My Atlas Milling Machine, cleanup and upgrades

The early spindle housing I had used grease lubrication with grease fittings. The later ones used oil lubrication. I changed the spindle housing since the original one had a bunch of milling done on the top of it. I think tapered roller bearings don't care for the most part, most bearing manufacturers specify a different speed range for grease or oil lubrication. It was just easier to put oil in than grease in this spindle
 
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I have a friend that has a couple of these he has an aftermarket vertical head on one of them but I have seen some with other type's is there other vertical heads that can be made to work? Ray
 
There's someone on Ebay making and selling new vertical heads. There was one company back in the day that made them, and I think there were a lot of shop made ones floating around, as well. It's a wonder that Atlas didn't offer a vertical head for the mill when they were producing it. Maybe the sales wern't what they had expected. The mills seem to be rarer than the shapers, and much, much rarer than the lathes.
 
Great job on the mill. It will be well worth all the work you have put into it. How do you like the mig welder I see in the one picture? Also that's a cool looking rocking chair,like to see a pic of that!
Cheers Martin
 
You are doing a great job. What kind/color paint are you using?
JD
 
I know this is a old post but do you still have the PN's to the seals that you used.

Thanks
 
There are no seals on the Mill's spindle bearings. There are two dust covers or shields around each bearing. The right inner one has a notch cut in it so that you can pull the spindle out with the Woodruff key in place. The lube system on all of the Atlas machines is what's known as a total loss system. You shouldn't use grease on any of the Atlas spindle bearings. The only way to renew it is by pulling the spindles, which is a fair amount of work. And once you've put grease in them, the grease will usually block proper oil flow.
 
Looking at the photos of the mill in your first post, I'm curious to know if the grease zerks on the outside of the casting are original or something added by a previous owner. I've never seen another Atlas mill that had them.
 
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