Atlas/craftsman 12"x36" 101.07403 Help

Yeah, I actually messaged both of those sellers last night. Thanks for the heads up though
 
Yeah. The second photo tells more of a story. And explains why the Cross-Feed knob was painted. The bed does look pretty good, though.
 
I've been keeping an eye on this listing.

http://reading.craigslist.org/bfs/5488307795.html

The price along with the fact that you can see noticeable wear in the ways from the travel of the carriage make me extremely weary. It does come with a decent amount of tooling and accessories and it seems to be in good shape besides the wear in the ways. Is it worth the 2 hour drive to take a look? Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Matt
 
I'm not sure it's worth a 2h drive to have a look, but I wouldn't obsess too much about wear of the ways. that may be wear or it may be lack of staining from where the carriage runs, either way any lathe that old is going to have some degree of wear. I'd be much more concerned about wear in any of the screws (lead, cross, compound) and tooling. those are things that will affect your ability to use the lathe, way wear is a minor irritant in comparison.
 
Good points, Matt C. Matt M, if you do make the drive (it can take that long just to get across Houston), be sure to take a 0-1" micrometer just to answer the way wear question. But as Matt C said, some way wear is to be expected. And unless you are turning very long small diameter parts using a follow rest, it has relatively little effect on diameter accuracy. What is irritating is significant wear on the rear surface of the rear way.
 
wa5cab said:
.... What is irritating is significant wear on the rear surface of the rear way.
Click to expand...

You will need a 5 - 6" mic to measure that, relative to the front surface of the front way.

Spiral_Chips
 
Actually, although measuring the overall width of the bed ways would also be indicative of bed condition or use, most of the wear will be on the rear of the rear way. And in the nature of things, where the wear on the rear is worst, the wear on the front of the rear way will be least because the tailstock can't be where the carriage is. So measuring the width of the rear way instead of the total bed width is just as good.
 
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