Craftsman Lathe Resurrection

[mattygee]

Picked up a Craftsman Commercial 12" lathe for 100$ late last summer.. Been working on it as time allows.

As you can see its been quite a project. Trying to learn some lathe techniques as I go and put this thing back into working condition at the same time.

My initial impression was that it was a boat anchor, but all the pieces still turned and the bed was still in decent shape under the surface rust. The main drawback was the qc and leadscrew had been robbed off it.

After using every rust removal method available and lots of elbow grease, it started to look pretty good.

Some shots of pre cleanup and the obligatory 'exploded view' after cleaning and painting the major components

 

[Alchymist]

Wow, quite an undertaking. Lookin good.

 

[kansei]

Nice score on getting a cabinet model so cheap! It would be fun to bring something back from the brink like that. Here's to hoping the bed, ways and carriage are still true...

 

[zkling]

Resurrection for sure.

 

[ritestuff]

Heroic effort, to say the least. I have scrapped many similar machines in far better shape than what you started with.

 

[uniballer]

Very Nice! Waiting to see finished product.

 

[mattygee]

Refurbishing the headstock came next. After disassembling and painting the casting I cleaned all the individual pieces and touched up the rotating parts on my other lathe when practical.

 

[mattygee]

I had to cut off the shot pin for the reverse tumbler lever as it was rusted into the index hole in the headstock. Anyone with an Atlas lathe probably understands this design, with its lack of adjustability for proper (i.e.; quiet) gear mesh is a definite weak point.
After making a new index pin and reassembling the reverser gear lever, I drilled up a blank plate which will be drilled for holes that will attempt to hit the sweet spot in both left and right feed.

 

[mattygee]

As it was about time to get the lathe stood up on its own 4 feet, I turned my attention to the underdrive system. Like many other GJ'ers I am 100% sold on VFD setups. To that end I got a decent deal on a 1.5 HP motor and VFD off the 'bay. I Cleaned up the large step pulley and faced off the casting for the final drive pulley. I was tempted to try to eliminate the reduction pulleys altogether, but the clearance in the headstock wouldn't allow the belts to pass through and around a larger pulley underneath. As I was reassembling the final drive pulley I found the shaft had about an 1/8" of runout. Twisted up a fresh shaft on the 10F and put it all together.

 

[mattygee]

The large step pulley has a lever operated tensioning setup which contained some pretty substandard parts and fitment even for an Atlas. Made some fresh pivot bolts, reamed the holes to match in the cabinet and reassembled. Operation is much more positive now.

 

[mattygee]

After apply body filler to the rust pitting, priming and painting the stand components, I put it all together and dropped the lathe bed on it. Don't have many pics of the saddle/cross slide refurbishment, but pretty much a repeat of the prior posts.. Clean, paint, assemble/lube. I did replace the half nuts and installed a qc box and lead screw I bought. Financially, the qc box was the toughest pill to swallow so far. I did find the threads on the saddle extension tube were pretty well wiped off, so it gave a me chance to try some single point threading. After turning down the old threaded portion of the boss, I fabbed up and pressed on a new bushing, turned it to the appropriate OD, and threaded it. Not perfect but good enough in a first attempt.

 

[mattygee]

I replaced the worn reverse tumbler gears with some steel units from Browning. They were different styles; one had to be faced down and the other bushed. No pics of the final product but they both look identical now.

 

[woody 73]

Mattygee fantastic job!

 

[mattygee]

Well, other than getting it dialed in and working the bugs out of it, the lathe is now running. A busy week of wiring and figuring out the $^%%$##%ing instructions for programming the VFD. I can control speed and direction from the remote panel. Its been a pretty intense project that has eaten up most of my spare time since October.

 

[mattygee]

1 more pic of the remote panel.

 

[FadedGray]

I wish mine would have come on a stand. Nice job btw.

 

[rrich1]

good job!

 

[EPA7]

Wow! This gives me hope for a similar refurb.

 

[MLChevelle]

Looks great! I would love to try to tackle something like this one day

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

 

[Zeeman]

Excellent job. It's nice you had another lathe to fix the old parts. I don't even have one.

 

[mattygee]

Excellent job. It's nice you had another lathe to fix the old parts. I don't even have one.

Thanks for the kind words. I would not have attempted this without another lathe to work with. A milling machine would have come in handy too. I'll probably sell the 10F soon to recoup the money spent on the 12.

M>

 

[Zeeman]

I'd sure like to find an old Craftsman like yours, but I have no experience at all with lathes for working with metal. They seem a little scary actually, but I guess if I knew what I was doing, I would feel better about it.

 

[mattygee]

I'd sure like to find an old Craftsman like yours, but I have no experience at all with lathes for working with metal. They seem a little scary actually, but I guess if I knew what I was doing, I would feel better about it.

I had never touched a lathe previously, so I didn't know squat either, and in the grand scheme of things still don't; but I bought a fixer upper Atlas 10F a few years ago and refurbished it. Between books, chat forums and youtube I've figured out enough on my own to make simple parts. It hasn't always been pretty, but I've learned a lot. Jump in, man.. The water's fine!