Atlas Frankenstein Lathe

[Jlwright3]

S o I have an atlas lathe that I am looking to get some more information about.

From my own research, it appears that a previous owner has taken a 10" headstock and mounted it to a bed from an Atlas 12" along with the 12" carriage and tailstock. It looks like they machined and adapter/raiser plate in order to bring the center-line of the spindle bearing inline with the center of the tailstock.

The serial number found on the bed of the lathe shows model number 3986, serial number 104562.

Any insight into the date and size of the headstock would be appreciated.

As of right now, the lathe appears to function without issue. My guess is it took a combination of 10" and 12" parts to get the gear train functional. I have limited pictures at the moment, but I can take more if necessary.






The carriage, cabinet and tail stock appear to be original 12" rather than modified from a 10. For example the compound slide is definitely from a 12".

The Atlas 3986 (and equivalent Craftsman model) are nominally 12x24 inch lathes with nominally 1/2" ways.. I have an Atlas 3996 which is a 12X36 and is the same except for length of cabinet, bed/ways. No where in the literature that I know of is the exact height above the ways of the headstock center and/or the tailstock center given. You will need to very carefully measure the height of the two centers and adjust one or the other t with permanently installed shims.

You will probably y need to drill two additional mounting holes in the salvaged parts depending upon the vintage ( serial number) of the 3986 as late production of the 12 " lathes had two additional mounting bolts that the earlier ones did not have. Nowhere did I find the date of this change

Other than that. I think that the lathe should be ready to use. WA5CAB

 

[mickri]

It is my understanding that the 10" and 12" atlas/craftsman lathes used the same bed. Robert (our atlas/craftsman expert) should chime in here for anything that you should be on the look out for. If the tailstock alignment checks out you should be good to go.




Mickri,

The 10" and the early 3/8" bed 12" did use the same 3/8" bed castings but the hole patterns were somewhat different. The 1/2" bed later 12" was significantly different. Both casting and hole pattern.

WA5CAB

 

[Jlwright3]

I have yet to check it out, I'm still in the process of thoroughly cleaning it and greasing/ oiling everything up. If there was a raiser made to adapt the 10" headstock to a 12" tailstock, I'm baffled at how they would have gotten the forward and reverse lead screws gears to line up with the quick change box. From some short tests, everything there works very well.

Im thinking they might have just used the gear assembly from a 12" lathe? No clue.

Very hopeful that everything lines up well.

 

[aaronrumple]

Bed says late model 12". The feet are wrong for a 12".
The threading lever isn't a typical 12" Tailstock is a 12"
It looks like there is a riser block under the headstock.
Most of it looks like a 12"
I agree - it has been pieced together. But looks well done.

 

[aaronrumple]

Was this added on to make the fwd/rev work?

 

[Jlwright3]

It looks like it was added to it and it works good. The side cover was also homemade. I was cleaning it up and some paint was chipped on the inside and you can see it was brazed together.

As soon as I feel comfortable with running it (cleaned and lubricate properly) I'll adjust everything and see how she cuts. Hopefully the person that pieced it altogether knew what they were doing.

 

[wa5cab]

The 10" Atlas and the early 12" Craftsman did in fact use the same bed casting. But much of the finish machining was different. The late 12" Atlas and Craftsman are the same machines except for badges that say either Atlas or Craftsman. The early 10" and 12" machines had 3/8" ways and the late 12" had 1/2" ways. There was no late 10". According to the nameplate, the bed is from an Atlas 3986, which is a bench model, not cabinet. So step 1 is to mic the ways to confirm that the way thickness is 1/2" nominal. FWIW, from 10F and 101.07402 on, all machines used the same "A" suffix change gears. And both legs are consistent with 3986.

 

[Jlwright3]

The ways are 1/2".

 

[wa5cab]

OK. Thanks. Then the lathe was originally a 3986 12x36 bench model. It is sitting on a cabinet that has had the external cover on the left end removed or was fabricated from scratch. It is hard to say from the photos but I think that the counter shaft came from the 10". I think that the one from the 3986 would probably have fouled the 10" back gears which are mounted to the rear of the spindle instead of underneath it as on the original 3986. The QCGB is probably from the 3986.

What is the purpose of the black ball between the speed chart and the drum switch?

The carriage, cross slide, compound and tailstock are all presumably from the 3986. Which was probably originally made around 1976.

 

[kcoffield]

I converted an older 12" Craftsman from rear to underneath countershaft installed on a 3996 (3986 is a bench model) style cabinet. It took considerable effort so it's sort of strange to see a 3986 style lathe converted the other way. Unless the original headstock was lost, I would have thought it far easier to just fix whatever the problem was with the original headstock rather than the effort to swap the 10" HS onto the lathe. With the degree of parts interchange, the 10" could likely have been the repair donor. Is the drive hardware inside the cabinet still present. Any chance the take off parts are available?

Best,
Kelly