Atlas/craftsman Capacity?

Olddaddy said:
I saw the ad for the one in Tampa, but I think I am going to go back to my original plan for a smaller 6" Atlas. It fits the room I have, budget etc. I think it will do what I need to do and if not I can always buy bigger later. To start out and learn I think a 618 will do me fine.
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Well.....I bought an Atlas 618 and had a great time learning that it was in fact too small to work 2"DOM tube. I opened up the id on some bronze bushings, turned down the od, and did some work on the id of a steel spacer, but the little 618 struggled to part off a whole spacer from the 2" tube. I ended up selling it and bought a Craftsman/Atlas 12 X36 last night. I am going to unload it from my van tomorrow and sort though all the bits and pieces it came with.....then the questions start in earnest.

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someone mentioned above about using an 8" chuck on the atlas craf lathe, don't, I have an 8" Bison chuck and its way to heavy at 45lbs to hang off those small bearings. unless its a 4 jaw because they are usually hollowed out and way ALOT less then a standard 2 piece jaw 3 jaw. congrats on you new machine. I have successfully turned 8inch diameter stock on my 12inch lathe, using 6" 4 jaw chuck. if it will fit in a chuck, and clear the carriage, it will do it. it will also take .100 (.050 per side) cuts at .0052 ipr all day long with carbide. (I don't use HSS hardly) I would mic the ways to see how much wear you have.
 
image.jpg image.jpg I got it out of my van and onto the bench today, but that's as far as I got. I need to level and fasten it down. I started sorting out the bits that came with it also. I have no idea what a lot of the pieces are, but hope to find out. I appreciate all the help from members so far. Plan to start working on things in the evenings this week.
 
I agree. The heaviest chuck that you would want to put on an Atlas 12" is a 2-piece jaw 6" or a fixed jaw 8".
 
I just realized my phone auto spell checked weigh in my earlier post, sorry about that haha.
Good lookin machine, you got the good steady rest, I think that one is considered the commercial version, I would get the bearing rollers for it.
 
Actually, the 2-piece steady rest for the 10" first appeared in the 1943 model year catalog. However, for the 12", the 2-piece doesn't appear in the catalogs until the Spring of 1958, which debuted the redesigned 12" later called the "Commercial". So I guess that that description would be appropriate for the 12" steady rest. The 101.07403 was last shown in the 1957 catalogs. So the steady rest is probably newer than the lathe. But in any case, the 2-piece steady rest is definitely the preferred version. With it, you can remove the workpiece if you need to without disturbing the setup.
 
I've successfully turned several pieces of 2.5" ID pipe on my 5 " lathe by making a soft steel mandrill with a 15 mm threaded hole going deep into it and putting a 15 mm high tensile bar in it then turning up a threaded washer with a conical end so it went into the pipe easily. This washer was made to to fit over the bar inside the tube so it is a hand tight fit in the tube..... to face the tube and to part off my spacers .
I counter bored the free bar end so it would take my live centre and used a nylock nut to lock the cone to the bar at a deeper position so it didn't interfere with things when parting off . To stop the cone going in too deep I added a load of 15 mm ID steel washers as spacers/stops between the mandrill face and the face of the cone .
I was then able to face the tube and part off the ten half inch spacers without any problem whilst the live center was in the tail stock .
 
Any chance you could post some pics? I had another fellow tell me he uses a live center when parting.
 
Give me several days OD & I'll sort it out .
sorry for the delay in answering I've just spent yet another 48 hrs flat on my back in a severe muscle spasm , barely able to move my fingers arms legs or toes etc. due to an old spinal injury. I cannot use anti -inflammatory drugs or much more pain killer as I'm on Warfarin & a decent dose morphine , I just have to let things slowly resolve themselves over a week or more .

I may have re used the cone and will have to turn up another .. The pipe might be a slightly different internal dia as well but the principle is the same .

Ysing the live center when parting does have to have several safety considerations made as to how to do it safely , you can't normally just slap in a live center and turn things off .
 
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