New to me Atlas Lathe

[PHPaul]

Having scanned the available forums, I guess this is the place to put it.

Several years ago, a fellow firefighter offered me this ancient (1890-ish) Seneca Falls Star 30 lathe. Originally line shaft driven it had been converted to an electric motor drive and used in his shop for wood turning. It's age and the speeds involved in wood turning hadn't done it any favors but the ways were in good shape, the spindle and gear head were decent and the tailstock was solid.

I used it for several years and accumulated various attachments that were either correct or at least adaptable to it. There were two problems that I couldn't economically solve and they eventually became aggravating enough that replacing the whole thing seemed more and more like a good idea: The 3 jaw chuck had serious runout and the compound was worn to the point that it would move under any cut over a few thousandths and tuck the tool under center with predictable results.

A month or so ago, the planets aligned: I had some cash tucked away and this nice little Atlas 3995 12x24 popped up on Marketplace. I went down and looked at it and snatched it up. Multiple immediate advantages: It is tight, it has a quick change gearbox (vs. swapping change gears) and it has a threading dial on the carriage making threading MUCH easier.

 

[PHPaul]

It also came with a cabinet CHOCK full of tooling in HSS, brazed carbide and insert style.

Also included were the faceplate with various sizes of drive dogs, steady rest, 3 and 4 jaw chucks, turret tool holder for the tailstock, live and dead centers, 2MT Jacobs chuck and various chuck keys and Morse Taper tools.

Documentation included a full manual with parts list and a lube chart.

 

[PHPaul]

I have a modeling "machine shop" in my basement with the usual assortment of measuring and setup tools: micrometers, dial indicators, parallels, 123 blocks, that sort of thing. My "big shop" is 100 yards or so from the house and running back and forth to grab tools is more of a PITA than my lazy butt is willing to deal with so I've pretty much replicated all that stuff for the new lathe, along with various related lubes, solvents, dies, cutting fluids and things of that sort.

Thankfully, my McMaster and Amazon bills are computerized and SWMBO doesn't do computers so she doesn't know - at least in any detail - what I've spent setting up my "new" lathe.

 

[bird dogger]

Is that a Precision Matthews mill in the background?

I'm running out of room in my shop and am seriously considering a good benchtop mill or similar in size as yours for all the small projects that come along.

 

[PHPaul]

Is that a Precision Matthews mill in the background?

I'm running out of room in my shop and am seriously considering a good benchtop mill or similar in size as yours for all the small projects that come along.

Its a Grizzly G0704. Taiwanese I think. Most of them are from somewhere in Asia. I've been very happy with it, and added some tooling for it to my "Christmas list" too. Set of fly cutters and next purchase will be a bigger vice for it.

Grabbed that off Craigslist several years back.

 

[miket1]

Nice!

 

[lugbolt]

I have almost the same lathe, but mine's the "craftsman" version-and later vintage (internal belt tensioner, circa 1980's). Pretty good hobby machine. Come to think of it, mine's a rebadged 3996 I believe and not a 3995. 36" bed yours is a 24" IIRC.

couple complaints. The slowest feed rate is too fast. I found a gear on Ebay that slows that down by 50% I believe, so it'll feed at roughly .002" PR. Makes a huge difference! But your threading is then thrown off, so if I have to thread anything I have to swap the factory gears back in. Thankfully I don't get much need for that. Usually turning aluminum and here lately a lot of HDPE and nylon.

The lantern tool post sucks. I put a OXA quick change tool post on mine, big huge improvement. You can run a size 0 or 1, but the 1 is bigger and stronger, however the Atlas's design is such that the rigidity is about the same as a wet noodle, so the 0 works fine; it's stronger than the rest of the machine.

The flat ways wear, particularly near the spindle and there is no cost effective way to repair them aside from having them reground. That's expensive from what I understand. It does affect accuracy but in my case if I can get .001 accuracy it's fine-for a hobby lathe. I have had a call for a couple parts that needed to be .0005 tolerance and I chased my tail on those; but got it done.

some of the later ones like yours and mine have plastic gibs. I believe it's littlemachineshop that has brass gibs for them. I haven't changed mine yet. So far I just set everything up and adjust them periodically, seem to be fine.

So far has been one of the better investments I've made as far as tooling goes. I've made all kinds of parts and done a LOT of transmission work with it for friends and family. Usually powerglides; I build quite a few of them now, and typically have to machine the reverse pistons down to around .850 thickness, also have to face the back of the pump for a bearing instead of a bushing. I wish I had a good 4 jaw for it, but it's not in the budget and the 3 jaw has close to zero runout. It's ten thousandths currently. The PO ground the jaws before I purchased it but wouldn't sell me the grinder.

I picked up a set of cheap carbide insert tool bits. They last a LOT longer, until you chatter then they're gone. Reminds me I need to order a few inserts. If you are turning something that is likely to chatter even just a little, might as well use a HSS bit. I use HSS on most of the aluminum and brass stuff anyway.

On mine I can't get the tailstock perfectly in line with the spindle, the spindle is a little high and there is no adjustment for height-only on the one axis (front-rear). I have that perfect but can't adjust height, and turning a longer piece of stock it can affect accuracy (a little bit of taper). Luckily I don't do a lot of that and what little I do, is usually a looser tolerance anyway. It still bothers me though. I may end up figuring out a way to "adjust" that, maybe with a shim or something.

another complaint: the spindle hole is small, I want to say it's only 7/8" ID so turning longer parts that may need to go through the hole is challenging (aka impossible).

you may want to start by giving it a thorough cleaning and adjusting the spindle bearings. Mine were a little on the loose side, but it's easy to adjust. I pulled the cross slide and carriage apart, cleaned all the chips out and cleaned up the half nuts. Lots smoother now. Maybe someday I'll have time and motivation to finally throw a new coat of paint on it, just so I can dirty it back up. LOL.