My 10" Atlas Lathe

[parrothead]

I'm starting a thread on my Atlas 10" lathe that I recently purchased from a local farmer. I've never operated a lathe but have always been interested in machining. I enjoy restoring antique tractors, cars and trucks, so when the opportunity came to buy this lathe, I jumped on it.
For $300.00, I got an old 10" Atlas lathe, complete with an extremely heavy table (with old tractor axle shafts for legs) with 4 drawers packed full of lathe stuff. It also came with a machinist's handbook and other Atlas manuals and catalogs. Here is a picture of the lathe when I first got it home.


I lubed up everything per the lube chart and fired it up. Everything seems to work well. Here is the stuff that was in the drawers:

A 3 jaw chuck was mounted on the spindle, and it came with a smaller 3 jaw, a 4 jaw, drill chucks, tool holders, knurling tool, 3 sets of change gears, misc. spare parts, a following rest and a steady rest. To top it off, it also came with a milling attachment! I still need a collet holder / drawbar to use it (I believe). Anyway, here's the package. I'm anxious to start making chips!

 

[parrothead]

Here's the first job that the Atlas got to perform in my shop. This is Zach, my Webelo Scout. Here he is polishing up the axles on his new pinewood derby race car.


I don't think you're supposed to put a drill chuck in a 3 jaw chuck, but I didn't think any harm would be done if he's just polishing axles with it. It did a great job until the countershaft hanger broke when I attempted to adjust one of the set screws. The yoke on the hanger had been broken before, because the brazed repair was what failed. I was able to locate a good one on ebay. It just arrived in the mail today. Here it is:

I'll repair the original hanger and keep it as a spare, but I'll install this one. Now, If only it was warmer than 10 degrees in my shop... I'll post the results of the new hanger installation at a later date.

 

[righto88]

You got a great deal on that purchase.

 

[littlejack]

Another great buy.
Lot of tooling and accessories. Good on you sir.
Regards
Jack

 

[parrothead]

The number stamped in the way of my lathe is H115558. Is there a way to date my machine by this number?

 

[pdentrem]

Very complete setup you got there. Congrats.
As for dating, it is basically not possible. Maybe the operation manual has a printed date on the inside to at least say that it was built proir to this date. There is a small table with a listing of serial numbers that were backed up with either sales receipt or family history to set the date. I can not remember if it is on the yahoo group site or found elsewhere.
Pierre

 

[drs23]

Now, If only it was warmer than 10 degrees in my shop... I'll post the results of the new hanger installation at a later date.

Weenie, put some long panties on. :whiteflag:

J/K Do what ya gotta do just keep that li'l Webelo interested in the direction you have him headed. I sure wish that opportunity had been afforded myself at that age. He will be forever indebted to his mentor.

Kudos to you Sir.

 

[schor]

The number stamped in the way of my lathe is H115558. Is there a way to date my machine by this number?

There is a dust cap on the spindle at the front, remove that and there should be a date stamped on the bearing.

There should be an atlas tag on the right end of the bed with the model and serial number. You could also check that and then goto vintagemachinery.org and see if you can date it by that.

 

[parrothead]

So it's been a long time since I've checked in here. I built my new shop and bought a nice lathe table from an Atlas photo lathe. Here are some pictures of the final result. Guess I'll have to restore the lathe now...

 

[Ulma Doctor]

very cool lathe with a lot of tooling.
congratulations you'll have hours of fun !