Rebuild of an Atlas 12 lathe

Sooo, here's the deal.
A friend of mine who's a motorcycle mecanic bought this lathe from one of his neighbor.
It's a Atlas 12, he had it for a while and had plans to fix it and use it in his home shop.

I told him that I was looking for one and IF he ever wanted to sell it , that I would be interested in it.

About a year after, I bring him my bike for service and he tells me that he doesnt have the time to work on it and it's taking space in his home shop and he asked if I was still interested in it.

He sold it the same price he paid for it...250$
It came with a box filled with attachements.

This is what it looked like when I went to pick it up.
Sorry about the pics size, dont know how to make them bigger...
I thik if you click on the pics, you can see the bigger pics...




Lots of rust sooo I decided to not only fix it but to take it apart and rebuild it.
First I did the various parts and the 2 chucks (one of the chucks isnt in this pic)



Sadly, I didnt take too many pics but heres a few I have of the carriage.

I had to repair the handles, they were both broken.
Welded a rod, made some new threads and bolted the handles back on the carriages.




Everything was taken apart, derusted, degreased, and rattled canned.
Ok, Why is it red???
Well because it was the only can I had in the garage when I started....
And I like it

Apron was cleaned oiled


Now this is the only gear that was broken in all the lathe.
Its the apron traverse gear, looks like it's a weak spot and they are available on fleabay, a bit expensive but at the price I paid for the lathe...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ORIGINAL-AT...VERSE-GEAR-CASE-ASSEMBLY-10F-11-/221093022722

Apron done


Then I took the base apart


And the head stock, too.


Once the headstock and base ready, I reassembles it
The headstock was a bit of a challenge, the back gears were frozen in rust, took a while to get it free.
BUT now, everything is oiled up and working great.


Starting to look like a lathe again




Then, it was the gear box turn to get the treatment.


again, everything was cleaned up.


Deburred the shafts and painted the casing.



Reassembled the gearbox


Then the reverse thumbler


Then I put back the apron and carriages where they belong.


It looks much better and after a few adjustements, everything works on it real good.

Next, clean and paint the covers.

Nice work on the lathe rebuild, I wish I could find a lathe close and within my low budget.

930dreamer said:

Nice work on the lathe rebuild, I wish I could find a lathe close and within my low budget.

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Thanks, I guess I was lucky, the thing costed me 250$, some degreaser and a couples of rattle cans.

Nice cleanup of the old girl!

Question: is the bench you have it on where it will live? Or are you planning on another bench for it? I ask because you will also need to do some leveling and whatnot to make sure you are tuning cylinders and not tapers.

I have a similar model (Atlas Built Craftsman, early 70's machine -36" between centers instead of the 24 I'm guessing you have, and mine has the factory base.) What is your Serial Number? I can probably estimate the dates it was built if you are interested.

Outlawmws said:

Nice cleanup of the old girl!

Question: is the bench you have it on where it will live? Or are you planning on another bench for it? I ask because you will also need to do some leveling and whatnot to make sure you are tuning cylinders and not tapers.

I have a similar model (Atlas Built Craftsman, early 70's machine -36" between centers instead of the 24 I'm guessing you have, and mine has the factory base.) What is your Serial Number? I can probably estimate the dates it was built if you are interested.

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Thanks Outlaw,

No it's not going to live there.
Thats my workbench.
I'm going to fab a bench for it a little later and it will have a dedicated space in the garage, I'll make sure it will be leveled.

It's a 3980 model, serial number 004555.
24 in, centers

Hmmm, not enough of that model in the DBs I have access to.

A call to Clausing Service center, (Atlas bought Clausing and changed their name) and they will give you it's birth date. that actually have a few parts for these still and if not will sell prints of the part. (Only for discontinued parts though...)

Two good resources for these machines:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/atlas_craftsman/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/clausing_lathe_and_mill/

Very nice summary and pictures of the restoration! Great job.

Good job on the rebuild. These lathes are fun and can do more than most people expect, if you make lots of light cuts on steel. They do very well on brass, aluminum, and plastic.

A rigid base makes a big difference in how heavy a cut you can take on one of these machines. A heavy steel table top will greatly improve the rigidity of the machine. I know of two of these Atlas lathes that had the bed attached directly to mounts cast into concrete pillars that were poured at the same time as the shop floor. They were powered by 5 HP motors and chain drives. They were used to cut 1" acme threads for a paving machine and cut the threads in 3 passes! They were worn out in a short time, and many of the lead screw drive parts were custom made from steel or high-strength bronze.

TIP: the feet that bolt to the lathe bed are not surfaced on the bottom. I clamped mine upside-down on a milling machine and milled that surface true to the top. It took off a lot of material when I did this. Atlas assumed that you would stack shim washers under each foot and would compensate for this when levelling the lathe. Don't just bolt it down without levelling or checking for a gap at this point!

I have one underneath drive machine and one old 10x24 that lives on a bench with a 2-1/4" plywood top. The 10" has a steel chip pan made for me by the local sheet metal shop. I highly recommend a steel chip pan, as it keeps the chips and cutting oil from working their way into the bench top.

Another good base for a smaller lathe like this is an old 1940s-early 60's steel desk, the one with the linoleum tops. (often these are a sick green color, and are often found for free) This also gives you tool storage. The desk feet can be leveled, so this helps on uneven garage floors. You can also add another layer, be it steel or maybe butcher block to beef it up.

on the metal chip tray, and on not getting the bed twisted (which was what I was talking about on the leveling) beg, borrow or steal a machinist's level, as an ordinary carpenter's level isn't sensitive enough.

