Help identifying Atlas lathe

[chippermat]

Thanks! That's great information. The carriage moves smoothly and uniformly across its range. I also turned the other other wheels and the top and bottom wheels are smooth across the range; the middle one, with the oil reservoir beneath it, is stiff across its range.

Do you know what the "M 516" indicates? I've read that these are serial numbers, but I'm not sure what that means. Was each unit numbered, serially, or was this this some type of model #? Thanks again.

That's where the serial # is on mine.

 

[oakhound]

Yes, very nice find I think. Could probably find a bed for an 18" lathe and swap it out.

Thanks. I think there was also an unsold 1950s Shopsmith Mark V, but I didn't know what I was looking at. It wasn't until I got home and saw the sales literature that I knew what it was!

 

[WCraig]

Thanks! That's great information. The carriage moves smoothly and uniformly across its range. I also turned the other other wheels and the top and bottom wheels are smooth across the range; the middle one, with the oil reservoir beneath it, is stiff across its range.

Do you know what the "M 516" indicates? I've read that these are serial numbers, but I'm not sure what that means. Was each unit numbered, serially, or was this this some type of model #? Thanks again.

Edit: I'm also curious if anyone knows who the market was at the time for these smaller lathes. Who was buying these?

That's great that you've good consistent movement across the full extents. You may still need some maintenance parts--the half-nuts, M6-12A, the cross-slide nut, M6-19A, and compound nut, M6-306, are all made of softer material so that they wear out faster and preserve the mating screws for longer. BTW, note that part numbers that end with a letter (eg M6-12A), mean the part was redesigned during the production life of the machine. You could still have the older INCOMPATIBLE version. If you need to replace, do some research first...unlike me!

Sorry, but I don't know about the "M 516" mark. The serial number plate is normally on the tailstock end of the bed. Here is mine:



Unfortunately, the serial number doesn't tell us the date of manufacture. It is guesstimated that mine was made in the mid-to-late 1940s.

One of our members is a real Atlas historian and has examples of the marketing literature back in the day. These lathes were aimed at hobbiest users and small commercial operations. Mine came with a specialized tailstock that had soft jaws for holding the armature of an electric motor. There would have been another supplied gizmo to help recondition the armature. Presumably this would have been used in a local electric motor shop. Given the size of the lathe, it would have been limited to fairly small motors. Nowadays, it is not economical to do involved work like that on a small motor. Just buy a replacement. I think, however, it was said that Atlas sold about 90,000 6-inch lathes from the late 1930's to the early 1970's! I'm probably mis-remembering something, though.

I'm having a lot of fun with mine. I have no significant metalworking experience so I've been learning a tonne from these forums and from Youtube. (My wife may have muttered "obsessed" but I'm sure she wasn't talking about me!) My lathe needed significant repairs and restoration before I could use it. I completely disassembled it, cleaned, repainted and reassembled with replacement parts where necessary. Now, with sharp HSS tooling, it works quite acceptably. I recently discovered the joy of 'free machining steel'! As long as I'm patient, the machine is capable of quite a lot. OTOH, it is not going to turn replacement drive shafts for a D-12 Cat! I'm OK with that.

Craig

 

[jwmay]

I don’t think they made very many of that machine. Pretty neat find!

 

[markba633csi]

Good purchase, I see a lathe dog as part of the package
Mark

 

[wa5cab]

Judging from the catalogs and the very few that have turned up, not many 612's were made and they were only made from 1937 until 1942.

Originally, the nameplates on all Atlas lathes were on the rear of the bed and only had the model number stamped on them. The serial number was stamped into the top of the right end of the front way, as yours is. The nameplate was moved to the right end of the bed in early 1941, and the serial number was stamped on the nameplate. We don't yet know whether or not the serial number was at first also stamped on the bed but my guess would be no.

All of the early lathes or at least most of them had a one or two letter prefix also stamped on the way. And sometimes a suffix letter. The prefix corresponds to the model number or Series. And does not correlate in any way with the bed length. The letter "M" was the prefix for all Atlas 6". This practice seems to have stopped when the nameplate was moved. In any case, the "M" means that it was an Atlas 6" and not a Craftsman. And the 516 is the serial number.

 

[markba633csi]

I think that countershaft arrangement is kinda rare- I believe it was discontinued for the later models? The later beds wouldn't have the mounting holes for it, at least I haven't seen one like that
Mark

 

[Aaron_W]

That is neat, I didn't know there were any vintage lathes smaller than the 618 other than some really small watchmakers lathes.

 

[oakhound]

All of the early lathes or at least most of them had a one or two letter prefix also stamped on the way. And sometimes a suffix letter. The prefix corresponds to the model number or Series. And does not correlate in any way with the bed length. The letter "M" was the prefix for all Atlas 6". This practice seems to have stopped when the nameplate was moved. In any case, the "M" means that it was an Atlas 6" and not a Craftsman. And the 516 is the serial number.

Thanks, everyone for all of the great information!

Craig, I appreciate knowing the parts that probably need maintenance right away - "the half-nuts, M6-12A, the cross-slide nut, M6-19A, and compound nut, M6-306". I understand now that this was an early model so I'm hoping pieces from the later model 618s will work.

Mark, Yes the "lathe dog" was the best part of the deal! Ha!

Wa5cab, thanks for the great historical info on the model numbers and years. Would that place this particular lathe 1937 or '38? Also, I read somewhere (maybe on this forum) that both the 12" and 18" inch versions (between centers) of the 6" models shared the same series numbers - that this one would have been 516th off the line of Atlas 6" lathes. Do you know if that's true?

 

[wa5cab]

I don't have any official documents saying so but I have concluded with the 10" and 12" that each size (swing) shared the same serial number pool regardless of bed length. This makes sense for a number of reasons, not the least of which would be the significantly increased difficulty of keeping up with the various pools were it not so.

The other thing that does support it with written documentation is MMB5 on the Atlas mill. There were chronologically four models, base, A, B, and C. And as a corollary to the different length beds, there were the M1, which had manual lead screw cross feed, the MF which had power cross feed (but like the 10F, you could also run it manually, and the MH, which had lever operated cross feed and table lift. In the parts manual, it give the transition serial numbers between the base, A, B and C models. Notes at the tops of each page in the manual give the transition serial numbers for each model letter.

Plus in all of the years that I have been accumulating serial numbers for the lathes, I have never seen the same serial number used twice on the same swing lathe (6", 9", 10" or 12"). But there are two cases where different swing or size lathes have the same serial number.

And yes, I would assume that your lathe was the 516th Atlas 6" off the line. Based on the highest reported serial number, we have tentatively concluded that about 28000 612's and 618's were made. Or an average of 800 per year. We have no idea what actual [production was in any given year and don't know whether initial sales were very good or started off slow. But it is probably safe to conclude that #416 was made late in 1937 or very early in 1938.

Also, the first catalog in which the 6" appeared was probably issued in mid-1937. It shows a countershaft assembly that hung off the rear of the bed. But I would have guessed from that one photo that the countershaft hanger assembly wasn't as far away from the bed as your's is. But I could be wrong.