Atlas 7B Disassembly and Teardown! Pic Heavy!

[Weldo]

Here's just a few pics of the empty column.

And the pile of parts awaiting the parts washer.

It looks a little daunting but I don't think you could assemble this machine incorrectly. All the parts seem to fit only one way. The tough part may be the order of operations.

I'm not sure if I'll get into the table and all that. If I do I'll post up a similar walk through. I plan on going through the ratchet mechanism as well but may after the inside is all back together.

 

[rwm]

I had no idea they were that complex. I'm betting when you get it back together you will have some extra parts!
Robert

 

[Weldo]

Haha I actually already found one extra! I started the parts washing phase today. All the fasteners that have lock washers have the internal serrated type. There was one instance where I had four screws, each is supposed to have a lock washer. Two of the screws had their lock washers, one screw had two serrated lock washers on it and another one had a split type lock washer. So I took the split one off and transferred one of the doubled up serrated ones.

The only thing bugging me is the lack of the spacer indicated on the parts diagram back in post #13. I'm not sure if I should attempt to make one and if so how thick should it be? I'm planning on getting it back together and seeing what the clearances are like on that part. Also I'm starting to wonder if the sliding block was remade at some point. When I cleaned it up in the parts washer I found that the sides of the block that ride in the slot in the crank gear had been brazed up and ground flat. I don't know if this is factory but it might indicate repair or replacement of the block at some point.

 

[ErichKeane]

For that spacer, I'd measure the amount that the block itself is 'lower' than the plate (or the surrounding parts), and subtract a couple thou. You can see in your picture that the block is a few thou 'low' and that the shaft itself is 'high'. I think you want to make it just shy of even with the bottom of the plate.

I'm guessing your repair is just that, a shop-time repair. Fortunately, braising is going to be about as soft as the stock brass, I'm guessing it wore out and someone just filled it in and re-ground it flat. It appears to me that the block isn't particularly complicated of a part, so it seems like it would be easy enough to remake if you needed to.

Side note:

This thread has already been useful to me! I was shapering today, and my shaper got stuck. It turns out, the step pulley on the machine-side was slipping! I pulled it apart (which required pulling off the gears behind the stroke adjustment adjustment) on the way to pulling off the entire outer casting (so the 'ring' behind the gear, then the back half of that casting) and got to the little ring! It wasn't obvious that it was threaded on, but I saw your post before checking it out, so I knew to thread it off!

Turns out, someone had re-assembled my step-pulley without the key at one point. It seemed to be a 1/8"x1/2" woodruff key. Unfortunately, the closest I had was 5/32"x1/2" flat bottom! This required surface grinding it thinner, and taking some material off the top to get the height correct (thank you machinery handbook!).

However, after a little more than an hour (and a dirty me + dirty phone from checking out your pictures!), I was back to work! I ended up making some T-Nuts for my mill, which has an annoyingly slightly-under-9/16" T-slots, but not smaller enough (nor new enough, its a 1960s millrite!) to be metric. Most of my T nuts have been bench-grindered to size, so it'll be nice to have decent ones. AND I got to play with all kinds of cuts (including 7" on the shaper!).

Final side-note, I got the speeds/feeds diagram from the manual printed at VistaPrint. It was $20 or so, but it seemed like a great addition to the shop, so that I could mount it behind the machine.

 

[Rob]

If you give Clausing a call they should send you a copy of the drawing for the spacer. If the part is no longer available and they still have the drawing they will send it.

 

[Lo-Fi]

I suspect this thread is going to be a valuable resource for 7b owners for years to come!

Thanks for all the pics, it's great to see the inner workings of the machine. Particularly as I'm (very slowly) working on an open-source shaper design myself.

 

[Weldo]

Thanks! I hope this documentation can help some people! If anyone wants a particular detail shot, please let me know. I currently in the middle of parts washing so it's still all apart.

I wanted to share a few pics of the block. I mentioned before that is has had brass applied to it. Here you can see the brazing applied and ground flat.

Looks like a thin layer of brass.

I still wonder if this is a factory thing or this block has been repaired or replaced. Also, maybe if the block was made anew it was made a little bit thicker so as to not need the spacer I'm missing.

If anyone else ever takes apart an Atlas 7B I'd be curious what your sliding block looks like and maybe get some dimensions from it.

 

[Weldo]

If you give Clausing a call they should send you a copy of the drawing for the spacer. If the part is no longer available and they still have the drawing they will send it.

Thanks for the advice! I just sent them an email. If there's no reply in a few days I'll give 'em a call.

 

[Weldo]

I got a reply from Clausing! What awesome service!

Both parts I was interested in are discontinued of course but they did provide drawings.

This is the washer. Should be easy enough to make.

The attachment below is the drawing for the sliding block. I want to measure mine and see how it compares but it looks like the material called for is Oilite. Mine is steel with brass added to the sliding surfaces.

Any thoughts?

 

[ErichKeane]

Oilite is that impregnated Bronze, isn't it? It looks to be pretty darn expensive to buy blocks of! That said, its about $50 for a 3/4x2"x6" on mcmaster for generic bearing bronze. After looking at the diagram, I think the idea would be that the material is self-lubricating. I suspect yours is not in fact, since it is covered in braising rod, though I'd expect the braising rod to wear first.

Those diagrams are great! I'm glad they are available, I love the ability to remake parts for this as they break!