that all of that information got lost during one or more of Atlas-Clausing's or Clausing-Atlas's many moves over the past half a century. And for all I know, that could be what happened. And also unfortunately, Atlas or Timken never engraved inspection dates of the 6" spindle bearings. But we do know when 618 and 101.21400 production started and ended within about a year. We have quite a few serial numbers and some rough dates. So if you two would send me the serial numbers and any other information you want to add on your three machines, we can begin figuring out when if not why some machines have cast iron guards and some have either aluminum or maybe Zamak ones. And which alloy they are.

BrianT, if the chuck that you have that has the extra set of jaws is a 3-jaw, all solid jaw 3-jaw chucks originally came with six jaws. Three are for gripping the OD of parts whose diameter is about half the chuck diameter and smaller. And three are for gripping larger diameter parts out to about the diameter of the chuck.
 
Over the weekend when I have time I will get the sn#s off the machines and look through the paperwork I have to see if there is any thing of interest to share.
 
Greetings wa5cab, my lathe has serial #013622. It also has 12 I stamped on tail-stock end o the bed.
 
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