Outlawmws said:

Another good base for a smaller lathe like this is an old 1940s-early 60's steel desk, the one with the linoleum tops. (often these are a sick green color, and are often found for free) This also gives you tool storage. The desk feet can be leveled, so this helps on uneven garage floors. You can also add another layer, be it steel or maybe butcher block to beef it up.

on the metal chip tray, and on not getting the bed twisted (which was what I was talking about on the leveling) beg, borrow or steal a machinist's level, as an ordinary carpenter's level isn't sensitive enough.

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Thanks for the tips and links.
I will use them for sure

Provincial said:

TIP: the feet that bolt to the lathe bed are not surfaced on the bottom. I clamped mine upside-down on a milling machine and milled that surface true to the top. It took off a lot of material when I did this. Atlas assumed that you would stack shim washers under each foot and would compensate for this when levelling the lathe. Don't just bolt it down without levelling or checking for a gap at this point!

I have one underneath drive machine and one old 10x24 that lives on a bench with a 2-1/4" plywood top. The 10" has a steel chip pan made for me by the local sheet metal shop. I highly recommend a steel chip pan, as it keeps the chips and cutting oil from working their way into the bench top.

Click to expand...

I plan to fab a table for it with some adjustable feet on it.
I will make it sturdy so it should be allright and stable
I will check for the lower part of the feet of the machine like you sugested.

Again thanks for the tips guys.

Today I fitted the covers.
Had a few issues with the hinges, then clean and painted them.

Ok I finished painting, installing and adjusting the covers for the little lathe.

The previous owner kinda repaired the belt cover for the motor with big barn door type hinge.
I made a new one with 2by 1quarter inc thick steel.

Looks much better and it works.







Next is to make a solid table for it.

Nice work again on the Atlas.

Dam you michel! where were 2 weeks ago when I brought my QC54 home! It had been sitting and was all gummed up. I wanted to strip it down like you did but having no experience I was afraid to. I just took it down enough to free everything up so it ran smoothly. I have some pretty wobbly gears that I want to put new bushing in so I'll probably strip it down like you did in the future. I'm wondering if they sell a bushing "kit" or do you just order the ones you want? I'm going to need some centers for the tail stock and some more bits and holders for mine.

Anyway nice work! Thanks for posting!

Here's a pic of mine after much cleaning up, check the stand. I'm going to put adjustable leveling feet under it.

You've got a lathe,make your own bushings!

Andrew S. Quinn said:

You've got a lathe,make your own bushings!

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Well yes, I guess that pretty much makes me a machinist now doesn't it, heh heh.

I figure by the time i learn if I need sintered bronze or if plain brass would work and by the time I'm ready to turn some out it would probably be faster and cheaper to just buy a kit and save my creative exploits for more demanding ventures.

Really nice restoration, thanks for sharing.

First time I've ever seen the workings of a lathe in such detail, good to see it ready for years more service.

2oolhound said:

Well yes, I guess that pretty much makes me a machinist now doesn't it, heh heh.

I figure by the time i learn if I need sintered bronze or if plain brass would work and by the time I'm ready to turn some out it would probably be faster and cheaper to just buy a kit and save my creative exploits for more demanding ventures.

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Ya gotta start somewhere! This would be an easy enough thing to try and make,then build confidence for other things after that.

2oolhound said:

!

Here's a pic of mine after much cleaning up, check the stand. I'm going to put adjustable leveling feet under it.

Click to expand...

Hahaha, you know, it's not a big deal to take apart.
Just use a lot of WD40 to make sure everything moves and thats it.

Heres the link that helped me the most to figure out how parts come back together.
http://bridgeport.askmisterscience.com/atlas.htm

Heres another one for pics references

http://www.lathes.co.uk/atlas/page4.html


It was a real fun project and nice to see an old machine back to work.

I loved it.

Now I need to find a milling machine.... and rebuild it LOL

Oh and yours looks like this one but yours, has a quick change gears added to it
http://www.lathes.co.uk/atlasrestoration/

AeroNautiCal said:

Really nice restoration, thanks for sharing.

First time I've ever seen the workings of a lathe in such detail, good to see it ready for years more service.

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Thanks, it was a fun project.

That is a beauty!
Very nice work. Makes me want to rebuild mine, although only my crossfeed needs rebuilding.:

Steevo said:

That is a beauty!
Very nice work. Makes me want to rebuild mine, although only my crossfeed needs rebuilding.:

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Thanks Steevo
Man if mine was looking as good as yours. I wouldnt have touched it LOL

Andrew S. Quinn said:

Ya gotta start somewhere! This would be an easy enough thing to try and make,then build confidence for other things after that.

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OK, I may look into making some. Hopefully I just have to drill the centers out of some bar stock and cut to length.

michel said:

Hahaha, you know, it's not a big deal to take apart.
Just use a lot of WD40 to make sure everything moves and thats it.

Heres the link that helped me the most to figure out how parts come back together.
http://bridgeport.askmisterscience.com/atlas.htm

Click to expand...

Thanks, this is a great parts diagram and info, I've been lubing it with 75/90 synthetic gear oil, they say 20wt . I'd found those other links and they helped me along too.

Awesome rebuild. A reference for someone looking to restore theirs.


Nelson