Atlas vs Chinese lathe?

Lack of the quick change gearbox is a big negative for the Atlas. The positive is that the Atlas will be easy to sell and if you bought these items for a good price, you should be able to flip it and perhaps something else to fund a better lathe. For your purpose, you really should have a quick change gear box.

A late Atlas 12x36 with the 1/2" thick ways is a major step up from the 6" Atlas. They still are limited in power and rigidity, but can do decent work, if you are patient and don't try to take heavy cuts.

You will have to step up to a Clausing or South Bend to get to the next step up in US quality machines, but there is a big jump in price.

It sounds like your experience with imported lathes is limited to the bottom end of the quality range. Stepping up quality level of imports results in much better machines, and they have modern features that will make them more productive.

I have done lots of good work on an Atlas QC42 (10x24) lathe. It has the thin (3/8") ways, so I can't take very heavy cuts. It cuts dead straight and I have a 3/4 HP motor on it, so power isn't the limiting factor. It has made or saved me enough money that it has paid for itself many times over.

If you go with a light duty small lathe, remember that you can rough out work on the big lathe, then do the finer work/fits/finish on the smaller lathe. Just leave enough meat to allow for runout from 3-jaw chucks.
 
If you have the tools, space and experience I’d say fix everything up and go from there.

The Atlas will probably sell for more than it’s worth. Take the milling head off the Grizzly and you should have a good small lathe, as others have pointed out far more capable than the Atlas.

Probably comes down to what you want, but if it’s a small American built lathe that will complement your big machine you’ll probably be happier with something like a Logan or even an old Seneca Falls Star like I used to have.

Keep the pictures coming and best wishes whatever you decide.

John
 
Even though I am an Atlas fan and owner, I might tend toward keeping the Grizzly combo machine 0791
It's a 12 x 36 so fairly capable, and you have a steady rest for it. Take off the mill portion, it's pretty lousy. Use the lathe portion.
Sell the Atlas. Keep the little mill.
 
I would clean up the Atlas 6” and sell it. If it had been a 10-12” the decision would come down to what parts are you making.
I did have a 10” Atlas for 20 years and made quite a bit on it. I sold it when a Jet BDB1340a clone showed up locally. It was a nice step up and can work faster as it is stronger than the Atlas that I had. I did remove the original 1-1/2 HP motor from the Jet and put in a 2 HP with VFD.
So I would keep the larger lathe and remove the milling section and keep the other mill.
Pierre
 
My feedback will be based on what you actually want to make with the lathe. I would like threading options, and in todays world, that means more metric threads. Does any of your lathes do metric threads easily? That feature would be near the top of my list for a “working functional “ lathe.

Now, if I wanted show pieces, then old American machines will take precedence.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I see the Atlas does not have a quick change gear box? Did it come with a change gear set?

I started with a 12" Atlas without a quick change gear box or change gears. It was of very limited use without out these and really didn't have the mass to to make much of a cut without chattering. I am sure some of the issue with chatter was my inexperience but my 13" South Bend is just SO MUCH EASIER to make a good cut on. I bought my 13" South Bend from a high school for a couple hundred dollars more than the cheapest I have ever seen a quick change gear box for my Atlas sell for. I never found a set of Atlas change gears for less than a few hundred dollars either.
 
Keep the Grizzly G0791, and remove the mill attachment if you have a mill. It may be made in China, but tit is basically a G4003G without some of the "gunsmith" features. The Grizzly 1236 universal gearbox, additional rigidity/weight, newish condition, as well as availability of parts make it a much better lathe option than the Atlas or Shop Fox mentioned. Clean up the other two, and flip them off to someone else, you will probably make more money than you spent.
 
I just sold my trusty Atlas yesterday and regret it already. My Enco can do more but I have had the Atlas forever.
 
doug!071049 said:
I just sold my trusty Atlas yesterday and regret it already. My Enco can do more but I have had the Atlas forever.
Click to expand...
I will probably keep my Atlas QC42 until I die. It doesn't take up much space, and still earns it's keep.
 
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