Questions About an Atlas Lathe.

[Dutch4122]

It's sitting in my Grandfather's work shed untouched since he passed in March, 2005. He was a retired Tool & Die Man for Fisher Body (General Motors). As I stood there looking at his Atlas Lathe it occured to me that I know nothing about the work this man did nor the skills involved in his trade.

I'm certain that either myself or my Father will end up with this thing before too long. My Grandmother is talking about clearing out the shed. I think it upsets her to see his things go unused, like maybe somebody else could get some good use out of all this stuff. I can assure you that greed is not a motivating factor here.

Anyway, what I really wanted to know is where do I go to learn about these machines? What books can I get my hands on that will tell me what all this stuff does; and how it is used? Obviously I need something written for dummies. Any help that would point me in the right direction would be appreciated.

My Dad always said that Papa George could fix anything; even if he had to make his own replacement parts. I, of course, never paid enough attention to any of this when I was younger. Today I was just struck with the urge to learn about his world.

Thanks in advance,

[e15cap]

Get over to the pratical machinist forum for all you want to know. The search feature is the best place to start for specific items. Roger

[melw]

Have a look here.http://www.lindsaybks.com/
Lots of books on the lathe and shop info.
Congratulations on the tools.
This is the lathe I have in my garage.
http://home.pacbell.net/melw/Meandlathe.jpg
Well two of the lathes. :mrgreen:
Mel W.

[grumpy one]

Sometimes there is a local trade school or community college that teaches machine-shop practice. I know people who are perpetual "students" at such courses, because they are allowed to use the equipment and perhaps even to buy raw materials at wholesale prices. Just taking the basic course can give you a very fast start to being able to operate machines usefully and without damaging them or yourself.

[Boondocker]

Check out your local tech schools and community colleges for night classes.Our local college has class for as little as 350.00 for 16 weeks around 60 hours. That is 1 semester. I just finished 2 semesters for auto electronics training. Machine shop is next. Good luck.

[floodgate]

Dutch:

Start with the 1942 book written for new machinists (many of them women) going to work on WW II production: "How to Run a Lathe", by South Bend Lathe Works. Lindsay has a reprint of it (address in MELW's post above). It will get you going.

floodgate

[shooter575]

Grab IT! If you like making or fixing you will wonder how you got away without one.Watch out or you may end up like Buckshot He has the desease BAD!!
The internet is great for info and the SB book is a must have.

[redneckdan]

where abouts in michigan are you? I'm headin down state (port huron area) in about a month, if you want I can stop by and show you the basics of operating a lathe.

[medic44]

Dutch:
If Grandpa worked at Fisher Body then is this lathe in the Kansas City area. pm me and I can show you some of the basics before you move it and maybe help you load it. What size is it? Atlas made two main small lathes a 6 x 36 and a 12 x 48. The 6 x 36 is easy to move. the 12 x 48 may take some man power.

[Buckshot]

............I second FLoodgate's suggestion. Get the South Bend book! On a manual lathe, most everything that has been printed since 1900 is still high tech :-) Except now we have HSS cutting tools as common and cheap as dirt. Way back they were special, and forged high carbon was de-rigur for everyday stuff.

Atlas is still supported and there are LOTS of parts and stuff on E-bay. Bad thing there is they seem to be very popular. As a consequence they sometimes go for a bit more money then you'd think they would.

Shooter575 is right. I kinda got it bad :-(. Just today I bought a dividing head with 4 plates for the milling machine I don't have.

..............Buckshot

[Duckiller]

I am guessing that Dutch's grand father worked in THE Fisher body plant in Flint, since closed. Mott or some other nearby community college should have suitable courses. My father and a cousin worked at same plant.

[fourarmed]

A year or so ago I bought an Atlas with the Craftsman name on it. I found some good info here:

http://www.lathes.co.uk/index.html

[Dutch4122]

Guys thanks very much for all of the help and advice. I have an order in for the catalog from Lindsay Publications.

As it turns out, the lathe has been promised to a cousin of mine. Looks like he and I need to have a sit down over this machine. I have found out from Dad that he spent a whole day cleaning up the machine this spring after the thaw. Apparently rust had developed after things warmed up out in the work shed. Now I'm not greedy or selfish; but like I said, me and the cousin need to talk about this.

I'll keep you all posted and thanks again for all the advice and offers of help.

[Bent Ramrod]

Dutch4122,

I have both the 6" and 10" Atlas lathes and an Atlas shaper. I not only like the Atlas machines, but I appreciate the policy and attitude of the old Atlas company which tried its best to put machine tools within economic reach of the small shop that only needed them intermittently, and, of course, the hobbyist. Most other machines you'd better be in full-house production or you couldn't afford them, at least not when new.

I believe you can still get the Atlas "Manual of Lathe Operation" from Clausing in Kalamazoo (I think) which also supplies most parts for the 6", 10" and 12" lathes. This book shows how to change speeds and feeds, where to oil and what with, etc., for the specific machine. It also has sections on general tool grinding, turning, threading, attachments and their uses, as well. The "How to Run a Lathe" South Bend book is a good general reference for operations, more detailed than the Atlas book, but is not specific for the Atlas machines.

If you can pry it away from your cousin and have any interest at all in gun repair/refurbishing/rebuilding or machining of any sort, by all means do so. Like pickup trucks and cell phones, lathes find jobs to occupy themselves. You will wonder how you got along for so long without it. It's much more fun being a manufacturer than a consumer, too, even if you are doing it just for yourself.

Be sure you rummage the area and grab all the tooling you can find. Steady rests, tool posts and holders, taper attachments, milling vises and the like can scatter around and with the lathe gone, look to the uninitiated like anonymous junk to be tossed out. Hard to find that stuff anymore, and I know whereof I speak on this.

One of the best things about having a lathe is you can look with pity on all those posts on all those sites titled "Does anyone have a retainer screw for a Glockenspiel Model 1907?" and know you have escaped from that needy group forever.

[toecutter]

Get IT!

I bought one of these for $800 from a guy on craig's list. He used it for many years out in his garage, and the guy was older than dirt, and was more than happy to sell his tools to anyone who would give them a good and hard working home. He really gave me a deal on it, since it came with the lathe, two chucks (4 jaw and 3 jaw scroll), plus a huge selection of measuring tools. Everything had a fine layer of rust on it, but with a lot of oil, and some elbow grease I got it all cleaned up and it works great. The downside is it uses manual change gears which are a pain, but I've done quite a bit of development on it, I've done dies, parts etc. It's been a great tool! It has it's down sides compared to a really nice new modern machine, but it is still capable of enough precision to turn out good product on it. As I said, I've made dies, reamers, etc.

[Buckshot]

...............One of he Home Shop Machinists "Projects" books had an article of a guy who made a QC box for an Atlas lathe.

...............Buckshot