Curious about Atlas lathes

I have an Atlas 10100 Mk.2 6"x18" and am very happy with it. As long as you work within it's performance envelope it does fine work, or has for me anyway. Recently upgraded the plastic gibs that it came with to steel gibs & it seems a bit more accurate. Only a few things that it doesn't have that I'd like to see, like QCGB & power cross feed for facing off material. Don't try taking very deep cuts and take your time working with it and it will produce the pieces you want/need. I was looking at lower cost import machines when I came across mine, metal gears VS. plastic, larger length between centers, lower cost for a better bargain as I saw it. LMS supports them with pre-ground tool bits & parts can be found on ebay fairly frequently. If you can find one in great condition I say go for it.
 
Just butting in, per my usual. I have a Craftsman 12X36, it is essentially an Atlas 10" with a cast in riser to get the 12". It is removed from commercial use and is now a hobby machine. However, I am a very sloppy hobbyest, not requiring serious dimensional control. It will do a half a thou when I need it. After tightening up all the gibs and C..... The reason I butted in, was prowling on eBay and found a nice machine. I'm not sure you are within reach, but it has been up for sale for a while. Each time, the price has come down, it is now very reasonable. Not sure if it fits your needs, but:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/SOUTH-BEND...=3&_sacat=0&_nkw=machine+tool&_from=R40&rt=nc
Threading change gears are there, not much other tooling. If you are in reach, it may well be worth looking at.
 
Thank you for the info. These are quite common on Craigslist etc but wasn't sure if worth the effort. Sounds like they are if cared for and the price is right.

Bill thanks for the heads up but Illinois is a bit of a drive for me. Looks like a good deal for someone in the general area.
 
One other variation on the Atlas Lathes’ Quick Change Gear Box (QCGB) story is the Pick-O-Matic drive gearboxes. They were offered from 1943>late 1946. They show up on eBay/craigslist reasonably often. I certainly like the one I own. It's not quite as convenient as a QCGB, but for a hobbyist such as myself it's very effective. Much better than just change gears. I also would recommend the 54” bed if possible as it's nice to have the extra length if nothing else than to get the tailstock out of the way when it's not needed. I sometimes wish the spindle through hole was bigger, but of course that’s indicative of all lathes in that range. Anyway, bottom line Atlas/Craftsman lathes can do great work & are more than adequate if in decent condition.
 
Yes, I should have mentioned them the other day. The Pic-O-Matic allowed you to pre-set three feeds or thread pitches. If for example you were making something like a spindle, you would set up maybe the thread pitch for the bearing adjustment nut threads on the left end, one feed for roughing, and one thread for finishing.
 
shadetreedad said:
One other variation on the Atlas Lathes’ Quick Change Gear Box (QCGB) story is the Pick-O-Matic drive gearboxes. They were offered from 1943>late 1946. They show up on eBay/craigslist reasonably often. I certainly like the one I own. It's not quite as convenient as a QCGB, but for a hobbyist such as myself it's very effective. Much better than just change gears. I also would recommend the 54” bed if possible as it's nice to have the extra length if nothing else than to get the tailstock out of the way when it's not needed. I sometimes wish the spindle through hole was bigger, but of course that’s indicative of all lathes in that range. Anyway, bottom line Atlas/Craftsman lathes can do great work & are more than adequate if in decent condition.
Click to expand...

For some reason, I thought these were one in the same. Is there documentation that is available for each?
 
No, the two are mutually exclusive. Meaning that you can only install one or the other on a lathe. Pick-O-Matic was an early improvement as far as convenience was concerned over the straight change gear model. It allowed the setup of three feeds or threads that are selectable by moving a single lever and sometimes a sliding gear.

The parts list for the 10" with Pick-O-Matic has been in Downloads for quite a while. I thought that the Operating Handbook had as well but apparently back in 2016 I didn't have time to clean up the PDF and then forgot about it. It still isn't finished but I went ahead and uploaded it a few minutes ago. It is in the Atlas/Craftsman folder under A/C Lathes - Accessories & Attachments .
 
Here is nice complete scanned copy of the 1944 version Pick-O-Matic manual. They made 2 versions I'm aware of. This one and a 1945 one. In the 1944 version, the parts list (page 38 & 39) shows the old style housing (10-1201) and shift lever plate (10-1222). The 1945 version has an updated photo of the gearbox (with a hand wheel relief) opposite of the Table of Contents page. Also, the parts list is updated with the new style housing (10-1201A) and shift lever plate (10-1222A. Those are the only variations of note between the two. One other thing, is when cutting some metric threads I found an error on the 1.75mm pitch. They had the sliding gear in the wrong position. It's notated on page 69.
 

Attachments

  • 1944-01-01 PickOMatic Early Manual .pdf
    27.2 MB · Views: 14
OK. That is a better quality scan than the one that I had just unloaded. Plus from your scan, the previous copy was missing page 79.

I actually had two scanned copies but they were both of the 1944 edition. Should you ever come across a scan of the second version, let me know.

The file is rather a large one. I will leave it in this thread for a while but will eventually delete it. Incidentally, the notation about the sliding gear on page 69 was in the other scans but not in the same original. So several people have caught the error,
 
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