Atlas Craftsman lathe headstock removal

[Moderatemixed]

I’ve restored 4 Atlas 10F lathes and removed the headstock on every one of them. They fit very well with virtually no perceived motion “out” of alignment. I also have never found a shim under the headstock, as they sit directly on the ways and there is virtually no way of retaining a shim; you’ll understand once you get it apart. They clean up well and go back together nicely, and will align with no effort. Cheers.

Derek


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[ARC-170]

mine wasn't so tight it needed tapping out, I seem to remember it fitted pretty snugly. I did file down some burrs and take a little bit off the bed to allow me to adjust it, but given the outcome I probably made it worse. I did deburr the spindle taper with a round file and a blued up dead center, but I think that there was still a small burr in there that threw me off.

I don't seem to remember the headstock on a Craftsman 6" being hard to get off either, though I didn't do anything special when I put it back on, just plopped it in and bolted it back up. Sometimes I think my increasing metrological knowledge/ skills are not always a good thing

There's a message chain in the Word doc I attached about someone getting the ways scraped and deburring and having issues with realignment. Seems odd that taking a burr off would misalign the headstock. Use Ctrl F and type headstock and you should find it; it's about halfway in the 500 page document, but I think I just copy and pasted the relevant passages into the Word doc.

 

[ARC-170]

I’ve restored 4 Atlas 10F lathes and removed the headstock on every one of them. They fit very well with virtually no perceived motion “out” of alignment. I also have never found a shim under the headstock, as they sit directly on the ways and there is virtually no way of retaining a shim; you’ll understand once you get it apart. They clean up well and go back together nicely, and will align with no effort. Cheers.

Derek


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Awesome, thanks. I want to hear from those who've actually done it!