Atlas 7B Disassembly and Teardown! Pic Heavy!

Next up is the pivot link for the lower end of the crank arm.

Slide in the shaft part way at first.

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Then a collar, the pivot, another collar and finally into the other side of the column. As of now both collars on the pivot shaft can be snugged up. Leave a tiny bit of play so they don't bind. The big set screw in the pivot is kept loose. We'll see why in a minute.

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This is the pin for the crank arm to pivot interface. Mind the flat spot for the set screw in the crank arm.

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Here it is all hooked up.

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Now install the plate that holds the sliding block in place.

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Now you can let the crank arm slide on the sliding block to check for rubbing. I let it protrude through the top of the column as I slid it back and forth. At first it was rubbing the brass washer behind the sliding block.

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You can slightly adjust the left - right position of the whole crank arm assembly by sliding the pivot arm on the pivot shaft.

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It'll only move a slight amount but if the crank arm assembly is too far to the left it will rub on the big brass washer/spacer. Also the inside of the crank arm cover (the one with the oil hole) will rub the sliding block. I ended up pushing the whole assembly as far to the left as possible then just pulled it back to the right a tiny amount, snugged up the set screw and checked the motion of the crank arm. I repeated this a few times until I could perceive no rubbing anywhere. It very smooth now!
 
Ram time!

Here's the associated parts

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First I had to finally clean the ram. I'd been putting this off for a while. It doesn't fit in my 2 gallon parts washer so it was a pain.

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To get along with re-assembly I threaded in the ram adjuster screw about halfway into the block on top of the crank arm. I actually didn't get a picture of the top block install but it's pretty straight forward. Just a pin and set screw. What is critical is that the counter-bored part of the threaded hole faces to the FRONT of the machine.

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I installed the bevel gear into the ram. It just protrudes through the top and is held in place with a collar. There's a thin fiber washer captive between the bevel gear and the ram.

The ram is then set in the slide ways front first. Don't forget the gib!

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You have to weasel the threaded rod into the ram. Line it up and slide the ram rearward. Kinda hard to pict but you'll see when you do it.

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Set the ram down gently in the slide ways in a rearward position. That is let a few inches of the ram hang over the back of the column. Now since the threaded rod is fixed via the crank arm it will stay stationary regardless of how you slide the ram. So slide the ram forward slowly and reach up under the rear of the ram and make sure the rod is lined up with its hole in the back of the ram. BUT! Before you send it home don't forget there's a bevel gear on that threaded rod.

This was one of the more finicky parts of re-assembly. Make certain there's no burs on the shaft, especially around the through hole for the pin in the bevel gear. You have to hold the gear up in place. There's also a fiber washer behind this bevel gear just like the one on the topside bevel gear. Again, since the rod is fixed via the crank arm you can slide the ram FORWARD carefully. The threaded rod will go through the bevel gear, then the fiber washer then finally it will protrude out the back of the ram.

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Now you must line up the holes for the pin in the bevel gear. This pin will secure the bevel gear to the threaded rod. You can look through the hole in the top of the ram. By rotating the square drive on top of the ram the bevel gear on the shaft will be caused to rotate since they are meshed together at this point. Spin it while looking down the hole til you see the hole in the bevel gear appear. Now rotate the threaded rod until you can see straight through and drop in the pin. CAREFUL! This pin is tapered, it will only go in one way!

Once the pin is in you can apply the brass washer and double nuts. Leave a tiny bit of slack so the rod rotates freely.

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I hope all that is clear. It was kind of tough to work on that and get pictures at the same time.

Next the top slide is screwed on. There's two flat head screws in the holes there that secure it to the block on the crank arm. The handle can be threaded on as well.

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Lastly, there's the hold down bars for the ram. The shims were kept with their respective sides through-out the cleaning process so they go back just like they came off.

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And that's the bulk of it! The rod inside the ram was by far the most tricky part, everything else was fairly straight forward. All that's left are the accessories that adorn the side on the machine, but as of now all the innards are back in place. I've rotated the pinion shaft by hand and it feels very smooth.
 
I was just getting ready to bolt on the zamak cast parts and noticed some issues. The part labeled "Pendant Gear Housing" part # S7-25D has several cracks in it and it looks to the naked eye to be warped and misaligned.

