Atlas vs Chinese lathe?

[Acem]

I am trying to justify my decision and want some more experienced opinions on which lathe's to keep.

I have recently purchased an Atlas 618, Shop Fox M1099, and Grizzley G0791 lathes at an estate auction and need to decide which to keep. I'm leaning heavily to keeping the Atlas.

Here's the back story. I bought my first lathe/mill at harbor freight about 20 years ago. It was meager but got me very interested. Then I bought another lathe at harbor freight (12x36?) shortly later. I'm a farmer who does alot of maintenance work on my own and other peoples equipment. I'm not a machinist but have been taught enough by a friend to operate it and make it useful. I was an Engineer in my former life so I know enough about what should be done to be dangerous even if I don't have the skills to do it right.

That lathe ended up at a friends shop when I bought an 18-10 (18" by 10ft bed) South Bend with lots of tooling at an estate auction a few years ago. The quality of this 100 year old lathe made me want a smaller nice American made lathe. A friend who taught me to first appreciate the value of a lathe (30 years ago) had a very small old craftsman lathe he was able to do so many things with.

I end up at this estate auction and my wife didn't go with me to stop me (mistake on her part). There is tons (literally) of RC airplane stuff but he also has a large assortment of Grizzly lathes, mills (most in various states of disrepair) and an old Atlas lathe that looked like my late friends Craftsman. I was smitten with the Atlas. Things went cheap and I ended up with the Atlas 618 lathe and Grizzly 7059 mill he was using. I also bought several machines in disrepair including the lathes listed above and some small mills similar to the G7059. I also bought boxes of tooling and parts. It turns out he was purchasing scratch and dent specials from Grizzly and repairing them. He used some and sold some. There are a few pieces missing from the G0791 and M1099 but I think I have enough parts to get them working.

So I have the big South Bend lathe for larger projects (I repaired a 6' long baler roller this summer). However it is inconvenient when working on small stuff and I want a smaller lathe.

I want to keep the Atlas for smaller jobs and sell/trade off the Chinese lathes.

Is there any reason I should keep one of the Chinese lathes instead of the Atlas?

Other advice or opinions?

Thank You
Martin 'Ace' Mershon

 

[Acem]

Here are some pics of the Lathes and Mills I bought.

 

[ARC-170]

I vote for keeping the Atlas. I'm biased; I have one. Parts are available, too. Keep the Grizzly mill; they make nice equipment, they have good customer service and parts are available.

 

[mmcmdl]

I vote American . Atlas , Clausing , Craftsman for these smaller lathes . Im bias also , machining in the USA payed my bills .

 

[benmychree]

Equally biased, Atlas is the bottom of the totem pole so far as accuracy over the long term; flat ways suck big time on small lathes.

 

[PNW_Guy]

It's not that simple.

For one, import does not automatically mean garbage. It's an easy trap to fall into. American is good; import is junk.

It's true that a brand new 1960's Hardinge HLV would be a better than a new 2024 Grizzly, but you can't get a new Hardinge. You'll be lucky to find one that's "only" 50 years old. So what will be better? A 50 year old Hardinge or a new Grizzly? Again, not so simple. It depends on what that Hardinge was doing for all those years. Was it in operation 24x7, or was it in a protoyping shop with occasional use?

True story: My father and I inherited my grandfather's Atlas. Pure 100% American iron. It was a great lathe, except it was beat to hell. The last time I used it I broke a drill bit because the tailstock was so wallered out the bit was flexing and wandering - it broke simply because it was moving too much to stay in one piece while drilling a hole. I put it on FB for a very high price, assuming I would be bargained with. A gentleman showed up, handed me a few thousand dollars, packed it in his truck and drive away. He was more than happy to have a lathe *project*. I needed a lathe to use, and to make parts with. I'm in a similar situation as you; I'm rural and end up making tractor parts and things like that.

I found a local guy selling a 6 month old Grizzly for less than half price - less that the Atlas I sold. (PS: don't do meth). When new the Atlas may have been a better machine. But in its current state, it wasn't capable of making good parts, at least with me as an operator. With the Grizzly, I can easily hit 0.001" tolerance, which is *fine* for tractor parts. I'm happy. The new owner of the Atlas is happy; he has a project. I'm happy too; I have a larger lathe, with more power, better features and it's plenty accurate for my needs.

As much as I'd love to support the US machine tool industry, I'd rather have a 20 year old import than a 50+ year old US made tool *most* of the time. If I had an unlimited budget, I'd buy a used Hardinge and send it to Babbin for a full rebuild. But I'm not spending 50k on a lathe; this is a hobby.

