Show us your Atlas lathe setup!

[Privateer]

Allen,

I had measured .003" near the headstock, and noticed that while attempting to part off or other heavy cutting, the saddle would rock. After I got the bed back, I spent hours making sure everything was as level and rigid as I was able. The workbench has casters, so I added short legs to support the bench as well as level it (my basement has about a 1" drop over 5'). Followed by leveling the bed with a machinist's level. Now she can take a .020" cut off crs with a carbide cutter and not break a sweat. I am very pleased with the lathe now.

Terry

 

[mattygee]

Heres my 10" setup... Can't make any claims as to getting a screaming deal on the lathe, as it was a boat anchor when I bought it. As luck would have it after finishing this on, I was chatting about it at work when a co-worker chimed in and said he had a lathe and some other stuff his wife was pestering him to get rid of... So I wound up with a second virtually (you could see your reflection in the ways) NOS Atlas 10" lathe along with a whole load of accessories, including the tool room taper jig, the South Bend collets, cross slide table, the steady/follower pair and the backing plates. I sold the the basic lathe for what I paid for the whole lot. This has a 3 phase motor controlled by a VFD. I added an extra reduction gear (20/40 I think) in the gear train to give a slow feed of .002" per rev. Its been a learning experience!

 

[itsme_Bernie]

here is a pic of mine that i started to restore. I think it is a 1936 by the gear covers, it a 12 x 36. I thought it would be a good project after watching some you tube videos..lol

Whoh!! Miatakid!!!! What the heck is THAT??? Is it cut off??? Or some short bed I never heard of?? How cool!

Bernie

 

[itsme_Bernie]

Here are a few photos of a Craftsman/Atlas that I restored last summer. I scraped the bed, carrage and cross slide, turcited them, did a very careful alignment, upgraded the handwheels, added the DRO and took it down to it's last nut and bolt!

It turned out to be a very tight, accurate lathe that's a joy to run!

Best regards,

Phil

Phil!

That's beautiful! I was scrolling down, and saw this beautiful setup, and thought it looked like your work! Wow...

Bernie

 

[drs23]

Here are a few photos of a Craftsman/Atlas that I restored last summer. I scraped the bed, carrage and cross slide, turcited them, did a very careful alignment, upgraded the handwheels, added the DRO and took it down to it's last nut and bolt!

It turned out to be a very tight, accurate lathe that's a joy to run!

Best regards,

Phil

That's gorgeous Phil, fantastic job! I'd of never thought to use an off white like that. I really like the way it turned out.

Congrats on a fine job!

 

[itsme_Bernie]

I hope former Atlas owners are invited to post here! I miss mine!!
The choice between buying new machines, or old machines and fixing-restoring-repairing is often discussed here.

My first dedicated metal working machine (besides a drill press) was a Sherline Mill. I am so thankful to them for making machining possible to start.

BUT I know I could have never really gotten started when I did, if I hadn't been given an old Atlas 618 it pretty ROUGH shape, and spent my time and elbow grease making it a wonderful machine. It is really pretty shocking to me looking at the condition it was in when I carried home:




... And let me be clear, I was thrilled! I spent all my "me" time for at least a month or two taking it apart, taking progress pics, cleaning every bolt and nut, slide, carefully polishing ways, and working stiff handles and controls all over. My friends also gave me the milling attachment, in similar shape. It was only missing change gears and a few little pieces to be complete under all the gunk, rust, dust, and overspray:




After a few months, and less than $75 on Ebay for miscellaneous parts, I had a wonderful, solid, and quite accurate machine that got me past the first few years of STEEP learning curve. That was nine years ago. I had this machine until recently. If I had NOT restored it, I would not have been able to get the South Bend Heavy 10 (10L for search purposes), since the time was right, I now had a worthwhile machine to SELL. If you can believe it, I got almost half of the money I needed for the SB by selling the Atlas 618 and it's accessories!! (I have more cool ones to sell by the way




All the parts you can see there were the original parts!! Just cleaned up!! Even that leadscrew!

I traded a different machine for this really mint Atlas 618 too, and someone BABY'd it it's whole life- EXCEPT they painted it!! Why paint a mechanically perfect condition machine when you bought it new??? hah hah
He must have had fun painting it, because look how he labeled everything!




He even did an expert job retrofitting this handwheel at the end of the leadscrew for "micrometer carriage hand feed". I used this accessory daily when I owned this lathe!
He also did a nice job adding a GITS oiler to the leadscrew bearing:




I have all kinds of Atlas 618 and equivalent Craftsman literature digitized if anyone ever needs it.


Bernie

 

[kd4gij]

Here is mine

 

[1eyed_king]

an old Atlas 618 it pretty ROUGH shape

Bernie

Bernie, you've given me hope! My first project (and the reason I joined) is a 101.21400 that I thought was on the verge of being un-salvageable, but it looks better than that thing. I just got it back to my shop and I'm in the planning stages now. Any early advice to a noob whose only supplies are elbow grease and gumption?

I have all kinds of Atlas 618 and equivalent Craftsman literature digitized if anyone ever needs it.

Bernie

I think I may be missing some parts for my rebuild. Any chance you have a high resolution parts list/diagram I can use to cross check?

Thanks, and your machines are beautiful!!

 

[dvcprepper]

My first and only lathe which I found on CL last weekend. It would seem to be a 1946-47 12"x24" 101.07403 Atlas

Other than cleaning some gunk and replacing the motor with an original, I don't see anything that needs fixing in the near future. I'm sure I will not be able to resist a frame off restore though as looking at some of the classics on this forum makes me drool.



image by DVC Prepper, on Flickr

image by DVC Prepper, on Flickr

image by DVC Prepper, on Flickr

 

[pipehack]

These Atlas lathes are more popular than I thought. You folks have some great set ups. I'll post up my 6" Atlas when It's more cleaned up. I hate embarrassing myself.