Bed Wear And What To Do About It.

[yendor]

I got this lathe an Atlas TV36 for $50.00 and have spent some time cleaning it up. and collected a few things accessories and the like.

I've learned a lot about some things but still I'm a rank amateur at this stuff.

Here are a few picks of the lathe and the bed. it has wear on the surfaces where both the carriage and tailstock ride. I did a map of sorts on the bed and the wear. I measured the thickness of the Inner & Outer edges of the bed where the moving parts ride and the width where the carriage would wear the front and rear edges.
(See attached PDF of a spreadsheet). I need to understand how bad it really is.

The Bed Width doesn't look like much of an issues so much as the bed thickness.
I've tied to turn a 5/8' x 12" Rod down to 1/2" and there are variances in the diameter all long the rod.
I like old machines as compared to new. This lathe has a 99. % complete set of change gears (missing 1 - a 48 tooth gear). The accessories make it a pretty complete machine as well.
So I'm trying to decide:

A - Is it worth it to re-surface the bed. I have a blind sight unseen quote of $800.00.
B- I understand there is additional work involved IE: on the Carriage Saddle and such but don't understand why or exactly what/where.

If it's worth the money to resurface and it can be made nearly new (or better) I'd probably go for it and in the process strip it down clean and paint.

 

[Tony Wells]

Don't get me wrong. I'm not in the Atlas haters bunch.....I love all machines. BUT, what you are undertaking is quite a bit of work and $$ for a fairly light duty lathe. If you have the time, and can (and care to) do that much scraping, then by all means do so. But spending $800 on it, then the refit of the carriage due to the change in the leadscrew relationship, seems a little out of line to me. But, as always, it's your time and money. Ultimately it's up to you. If you can make parts on it, and I firmly believe that skill overcomes and compensates for machine issues many times, I'd put up with it until I found a machine in better shape. Regardless of the make.

I'll qualify all of this by saying that this is not a hobby for me. I make a living at it, so my viewpoint is bound to be different that many here.

 

[Andre]

Just my take on things....

Since it has a square bed, there must be gibs on the front and underside of the carriage, make sure they are snug and free of play. Do the same for your cross slide and compound. Also make sure your Timkin roller bearings are adjusted properly, then take another test cut.

If your variances were from bed wear, it would (most likely) slowly get larger towards the headstock then take a sudden dive larger, from normal bed wear. You can try leveling (well, twisting) your lathe in a way that will help compensate for bed wear, but that's not always possible nor is it a 100% fix.....

Worst case scenario would be having the bed reground, but that might cost 16x the price of the lathe.

You mentioned that test rod was 1/2" in diameter, supposing you used the tailstock and a very light cut and feed the bar is most likely bowing upwards at the ten 0'clock position, making it wider in the middle. I'd try a larger test bar before committing getting the bed reground to see if it was actually flex.

Also have to think about if bed wear is an issue in your case, my 13" has significant bed wear but with the tailstock indicated just right I can turn a 8" bar within a few tenths all over it's length. Light cut of course.

 

[John Hasler]

I got this lathe an Atlas TV36 for $50.00 and have spent some time cleaning it up. and collected a few things accessories and the like.

I've learned a lot about some things but still I'm a rank amateur at this stuff.

Here are a few picks of the lathe and the bed. it has wear on the surfaces where both the carriage and tailstock ride. I did a map of sorts on the bed and the wear. I measured the thickness of the Inner & Outer edges of the bed where the moving parts ride and the width where the carriage would wear the front and rear edges.
(See attached PDF of a spreadsheet). I need to understand how bad it really is.

The Bed Width doesn't look like much of an issues so much as the bed thickness.
I've tied to turn a 5/8' x 12" Rod down to 1/2" and there are variances in the diameter all long the rod.
I like old machines as compared to new. This lathe has a 99. % complete set of change gears (missing 1 - a 48 tooth gear). The accessories make it a pretty complete machine as well.
So I'm trying to decide:

A - Is it worth it to re-surface the bed. I have a blind sight unseen quote of $800.00.
B- I understand there is additional work involved IE: on the Carriage Saddle and such but don't understand why or exactly what/where.

If it's worth the money to resurface and it can be made nearly new (or better) I'd probably go for it and in the process strip it down clean and paint.

That doesn't look bad to me. Did you turn that rod between centers? How much variation in diameter did you get?

I wouldn't pay $800 to have it "resurfaced". I'd scrape it myself. It's a flat bed.

 

[Andre]

That doesn't look bad to me. Did you turn that rod between centers? How much variation in diameter did you get?

I wouldn't pay $800 to have it "resurfaced". I'd scrape it myself. It's a flat bed.

You'd also have to scrape the sides, or else you'd end up with an hourglass bed width. (carriage would be loose in the middle and tight on the ends)

 

[Mark_f]

I got this lathe an Atlas TV36 for $50.00 and have spent some time cleaning it up. and collected a few things accessories and the like.

I've learned a lot about some things but still I'm a rank amateur at this stuff.

Here are a few picks of the lathe and the bed. it has wear on the surfaces where both the carriage and tailstock ride. I did a map of sorts on the bed and the wear. I measured the thickness of the Inner & Outer edges of the bed where the moving parts ride and the width where the carriage would wear the front and rear edges.
(See attached PDF of a spreadsheet). I need to understand how bad it really is.

The Bed Width doesn't look like much of an issues so much as the bed thickness.
I've tied to turn a 5/8' x 12" Rod down to 1/2" and there are variances in the diameter all long the rod.
I like old machines as compared to new. This lathe has a 99. % complete set of change gears (missing 1 - a 48 tooth gear). The accessories make it a pretty complete machine as well.
So I'm trying to decide:

A - Is it worth it to re-surface the bed. I have a blind sight unseen quote of $800.00.
B- I understand there is additional work involved IE: on the Carriage Saddle and such but don't understand why or exactly what/where.

If it's worth the money to resurface and it can be made nearly new (or better) I'd probably go for it and in the process strip it down clean and paint.

Looking at your spread sheet , the wear is minimal and should not really cause you any problems. You can probably work with it easily and ( just my opinion) The bed is not bad enough to invest a lot of money in resurfacing. I have worked with lathes a lot worse than that. In fact most old machines will have some wear in the area it was used most. That is just MY opinion

 

[John Hasler]

You'd also have to scrape the sides, or else you'd end up with an hourglass bed width. (carriage would be loose in the middle and tight on the ends)

Right, but they're still flat square surfaces. Not like scraping inside a dovetail.

But, as Mark says, it's not that bad. Might be best to just live with it. Looks like a hell of a deal for $50.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

scrape it, oil flake it, and run it
or
just run it and adjust her up to snug everywhere you can.
a 5/8" rod unsupported will have some deflection even on a new lathe.
i'd put it between centers for the test.
the cutter type and condition would come into question, as i was not a witness to the operation.
was wear in other areas also part of the discrepancy.
if you have a set of calipers large enough, or devise a gauge of sorts-
you could then measure the outside rails from headstock to tail stock and determine the were in that direction as well .

 

[francist]

Looks to me like you got a killer deal for fifty bucks!

I'd run it for a while, seems like maybe you haven't spent a lot of time actually using it yet? There could (likely) be other little things that aren't quite up to factory spec any more either, and the $800 only gets the ways done. All the other parts are still old, and you could be committing to a very pricey project without knowing it yet. You may be pleasantly surprised that you can do most of what you want to do regardless of the wear on the bed.

-frank

 

[NightWing]

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