Atlas Refurb and Tooling

I have used a high grade alloy steel Bosch jigsaw blade to remove these nightmare nuts by simply ensuring the blade fits snugly in the nut slot then grind out the area of the bolt thread from the back of the blade , as these edges are almost perfectly square they tend to l bite into worn slots .
Once the " bridge " is made use a pair of mole clamp pliers to hold/push the blade square in the slots and then gently unscrew the nut

Sections of the thicker broken industrial hacksaw blades are also good for the bigger nuts that have a lot of thread poking through but you often have to kiss /grind the back of the blade on a grinder to a sharp edge before making the bridging cut out .
 
Round in circles said:
I have used a high grade alloy steel Bosch jigsaw blade to remove these nightmare nuts by simply ensuring the blade fits snugly in the nut slot then grind out the area of the bolt thread from the back of the blade , as these edges are almost perfectly square they tend to l bite into worn slots .
Once the " bridge " is made use a pair of mole clamp pliers to hold/push the blade square in the slots and then gently unscrew the nut

Sections of the thicker broken industrial hacksaw blades are also good for the bigger nuts that have a lot of thread poking through but you often have to kiss /grind the back of the blade on a grinder to a sharp edge before making the bridging cut out .
Click to expand...

I don't seem to be grasping this procedure well and sure would like to see a photo or two. I'd be most appreciative if you could oblige.

Spiral_Chips
 
Spiral,

What he's saying is that he made a sort of screwdriver tip out of a short piece of hack saw blade by cutting a 3/8" wide notch in one edge. The notch is just deep enough to clear the 3/8-24 threaded stud that the nut is screwed onto. You can also (and I have) make these special relived tip screwdrivers out of regular slot screwdrivers that have tips with a width at least as wide as the OD of the nut. They are actually easier to make than from a socket but a screwdriver large enough to make one from will be much more expensive than the socket.

Robert D.
 
So, I got that foolish nut off with little drama after grinding a tool from a cold chisel. Then the real fun started. The handle on the cross feed would not come off. I tried backing off the nut between the handle and the graduated dial. That pushed it off a bit. But no amount of heat and penetrating oil would move it any further. I mistakenly ran the nut up against the woodruff key and although the handle came free the nut stripped the threads on the shaft and started to cock badly.

Guess I should have asked this before. But does anyone have a procedure for removing this cross feed screw properly. I am probably going to have to replace this one with an Ebay part.


Jamie
 
Jaime,

First, it is not normal for the crank not to slide right off after removing the special nut. And as a suggestion for the future, first study the exploded view parts list before attempting to disassemble something. It would have shown the woodruff key and probably saved the screw and jam nut.

With the crank, woodruff key and jam nut off, remove the dial. At that point, from your top view photograph of the carriage, it looks like the cross feed screw should just pull out to the rear. Note that this is not the case with the 10" and 12" machines with power cross feed.

Robert D.
 
I did look at the exploded diagram, though probably not long enough. The aluminum crank was seized hard to the end of the screw. And once I started backing off the jam nut I continued down that path. Ruining everything! I am normally a patient person, but I was at the tail end of Major Snowblower repairs in a freezing cold shed and hours of snow blowing after the Blizzard we had here in Maine that day.


Jamie
 
So I think there is some hope for me yet, I will post some more pics soon. So I did in fact drive the Jam nut up into the woodruff key which did cause all sorts of problems damaging the threads in the area of the key.

I plan to upgrade the hand cranks on the cross slide and the compound with home made hand wheels, I also plan to outfit the machine with better graduated dials, I find the little Atlas ones about impossible to see. When I undertake this upgrade I will address the screw, as it might also be in line for an upgrade. The only damage to the original is to a couple of threads and the jam nut in the area of the woodruff key seat. I will clean up those threads and replace the woodruff key, and I should be back in business.
 
So after a bit of a hiatus, getting some other projects done and raising a young family, I am ready to get the lathe put back together and start making some chips. Now that the weather is nice I can prime and paint the castings and start the reassembly.
 
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