Play in cross feed and compound

ARC-170 said:
On my Atlas Craftsman 101.07403 I'm not able to accurately turn a diameter. When I get close to the final measurement, if I rely solely on the DRO I'm usually off by a few thousandths. I've been able to make a deeper or shallower cut by moving the cross feed in or out. I'm thinking this is not good! :) Well, I noticed the cross feed has about 0.018" of movement and the compound has about 0.012" of movement. I've tightened everything down (I think), so I'm wondering if this is indicative of screw wear.

Is there a way to lock the cross feed and compound in place? Maybe a mod I could do?

As a workaround, when I get close, I take measurements, then move the cutter so it just starts to cut, then look at the DRO and move in the required amount. I was able to turn a steel rod to within 0.001" of spec. However, that was more luck than skill; I stopped short to check and it turned out to be what I needed.

Any advice or solutions?
Click to expand...
My Atlas 10100 MK 2.had the same problem, the backlash was in the cross-slide nut. My post is in Members Projects (Atlas cross-feed
alignment play) Hope this helps.

Any advice or solutions?
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Any advice or solutions?
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All manual lathes have the same "problem". That is why you learn to only set the cross slide or the compound slide from one direction. If you go a little bit to deep for the cut that you want to make, you back up past the point where the slide starts moving again and try it again. It is just the nature of the beast.
 
Has anyone tried Clausing for this part.
It was also used in the Atlas Milling Attachments
 
Last time that I checked, they still had it. If you only buy the gib lock, the shipping cost will be most of your expense. So if you need any other parts, now would be a good time to buy them!
 
I got a socket head cap screw and machined a dog point on it to the same dimensions as the existing screw (good thing I have a lathe!). Seems to work, but I have yet to machine anything since I did this. I was able to lock down the compound and the cross slide so there was no play, though.
 
This is on my to do list.
 
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