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It looks like the small boss is pushed over to one side and it no longer perpendicular to the face.

I'm going to attempt to re-make this part from 1/8" steel plate as a fabricated weldment.

Here's the original drawing from Clausing.

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And here's a simplified version I'm working on. This is just the backing plate portion.

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The idea is to make or have made the part above in 1/8" steel. Then a strip will be welded around the perimeter at make a tray more or less. Finally the important parts can be turned on the lathe and welded or brazed onto the plate.

I believe there to be enough information available between the drawing and the actual part to make this feasible. Also the areas that interface with the shaper will be machined from steel so accuracy can be assured. On the welded portion, the only critical dimension is the center to center distance of the large and small hole.

I'm still wrapping my head around the details and order of operations but I expect to try it out and I don't see why it won't work. If it does work well I may attempt to re-make the other zamak parts.

We'll see...
 
Good job on the sliding block, should help with the oiling.
 
Woof! Update finally! It's been about 90*F here for a few weeks and motivation to do anything but lay around is at an all time low.

Anyway, as stated previously I'm trying to make a fabricated housing from steel to replace one of the zinc castings. I ended up finding a great company to laser cut my parts thanks to some members. The company is called SendCutSend.com. I chronicled the procedure over here on this thread.

Long story short I got the parts and finally got to tackin' today!

Here's the parts. The round part is the main body and I also had laser cut a strip of the correct width, about 0.620", to make the side wall. I pre bent the strip around a 3-1/4" OD pipe. It sprung back to just about a perfect 3.5"! The stack of random metal will hold the body plate the right dimension up from the table. The original print calls for 0.677-0.679". I should end up pretty close.

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The main plate is clamped to the table and the strip is tacked around the circumference. I sized the width of the strip so that it makes a half corner joint. This will allow me to use the main plate as a form to bend the remainder of the strip while still making for an easy weld with good fusion.

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A few tacks.

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At this point I made a mistake. To close up the last part of the large arc I clamped the strip across the hole with a pair of large C-clamp style vise grips. Of course it deformed the hole instantly. D'oh! I tried to reshape it as best I could. For the next attempt I clamped the strip to the closer part of the hole with a pair of plier type vise grips, NOT spanning across the hole. This went better but I didn't take a pic of it.


I continued to work it around using vice grips for added leverage. Bend a little and tack. Bend a little and tack again.

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Almost there!

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I sized the length of the strip to be a little longer than the full circumference of the main plate.

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I cut the strip with a hack saw at the overlap and clamped it together. See the way the clamp is oriented? This is how I did it on the other side a few steps ago. Before I tried it this way I clamped across the hole and deformed it slightly.

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And here's the tacked up part next to the original.

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I plan to machine bungs to insert into the holes for the critical dimensioned parts. I'm still not sure if I should weld the bungs in or maybe braze them. Brazing might yield less warpage. Or probably I should machine them after welding? Might be hard to hold in the lathe.

So that's my progress so far. I kind of stagnated due to the heat around here but it's still moving forward!
 
Nice work and write up. Enjoyed reading your thread front to back.
Look forward to you completing your project.
 
Thanks! I was hoping to increase the knowledge base for the 7b shaper. Since I ended up having to tear down the machine almost completely I figured I may as well document it for posterity. Recently, the terrible heat and humidity has zapped my motivation but I’ll get back to it soon.
 
Regarding the gear cover I’m welding up, I found the perfect piece of pipe to make the machined piece. It’s gotta be 3.125-3.126” ID to mate with the shaper. I found a piece of sch40 steel pipe that’s about 3.062” ID.
 
I was not aware of shapers until I started watching Abom79 on YouTube. He is really into the shapers. But larger units. Just purchased a 60" Rockford Openside that he is going to rebuild. Has two other units that he had restored. I had little knowledge of them before watching his videos.
I saw an Atlas in my area for sale but it has been completely restored and they want $3200. Here in the PNW, people think that old POS equipment that requires complete rebuilds are made of gold.
Nothing like the Midwest or East Coast.

I not only enjoyed the content of your thread but the writing. Very well done.
 
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