New To Me Lathe. Craftsman 101.07402

[Monte]

Recently purchased an older than me lathe. 12x24 atlas/craftsman w/timkens. Really grungy looking with lots of caked on dried up oil/dust/rust/bird crap etc. I have completely dis-assembled and given it a kerosene bath in preparation for paint. History on this is that it's been in the same place since 1952 and used mainly for home/farm use. Been sitting un-used for the last 15 years. Lots of copper chips so it was obviously used as an armature lathe some. Very little wear anywhere except for crossfeed nut. Lead screw and half nuts look near perfect Measured wear on the ways - on front, best to worst is .0006, wear on rear way is .0003 . Side wear (front to back) is about .003 (measured with a 6" dial caliper) - not too bad I think. Drive belts are "Atlas quality" branded but really deteriorated so are probably original. Came with an 8" 4 jaw chuck, lantern toolpost & bit holder w/ 2 cutting bits. NO change gears other than whats mounted on it. A 1/4 H.P. motor "Leland Electric" of the correct vintage. Missing threading chart and has broken lead screw bearing support. Other than that this future jewel is complete and original as far as I can tell.

 

[wa5cab]

Sounds like it is in perhaps better than average condition for its age and circumstances of where it was found. You can get a new cross-feed nut from Clausing (used to be Atlas) typically cheaper than on eBay. However, before you make a final decision that it needs replacement, adjust the cross-feed screw end float to as near zero as you can get it without the screw becoming difficult to crank. Then if the backlash is no more than 0.015" I wouldn't personally change it as the average backlash with a new nut and used screw is probably 0.010". And backlash here doesn't have any effect on accuracy anyway. I would however go ahead and buy one in the next few months as there is no telling how much longer Clausing will continue to support the old Atlas and Clausing machines. The chinese flu will get them eventually as it already has most of their competitors.

Replace the belts with good quality US made ones. And I do not recommend that you use link belts in order to avoid having to pull the spindle. Link belts are OK for an emergency repair (what they were originally made for) but are more expensive and more prone to slipping. Absent major damage due to a crash, you shouldn't ever have to replace the belts again. When you do pull the spindle, please note the date engraved on each bearing and report those, the serial number (stamped on top of the right end of the front way), model number and size in the first thread at the top of this forum. Plus anything else that you want to include.

We used to have a Downloads section but lost it when we recently changed the server software from vBulletin 4 to Xenforo. The new software works better, or will, but I don't know when or if we will get a usable Downloads section again. If you want them, I can send you PDF files of the parts list, headstock maintenance instructions, and maybe a few others.