Craftsman/Atlas 6", what have I gotten my self into?

OK. I kind of figured I would try them before I did anything.

I'm hoping for the best! :)

K
 
westsailpat said:
Hi K , working on it right now ? Waiting to hear how it goes . Mark .
Click to expand...

Just got up from the basement. It's been an interesting night.

The spindle looks great, I would say it came out of a lathe that was never really used. I'm pretty happy even if it was a bit more then I wanted to spend.

I first tried to install it with my new bushings. I could get the spindle in but the amount of friction WAY to high. I could hardly turn it by hand. The new spindle came with it's original bushing so I carefully replaced them and pretty much ran into the same problem. I was not in the best mood.

So I pulled the bushing out and really looked at them closely. Turns out you can see the "pinch point" in them so after a little more investigating I was able to also figure out the orientation they were in. I put everything back in the way it would have come out of it's original home and I was able to turn the spindle by hand with a chuck on it.

Everything was well lubed up so I figured what the heck lets see if they will run in. It spun up, I let it run for 30 second or so then flipped the switch off. There was still enough friction to act as a brake which spun my chuck off! The darn thing put two dings in my ways, I may have let a few bad words slip. Luckily the dents are dead center where neither the carriage or the tail stock will interfere. Dodged a bullet but still not happy.

So I started running it in again (with out a chuck) and it loosened up. After a while I put the chuck back on and to a few passes on the 12L14 steel and got some much improved results (sorry for the blurry photo, my phone wouldn't focus).

IMG_1015.JPG

The spindle spins well now with just a touch of pressure from the screws. The housing feels warm to the touch after running for a while but not hot enough that I can't keep my finger on it.

The reading from my dial indicator shows (on the same piece of steel from my photos above) a pretty big improvement vertically, just a few thousands down from .010" Horizontal play didn't improve all that much, .004" down from .005". Maybe that's just normal, I mean you have to have some play in there. I also noticed that it does vary if the machine is warm vs. cold.

So overall I'm happy. I'm mad the chuck came off but it's not then end of the world.

Now a question. I'm using some tap cutting oil I had around. It seem to turn into instant smoke when cutting. Is that normal? Remember I don't have a clue what I'm doing here, I don't seem to see the guys on YouTube have these problems though.

K
 
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Good to hear you were able to get a new spindle and see a reasonable improvement. I bet it was a shock to see the chuck come spinning off at you. You will know this machine very well by the time you get her dialed in!
 
Z2V said:
Good to hear you were able to get a new spindle and see a reasonable improvement. I bet it was a shock to see the chuck come spinning off at you. You will know this machine very well by the time you get her dialed in!
Click to expand...

Surprised is one way to put it. The way that sucker bounced around I'm surprised it didn't do more damage.

Yeah, I've had this things completely apart. It's neat, super simple.

I do kind of think that long term it's going to be to small for what I want to do BUT I sure can learn to make chips with it!

K
 
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I sold my 07301 a month ago and bought a bigger one but wish I had the room to have kept the Craftsman
 
Good job K, I'm glad that worked out for you.

As for the smoke, some fluids are just worse than others. I used to use Tapmatic Gold and it always smoked like crazy. Masters thread cutting oil, not so much, so I use that mostly now. Lots of different flavours out there tho, and everybody seems to have their own favourite. A small fan (dashboard size) is nice to have close by too just to keep it from lingering.

-frank
 
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Hi K , a few questions . Did you mic. the spindle and the bushings before assembly ? That probably wasn't a good question because we would be looking for a very small size like .0005 maybe I don't know .? Well it doesn't really matter now because you are back together and running . Monday morning quarter back here , I think to just slip the bush on the spindle and check the fit would be interesting . Now the big question , did you drill and split the bushing ? My machine I think has the original bushings and they are drilled and split (just one side) . A thought here , when checking for spindle play I would not check with the chuck on . It is possible that the jaws are worn and when you chuck up a bar and put the indicator to it you might be seeing the bar just move in the chuck ?
I'm glad that you are happy with the end results . Putting a ding in any machine is always a melancholy moment , we have all been there .
As far as cutting oil , I really dislike the heavy sulfur threading oil IMO it smells horrible and it smokes easy . I have been using this stuff .
http://www.tacomascrew.com/Products...MIm7mF1dWE1wIViZ9-Ch0dygmWEAQYASABEgKNX_D_BwE
Also I like water soluble oil , but wouldn't really recommend it . Its expensive and if you don't get it off (like under the compound) it will rust .
Keep us posted ! Mark .
 
The new spindle had pretty much no wear, my bore gauge is to big to work in the bushings so I can't say. I need to remeasure the old spindle, I'll try and do that tomorrow. Visually the old bushings that came with the spindle looked great.

I think what happened to the new bushings is I put so much pressure on them I kind of crushed them so they're snug now. The back bushing was very snug even when it was out of the machine and I tried dry fitting it.

I'll try checking things without the chuck. I need more free time! :)

K
 
Another bad "feature" of water soluble oil is that if you let it sit in the reservoir, it will eventually turn into a solid.
 
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