As stated above, the feed rate is how far
per revolution the cutter moves. It is independent of speed.
The Atlas / Craftsman machines have a rather aggressive cut when the QC box is mounted. There is a video by Tubal Cain on the subject, but I copied it off to a local drive and don't have a link. He has a series of videos on the Atlas/Craftsman machine. The one I speak of is part of that series. Nr230 is related, although there is a video for an easy fix of just changing the gearing on the lead screw, going to exactly one half or one third. The one half is more practical for doing threading, although not decreasing the cutting depth as much.
Changing the feed rate nominally by one half would change the cross feed the same amount, half as fast. The cross feed is only fed off the lead screw and has no other bearing on the longitudinal feed. It is slightly faster, someone has given the value above. The two are interlocked, where only one or the other can operate. Removal of that interlock, while
not advised, would allow cutting a 45* angle. But serves no other practical purpose.
*** EDIT *** It seems I misspoke about Tubal Cain, it was someone else. I include both links to replace what I posted earlier. I apologize for the incorrect information. Perhaps one of these will help you with your concerns. Of the two, my preference is for the first one using a 48/24 compound gear where the second is for a 32/16. The 48/24 can also be set up for 48/16, dividing the feeds by 3. That is more useful to me for my small model building, although I normally would run 48/24.
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