- Joined
- Nov 29, 2015
- Messages
- 23
Fairly new to this site but wanted to share my restoration with all. Found this gem on eBay in September of 2015, and we've been slowly but surely bringing her back to life! This lathe was purchased new in 1974 (per info from this site, Thanks!), then sold in an estate auction in 1984. At that time, it was purchased by a gentleman who needed a lathe badly, but really wanted a South Bend. He had bid on each, but only won the Atlas. Before he even got the Atlas lathe unloaded, the original buyer of the South Bend defaulted and the auction house called him to see if he was still interested. He was, and this Atlas was pushed in the corner and NEVER used. About 5 years ago he ran out of room and decided to move the Atlas to an outside carport! This, most certainly, did the most damage. As crazy as this sounds, what wasn't rusted was in "like new" condition. I got it home the middle of September and began the daunting task of rebuilding/reconditioning it. Having never tackled a project like this, I was somewhat hesitant, but with the help of my son and one of my employees, we started stripping and bagging everything. Evaporust, Airplane Paint Remover and sand blasting were the norm for the next two months. I have a friend who has a powder coating business and he volunteered to powder coat everything. The pictures here are a kind of before and after. The quick change gear box case is still at the powder coaters, but I couldn't wait any longer to post the pictures! I'll have the parts back and installed sometime this week, and hopefully be making chips next week!! Enjoy!
