Help with my Atlas Lathe

I want to add the 24 tooth power feed speed reduction gear.. and probably make a lever for the cross feed instead of the pull knob…. Couple of things I have seen others do on YouTube…
 
wa5cab said:
Speaking of bushings, if for any reason, you ever decide that you need to pull the spindle, DO plan to replace the three bushings. Two are in the spindle cone pulley and one is in the small spindle back gear (the one keyed to the cone pulley).

Also, maybe 5% of the 10" and 12" lathes that turn up here had a previous owner who thought that the oil plug in the spindle cone pulley was a set screw and managed to force it down against the spindle. In back gear, the spindle cone pulley turns about 6 times as fast as the spindle. So don''t make that mistake. The oil plug is removed either daily, before using back gear or at least Monthly if you haven't used back gear and several squirts of SAE 20 non-detergent oil but down the hole, and then the oil plug replaced. Do not over-tighten.

And what "upgrades" are you referring to?.
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Is this the oil plug that you are referring too??? And should it have an oil plug in it???925B6870-9B0D-43A1-80DF-774BC9900710.jpeg
 
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wa5cab said:
Speaking of bushings, if for any reason, you ever decide that you need to pull the spindle, DO plan to replace the three bushings. Two are in the spindle cone pulley and one is in the small spindle back gear (the one keyed to the cone pulley).

Also, maybe 5% of the 10" and 12" lathes that turn up here had a previous owner who thought that the oil plug in the spindle cone pulley was a set screw and managed to force it down against the spindle. In back gear, the spindle cone pulley turns about 6 times as fast as the spindle. So don''t make that mistake. The oil plug is removed either daily, before using back gear or at least Monthly if you haven't used back gear and several squirts of SAE 20 non-detergent oil but down the hole, and then the oil plug replaced. Do not over-tighten.

And what "upgrades" are you referring to?
Click to expand...
And I am considering just go ahead purchasing the new bronze cross feed and compound nuts.. I think my lathe needs a new cross feed as it has almost half a turn of the knob in backlash.. and the compound has about a 1/4 turn of back lash…. I may need a new cross slide screw as well..
 
While the cross feed and compound feed screws and nuts may be worn enough to replace, as I recently wrote elsewhere, there are two sources of apparent back lash in the cross and compound feeds. One is wear on or in the screws or nuts. But the other possibility is excessive end float in the screws. So, before you go buying new parts, set the end floats to half to one thou. Then run the cross slide almost off of the screw and the compound slide near the end of travel and check the back lash there. If it is significantly improved, then and only then replace the nuts and maybe the screws. And get used to the fact that even brand new parts are going to have some backlash. Otherwise, you would not be able to turn the screw. It's just a fact of life. You have to get used to always approaching a setting from the same direction every time. Generally, you always set CW for facing and OD turning and CCW for ID turning. If you overshoot, back up at least two turns and try it again.

Also, no, the back gear brackets do not contain any oil plugs. The oil plug for the spindle is an Allen set screw located down in the bottom of one of the spindle cone pulley grooves. The tapped hole with nothing in it shown in your photo is for attaching the hinge of the head stock belt cover. Which may be missing on your machine. Pulley and belt covers or guards were often an extra cost item on Atlas machines. The oil filler plug on the back gears is a slotted round head machine screw.
 
Robert is correct, the amount of backlash you have is fairly normal for an Atlas and many other lathes- milling machines too
-M
 
If you decide to replace any gears, I think your money ahead to just buy new ones. Boston gear sells exact replacements in steel for all the change gears.
 
Clausing also carries most if not all of the "A" suffix change gears. I would question, on a hobby-level machine, whether you would ever recover the usually higher cost of steel change gears.
 
i forgot to mention that the early change gears have 3/8" hubs and faces. The "A" suffix gears have 1/2" long hubs. And the various parts that mount the gears are also 1/8" longer. The later gears and parts can all be machined to match the early requirement. With one exception. There is no "A" suffix 96 tooth gear, as it isn't used on the newer machines.

The change occurred with the 10F and with the '02' on the end of the model numbers of the 12". So 101.07402 and later use the 'A' suffix parts, for example.
 
Regarding the feed reduction hack of substituting the 24-tooth gear.... The YouTube videos don't make this clear, but you will lose the top two rows of threads on the threading chart. So you will need to change back to the original gear when you want to cut those threads. No big deal, but something to keep in mind.
 
JPMacG said:
Regarding the feed reduction hack of substituting the 24-tooth gear.... The YouTube videos don't make this clear, but you will lose the top two rows of threads on the threading chart. So you will need to change back to the original gear when you want to cut those threads. No big deal, but something to keep in mind.
Click to expand...
I saw that.. and I am not sure that I am going to need to cut 4 threads per inch any time soon.. LOL.. but I did see that.. and thanks for mentioning it.. I am not going to do anything that can't be undone...
 
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