Atlas/Craftsman Serial Numbers and Bearing Dates (if applicable) For Database Entries

Tinkertoy,

I moved your post to the Serial Number thread in the Sticky area. I added the three serial numbers to the master database, but please confirm that the first two numbers are 005324 and 008953. Also, please sent me the owner's name or H-M User ID and the location (country/state/city). And confirm that none of them also have the serial number stamped into the top of the left or right knee way.
 
Tinkertoy,

I moved your post to the Serial Number thread in the Sticky area. I added the three serial numbers to the master database, but please confirm that the first two numbers are 005324 and 008953. Also, please sent me the owner's name or H-M User ID and the location (country/state/city). And confirm that none of them also have the serial number stamped into the top of the left or right knee way.

The owners H-M Users ID is Tinkertoy1941 location Hillsdale, Michigan,
The shapers do not have any S/Ns stamp on the knee.
I also have MFC Mill 008199 with a Marvin Vertical Head
Two Atlas drill presses one with 1010S S/N 005283 and 64 S/N 05283
Also have many lathes Craftsman and Atlas one with W72 Cabinet and original Legs for several
008199 008199 005283 could pass for new very little wear.
Thanks Phil

Closed Cabinet.JPG

20180629_193321 r.jpg

20180629_193358 r.jpg

20180629_200540 r.jpg
 
So here's my 7b plate. So how old is it?

image.jpeg
 
Atlas Drill Press Model 64 serial number looks like 058456. Please confirm.
 
So here's my 7b plate. So how old is it?

Unfortunately, there is no accurate way in which to do that. With the Timken bearing equipped 10" and 12" lathes up through the early 1950's, you could, from the date engraved on the spindle bearings, safely state a date that the lathe couldn't possibly be older than, and from our having gathered bearing dates from several dozen machines, feel comfortable with saying that the lathe wasn't made more than about a year later than the later of the two bearing dates. But Atlas (or maybe Timken) didn't date the bearings in any of the other machines that they made.

At one time, I feel safe in saying that Atlas had records of when each serial number machine was made, or at least the high serial number for each month. But unfortunately, those records have all been either lost or destroyed. So the best that we can do is to guess at how many machines were made and at when the first and last one was made, and assume that over the production life of each machine, the same number were made each month or year (knowing that this isn't true because, given that the company is still in business, they don't still make the old machines).

So on the shapers, we know about when production started and when it ended. And we know that at least 13691 of them were made as someone has reported having the machine with that serial number. We only have 46 machines currently in the database master copy (and I do need to update the copy in Downloads). So to deal in round numbers, I arbitrarily guessed at 15,000 for the total production. We can be pretty sure that more were made during the War years than before or since. And that the number being sold in the late 1950's was less than the average, since they quit making them. But trying to guess as to how many were actually made each year between late 1937 and late 1959 would be a laborious exercise. So anyway, with all of those caveats (or weasel words), the straight line calculation has your machine being made on 09/11/1955. It was almost certainly made earlier than that but how much earlier it's impossible to say. My guess would be three to five years. If someone were to turn up an original invoice with serial number on one of the machines, that might help with the accuracy of the guesstimate.
 
Thanks. I appreciate the background and hard work. I figured it to be somewhere in the 40's because of the motor. It's the original and has oiler caps. You just don't see 110v motors with oilers very often. I would have also thought it would have been early 40's too because of the low SN 2199. But SN's can be misleading because companies can start #'s over for various reasons. Some sort of disaster, fire, flood or war. My only exposure to the mysteries of SN's is the Gibson co also in Kalamazoo who made stringed instruments. Figuring out their SN's is crazy. There are weird gaps in the numbers and it took real dedication and true detective work to make some kind of sense. Gibson was totally disrupted because of WWII so I'm surprised to hear production of the 7b actually went up in the 40's. I thought it was a hobby machine and wouldn't have been part of the war effort.
 
Atlas apparently sold a lot of machines to the British.

No, during the Great Depression, there wasn't any hobby market for the most part. Neither Atlas nor Logan were sold as a hobby machine in the years before WW-II. That's just BS promulgated by owners of a certain other brand. At the time that Atlas began making lathes, the country was in the depths of the Great Depression. Only the well-to-do who had not gone broke in 1929 could have afforded a hobby. What Sears intended is less certain but the 10" was pushed to the small shops and as second operation machines to larger shops. That didn't begin to change until after WW-II. During the early and mid 30's, Atlas & Sears also marketed stripped down versions where you could buy the basic lathe and later buy and bolt on the parts to enable threading, back gears, and other functions or operations. That didn't cease until about the time that the 10F came out.
 
Any 10 C's in the database? Here some pics of the lathe I acquired this spring. It had been given to the PO in a partially dissembled and broken state, no info from the original owner who has passed. Not sure if the switch is original, and I changed the cross slide to a newer one so that I could use the milling attachment that came with. A pretty complete set of accessories came with this lathe, three and 4 jaw chuck, steady and follow rests, drill chuck, centers, faceplate and dogs, some tools bits and the aforementioned milling attachment. The image below shows its new and cluttered shop environment but hopefully gives enough detail. I'm thinking this is ca 1934? Serial number is C 359.

atlas serial number.jpg

atlas.jpg

Tim
 
Back
Top