Good Deal For A New Bed??

It appears to have the latter 3/8" ways, does this match your current machine? The price, even with the shipping isn't horrible, and it looks to be in pretty good condition. The biggest downside would probably be surviving shipping. If you can insure it will be well packed, it might be worth a shot. The only other thing I noticed is it seems to have a very dull finish to the ways, and may have been bead blasted for rust removal. I would ask the seller if that is the case or not. Mike
 
Wisrianni said:
What do you guys think
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What's the goal?

If it's just to have an extra bed lying around, then sure, what's not to like? (You laugh, i've made such purchases.)

If it's to replace a broken bed, then yes, it'll do that, too.

But we don't have any idea from the pics if his bed is tweaked or cupped or worn thin at the head.
Mike said:
FOMOGO said:
The only other thing I noticed is it seems to have a very dull finish to the ways, and may have been bead blasted for rust removal.
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I didn't see it that way. Not because I have a bad eye or Mike has a better eye (which very well may be the case! :) but because the picture has such dowdy resolution and the lighting is middling at best. So when it comes down to exactly what i want in a lathe bed, ordinary pics -- and this is ebay, so the pics are ordinary at best-- are not gonna tell the whole story.

So letssay a guy had such worn and warped bed on his lathe right now, this bed may not be a step up, as it were. It might be, in that it doesn't look appallingly bad. But it might not, either.

Depends on where you're headed with this.

Wrat
 
It's a 6" bed. And as far as I can determine, there have only ever been two models, one for the 612 and one for the 618. Both the earliest parts list we have, undated but definitely from before 1950, and the latest, from 1976 both show the 30" bed (for the 618) as being part number L9-1. I don't believe that it could have had the ways bead blasted. You can still see the outline of where the headstock sat, especially in the second photo. If you need a replacement 6" bed (not 10" or 12"), I would grab it. It will fit all of the Atlas and Craftsman 6" lathes except for the Atlas 612. Very few eBay sellers ever list beds because I think mainly the difficulty of packing and shipping them.
 
Out of not so idle curiosity- I have 3 atlas/craftsman 618 or equivalents spread out over 2000 miles- how hard is it to mix and match headstocks and beds? Will they mate up without a lot of fuss or do they need to be scraped into place? Clausing looks like they just ran a fly cutter over the mating parts and called it good.
 
Probably it would be best to keep original parts together. But I can say that a lot of people here or on the two Atlas Groups on Yahoo have reported completely disassembling a 6". I don't recall anyone ever mentioning having any problem getting the headstock back on and usable. If I were doing it, I would probably install the assembled headstock, install the carriage, install a chuck, and mount a ground test bar in the chuck and a dial indicator on the carriage. If you have a 4-jaw, indicate the bar in right next to the chuck. Run the carriage out to the end of the test bar. Rotate the chuck and stop it at the median reading. run the carriage back up to the chuck and zero the reading. Run it back out to the end of the bar, loosen the headstock hold down bolts, and see whether you can twist to headstock to bring the indicator reading to zero. Tighten the four bolts. Now would also be a good time to do a preliminary adjustment of the tailstock backset using the indicator.
 
FOMOGO said:
It appears to have the latter 3/8" ways, does this match your current machine? The price, even with the shipping isn't horrible, and it looks to be in pretty good condition. The biggest downside would probably be surviving shipping. If you can insure it will be well packed, it might be worth a shot. The only other thing I noticed is it seems to have a very dull finish to the ways, and may have been bead blasted for rust removal. I would ask the seller if that is the case or not. Mike
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wow good catch i have the 1/2 ways. so this is a no. lol
 
Wisrianni,

Your avatar didn't register with me until just now. But if your lathe has 1/2" thick ways, you have a late 12" machine. The bed that you gave the eBay link to is for a 6" lathe (618, 101.07301 and 101.21400). It happens to have 7/16" thick ways (same as all 6") but in any case, it won't fit your machine anyway.
 
wa5cab said:
Wisrianni,

Your avatar didn't register with me until just now. But if your lathe has 1/2" thick ways, you have a late 12" machine. The bed that you gave the eBay link to is for a 6" lathe (618, 101.07301 and 101.21400). It happens to have 7/16" thick ways (same as all 6") but in any case, it won't fit your machine anyway.
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you are correct i have 1/2 or .500 ways. this wont work ;( figured it was a good buy for someone lol.
 
OK. But the way thickness has nothing to do with it. It would be about like trying to put a 13" tire on a 16" rim. It's both too short and too narrow.
 
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