New-to-Me Atlas 12" - Trying to figure out what I have?

E

easttex

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Greetings! This is my first post a lathe owner. I'm pretty excited to own a lathe now, even if it's a basket case. I ended up paying $450 to bring this lathe home Tuesday night and I haven't even had a chance to clean all the decades of oil, grime, dirt, and grease off it yet. Whoever had it before me greased the heck out of it - most parts of the lathe are slathered liberally with it.

I am concerned that I'm going to have to disassemble the whole unit to clean it and troubleshoot the sins of the past. I'd like to try and avoid disassembling the headstock unless it's necessary. About the only thing I can say for it right now is that the spindle spins freely and I don't feel any grit in the bearings. Also, the backgears are actually inside the headstock on this model which I found interesting.

By the name tag at the end, I take it that the model is 3980 and serial number is 002649. I'm not sure how to decipher the serial number even though I'm sure it could tell me a lot about the machine.

As top heavy as it is on the lathe stand, I'm going to assume that the reason the transmission is mangled and mostly missing is due to this machine falling over and squashing the motor mount assembly behind the headstock. I'm really hoping the headstock and bed are still sound. ....I guess I'll find out.

Here are some photos:

Front side:
Lathe Front Side.jpg

Backside. Note missing drive assembly:
Lathe Back Side.jpg

This is from the back, between the saddle and the headstock. I can't tell much what's there yet because of the bloody grease.
Bedways by Headstock.jpg

It appears someone tried to make a spider to center stock. They drove this collar up over the threaded collar at the end of the spindle. I'll probably have to cut this
off. Note in the close up that the gears are caked in grease and gack as well.
Lathe Spider (2).jpg

Anyways, thanks for looking. I am open to all tips, tricks, pointers, etc. the hivemind on Hobby Machinist can offer. I am particularly interested in any documentation I might be able to glean on this machine as well as to know what components I need to make it run. I'm going to order a tailstock from eBay (or somewhere?). Any ideas what assembly(ies) I need to get a motor onto the machine? I know in the photos that the covers are mostly off. I have them but they're off the machine right now.


Best,


Jason
 
Hello and welcome.

I’m sure our resident Atlas experts will
be along soon with more detailed info. But regarding fixing up a damaged lathe you may be dollars ahead locating a complete specimen over piecing together stuff from eBay.

The Atlas machines have a good following but my experience with buying parts off eBay is folks seem to think they are made of gold.

Not too long ago I bought a Chinese lathe that had fallen and after many repairs I ended up selling it and buying something else.

Hopefully you’ll be able to find the parts you need but if not know that folks on here will help guide you on this journey.

John
 
I hear what you're saying. However, I'd at least like to see what all is involved here before I cut bait.

It's also worth noting that down where I live, everyone seems to want to charge a premium for clapped out lathes. This is the most complete, least worn out tool I've seen in a while that the seller didn't want $1100+ for.
 
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The manual for your lathe is in the downloads section of the forum. You will need be a donor to access it. Donation is cheap and an excellent way to support the forum.
 
easttex said:
I hear what you're saying. However, I'd at least like to see what all is involved here before I cut bait.

It's also worth noting that down where I live, everyone seems to want to charge a premium for clapped out lathes. This is the most complete, least worn out tool I've seen in a while that the seller didn't want $1100+ for.
Click to expand...
I see you've been lurking here for a while so you probably have a pretty good idea of what you're in for.

From your pictures I can see you definitely need to come up with some way to drive the machine. I can't tell if the busted pieces were originally part of the headstock or not but if you have the tools and patience you should be able to make some kind of drive mechanism. Plan to use a three phase motor or maybe a DC treadmill motor and you won't need the countershaft and pulleys to change speeds.

Bigger concern is missing tailstock and apron. Those pieces aren't easily fabricated and without them it'll be hard to do much work at all.

Good news is the QCGB and legs should easily go for more than you paid if you decide to part the machine out. If it were mine I'd break it down into it's components and carefully inspect everything, that's the only way you'll know what you have and what you'll need to make it whole.

I don't mean to discourage you but having gone through a project where I tried to recover a dropped lathe

https://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/bolton-ha330-13x40-lathe-500-obo.93265/

I would be very wary of doing so again. There's just too many things that I found were damaged later on and it's hard to expect much accuracy after such a mishap. I'm hopeful someone will make good use of my Bolton, I used my Seneca Falls (profile photo) for many years to clean up go-kart engine parts before I fixed it up.

I don't think you'll be hurt at $450 for what you got but IMHO it doesn't look like a good first time machine to me, and I'm someone who loves fixing up old machines more that using them mostly....

John
 
I should mention that I have the apron; it's just off the machine. The seller had taken it off to replace a stripped gear and he included the replacement gear.
 
Are the gearbox levers broken off too? (fingers crossed)
Looks like that machine fell off a truck
-Mark
 
One other thought: I live in apartment that my family is rapidly outgrowing and the wife and I are planning to buy a house and move within the next year. So if it takes me months to get this lathe cleaned up, it's no great encumbrance. And if I determine it is beyond redemption, it'll end up parted out.

Either way, I'm in no rush.
 
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