Has Anyone Used Turcite To Rebuild An Atlas 10 Inch Lathe?

[bbutcher]

My Atlas 10 X 36 lathe could use some TLC, and I am thinking about using a Teflon based material like Turcite for the ways. I am not sure if I need to apply it to just the top, or also to the front, back, and bottom of the ways. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Strtspdlx]

If you do decide to use it then yes. Apply to all areas of wear. The rear needs it top, rear bottom and rear side. Front way is top, front side and front bottom. Make sure you account for the tailstock. I have no knowledge of tricoteuse however so I couldn't advise on that.


Regards-Carlo

 

[Kernbigo]

you only put the turcite on the one surface the matting surface is metal

 

[gi_984]

I'm considering doing the same thing to my Atlas 12X36. Haven't touched it much since reworking the bed. Good thing it is my secondary lathe. One of my winter projects is to finish the hand scraping on the saddle and tailstock. You DO NOT put Turcite under the tailstock! You would have a devil of a time trying to lock your tailstock down to drill.

 

[gi_984]

You apply Turcite to the underside of the carriage and compound. Not on the bed.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

a point of information, turcite will have to be scraped in after installation.
i'd consider getting the bed professionally ground , then apply the turcite to the underside of the saddle.

Have you surveyed the bed to see where the wear is ?

another consideration would be finding a used bed and/or saddle that was in better shape and scrape them in.
either case you will be in for some time or coin, the choice will be yours

 

[Holescreek]

What would be the purpose of adding Turcite? The ways are flat and soft and it's the easiest of all the machines I've ever had to scrape. Once the ways are flat and you've verified parallelism with the underside for the gibbs you just machine a step in the clamp bars to account for the thinner way.

I just started the preliminary work on a worn out TH54 this week and got the oil cleaned out of the bed casting this morning. I'm going to start scraping the ways in this week as time permits. They look pretty bad but the first Atlas I did was much worse off with a .025" bow in the front way near the headstock.

 

[gi_984]

Holescreek, I'm curious how you cleaned the oil out of the bed? I used a lot of solvent and then acetone. Another former gentleman I know advised using a propane torch to sweat out any retained oil. Thoughts?

 

[Holescreek]

I use "Greased Lightning" from Home Depot for years. If you keep the metal wetted the paint will eventually peel off too.