Atlas Spider

[cdhknives]

Are the threads on the left side of the spindle of a 10F strong and deep enough to support a spider? I'm thinking about removing the threaded collar used to tighten the bearings and replacing it with a long collar...long enough to drill and tap for 4 screws and use it as a left side spider to support long rods (and rifle barrels for recrowning).

Will this work or are there not enough threads to support these loads?

 

[wa5cab]

The number of exposed threads may vary a little, as the spindle gear retaining collar is also used to preload the spindle bearings. What Atlas did on the early machines for installing the lever operated collet closer was to supply a replacement collar. The left face of the replacement collar was counterbored several threads deep. The later version made by Royal just replaced the collar and performed both functions. In your case, I would do that. Just don't forget the lead thread protector pellets in the bottoms of the two set screw holes.