In short, keep the one that you think will make better parts. It might be the Atlas, but it might not.

Edited for multiple typos.

 

[wachuko]

Keep the Atlas and the Grizzly G0759 mill…sell the Shop Fox M1099 and Grizzly G0791…

or keep the Shop Fox M1099 until you are sure that the Atlas is working correctly.

 

[RJSakowski]

I have an Atlas/Craftsman 6 x 18. It was my first lathe. I did a lot of machining with it but I bought a Grizzly G0602 lathe and it is much more lathe. The Atlas uses a lantern style tool holder which id rather feeble in this lathe, The castings are weak and a crash could end up breaking a tool holder or worse. While used parts are available, new parts are almost impossible to find. If you want to upgrade the tool holder to an Aloris style, you would have to go with the OXA series and there are far fewer tool holders available compared with the AXA. The spindle bore is a shade over 1/2" which is a severe limitation.

The Shop Fox looks to be a slightly longer version of the Grizzly G0602. My 602 has served me well in the past 9 years. The Grizzly G0791 has the additional ability for milling. It wouldn't be my choice for a mill but if it was all I had, it would prove useful.

The Atlas lathe looks to be in fairly rough shape and would require a good effort to bring it back.

 

[455dan]

It's not that simple.

For one, import does not automatically mean garbage. It's an easy trap to fall into. American is good; import is junk.

It's true that a brand new 1960's Hardinge HLV would be a better than a brand new 2024 Grizzly, you can't get a new Hardinge. Yopu'll be lucky to find one that's "only" 50 years old. So what will be better? A 50 year old Hardinge or a new Grizzly? Again, not so simple. It depends on what that Hardinge was doing for all those years. Was it in operation 24x7, or was it in a prottyping shop with occasional use?

True story: My father and I inherited my granfather's Atlas. Pure 100% American iron. It was a great lathe, except it was beat to hell. The last time I used it I broke a drill bit because the tailstock was so wallered out the bit was flexing and wandering - it broke simply because it was moving too much to stay in one piece, while drilling a hole. I put it on FB for a very high price, assuming I would be bargained with. A gentleman showed up handed me a few thousand dollars, packed it in hos truck and drive away. He was more than happy to have a lathe *project*. I needed a lathe to use, and to make parts with. I'm in a similar situation as you; I'm rural and end up making tractor parts and things like that.

I found a local guy selling a 60 moth old Grizzly for less than half price - less that the Atlas I sold. (PS: don't do meth). When new the Atlas may have been a better machine. But in its current state, it wasn't capable of making good parts, at least with me as an operator. With the Grizzly, I can easily hit 0.001" tolerance, which is *fine* for tractor parts. I'm happy. The new owner of the Atlas is happy; he has a project. I'm happy too; I have a larger lathe, with more power, better features and it's plenty accurate for my needs.

As much as I'd love to support the US machine tool industry, I'd rather have a 20 year old import than a 50+ year old US made tool *most* of the time. If I had an unlimited budget, I'd buy a used Hardinge and send it to Babbin for a full rebuild. But I'm not spending 50k on a lathe; this is a hobby.

In short, keep the one that you think will make better parts. It might be the Atlas, but it might not.

Agree,
I mean a gear head with threading ability without all kinds of gear changes is worth something. I would not dismiss the asian lathe until it is checked out.
If it is usable it sure looks like a more versatile machine and has prismatic ways and much deeper web castng.

It also looks like it could be a gap bed lathe which will allow a larger swing ~ 17" if the part is not to long.

The atlas sure looks rougher.

ps. There are tell tale signs the grizzly may be a very low hour lathe, if neglected.
It still has the the stop tag zip tied to it and the protective film was only partially peeled off of the face plate Don't see signs of old oil stains dirt or anything else.
One last thing wern't the early Grizzly models like the 4003g and 4002g Taiwan lathes? Just wondering if it could be a Tawan not China sourced lathe sourced lathe. If so Likely induction hardened ways.

 

[Dyspnea]

The atlas is clapped out by the pictures, no quick change gear box, means constantly swapping change gears. Belt changes for speed changes. Flat ways. No cross slide power feed.

The grizzly has a geared head for quick feed and speeds changes. Likely has power cross feed. It’s a heavier machine, will hold tolerances better and finishes will likely be better and is in overall good condition.

The choice seems easy to me.