Atlas lathe questions

Buy one of these in the link already ready to mount on the spindle to be faced to fit the chuck of your choosing, most likely a "plain back" chuck. Or if you can find one in your price range something like a Buck Adjust-Tru 3 jaw with an integrated 1.5"x8tpi mount so no intermediate back plate is needed. This type of chuck is an adjustable 3 jaw scroll chuck that can be dialed in tight.....Basically its like having a 3 jaw scroll chuck mounted into a 4 jaw independent chuck giving you the best of both worlds.
 
wa5cab said:
Aaron,

This IS the Atlas Forum.

emorain,

The face plate that you have is NOT for attaching a plain-back chuck to. Backing plates do not have radial slots. The design of the one visible in your photograph is primarily for driving lathe dogs which are used to drive mostly long rods up to about1" or 1.5" diameter that are mounted between centers. The one that you have can also be used for mounting some odd shaped parts that will not fit into any standard chuck. The other commonly found face plate has 6 radial slots and none of them usually include one slot cut all of the way to the OD.

On chucks, you probably want no larger than about 5" diameter for a 3-jaw chuck on a 10" swing lathe. And certainly no more than 6". You are probably better off buying a chuck that is made to fit your spindle already. Which is 1-1/2"-8 threads. The problems with buying a plain back chuck and buying a separate backing plate and having to then fit the backing plate to the chuck are (1) time and effort and the chance of ending up with a chuck that won't run true, and (2) the resultant will be a chuck that hangs out farther from the headstock than it has to, which wastes space, and is inherently less accurate because it will magnify any angular runout. A chuck that is already made to fit your spindle will cost more than a plain-back but it arrives ready to go to work. Buying a plain-back chuck and then having to buy and machine a backing plate is false economy.

I don't know that there is any book with a hard definition of "minilathe". But whenever I see the term, I automatically assume that it is smaller than 6".

I agree with others who have said that the correct size of QCTP for a 10" swing lathe is an AXA. 0XA is too small, and BXA is too large.
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This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much. I want to build this up correctly regardless of cost. If that takes me saving a bit longer to get an integrated chuck that is what I will do. I did not realize that a chuck could be threaded to spin on the spindle itself. That changes things.
 
HAHA, thanks yeah I was looking for it. I ended up on shars site and found those. Seem a decent price. Is Shars a decent brand for durability etc? The link I posted was for a chuck/back plate combo. If given the option, is there a better choice between integrated threaded chuck, or backplate chuck combo? I get you lose work area but is there any other downsides?
 
Honestly unless you plan on spending the Really BIG $$$$ on a legitimate quality Brand buying new or come across one of the Adjust-Tru type chucks with the intergrated spindle threading, my opinion is a 2 piece setup would be better because there is the fact that you "customize" the part that mounts directly to the lathe giving you better runout results if that makes sense.

Having a 2 piece setup does not necessarily mean you are gonna loose a huge portion of your bed length capacity. There are ways to decrease the added "length" of the chuck and back plate if its that much of an issue plus you already have a face plate that can be modified with some threaded holes to clamp work directly to the plate or turn between centers, both of which negate the need for a chuck.
 
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Unfortunately, there may not be anyone still making chucks with two-piece bodies (no separate backing plate). So aside from finding one that is NOSB (New-Old Stock in the original Box), your choices may be between a used USA one and a new Chinese or Polish one. With the USA one coming ready to use but no way other than grinding to correct runout if there is any.

Also, the other thing that you have to watch out for if buying a used 3-jaw chuck (made anywhere) that has solid or one-piece jaws is that unlike on 4-jaw independent chucks, you cannot turn the jaws around to handle larger diameter work pieces. Solid jaw chucks come new with two sets of jaws. And more often than not, the outer jaw set has been lost. So before buying one, make sure that it comes with both sets of jaws.

I've had my 12x36 for many years and have an original Atlas 3-jaw and a Buck style with two-piece jaws that was actually made by Pratt-Bernerd. Starting off, most of us either can't afford or don't want to spend that much all at once. But don't buy cheap, telling yourself that you'll buy the "good' one later and sell off the cheap one. More often than not, you get stuck with the cheap one.
 
emorain said:
HAHA, thanks yeah I was looking for it. I ended up on shars site and found those. Seem a decent price. Is Shars a decent brand for durability etc?
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Shars is mostly import stuff, but its not the bottom end. If you are willing / able to spend the money you can certainly find better but I've been happy with the things I've bought from them. You do have to watch the shipping though, for some reason their shipping varies from reasonable to :eek: without much rhyme or reason.

Little Machine Shop which I linked to above is another I've been happy with. Not the cheapest, but they also don't sell the really low end stuff. They do carry a fair amount of stuff appropriate for use on a 10" lathe.
 
Both of the chucks I have for my Atlas 12 lathe are the one piece type with integrated threads and no separate backplate. They seem well matched to the precision of the lathe. I do agree that a backplate that is cut on the lathe itself is probably a better, more precise way to go.
 
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