Help Me Get Shapering!

[Weldo]

Hey all, I just recently joined the Atlas 7B club! I picked up the machine from a member a few weeks ago. I had to disassemble it somewhat to get it down my basement steps into my workshop. After getting it lifted up and re-mounted to the stand I want to ask you guys for some advice before I start using it. Mainly I'm wondering about lubrication.

I have a lubrication chart along with a reprint of the original manual but what I'd like to know is which fittings on my particular machine are factory and which have been added by previous owners. I'd like the machine to be as it was from Atlas all those years ago unless, in your guys' opinions, the changes are made for the better.

First a shot of the machine on it's table, I had to remove the motor and related bracketry to lighten the load. I used a full size sheet pan for an oil tray. Hopefully it catches most of the drippings. I've heard that these machines when properly lubed will leak oil a lot.

Now to the main issues. It looks like a previous owner had used grease on the ram. According to the manual this is incorrect. I'd like to rectify this before I begin using the machine.

On the left side of the ram is this grease fitting. I'm guessing it's not factory? The other side has just a small threaded hole. Are these meant to be oil cups?

Here you can see a zerk fitting has been added on the inside of the grease cup on one of the shafts. The cup is still present, just removed for the picture. Am I correct that there should be no zerk here, only a hole for the grease cup to press the grease into the shaft?

Here's some more zerk fittings. Are these ones correct?

The oilers in the pic below look like factory fittings.

Finally there's this hole at the rear of the machine. Should it be plugged? It has threads.

Thanks in advance for any help and advice! There's a lot of knowledge on this forum, I hope I can glean something from it!

 

[C-Bag]

Hi Weldo, congrats and welcome to the shaper club! I was wondering what you’ve been up to.

my 7b has no grease zeros anywhere. The one on the pulley shaft isn’t that bad of an idea IMHO, mine also has the grease cap on the other side. It takes some getting used to to use them. Too bad they decided to do grease on the arm, shouldn’t be that bad to clean up as you just have to pull the upper shim plates and weasel the grease out. Then replace the oilers on both sides. BTW kudos on the bake pan, I need one of them. That should catch everything.

There also wasn’t any grease in bull gear shaft. That would be way harder to get out and am not sure if it needs out like the arm. Mine I use way oil on everything for oil and Red and Tacky for all grease. Also use way oil on the three lead screws.

 

[benmychree]

Machine slides never use grease, and grease should never be used on most machine parts, as it attracts and holds chips and dirt and causes damage.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

someone went to a lot of trouble to turn an oil lubed machine into a grease lubed machine- all for nothing
run it on oil forget the grease

 

[Weldo]

Thanks guys. So what should I be looking for as far as replacement parts. I gather that this machine should have zero zerk fittings so should everything be oil cups like on an old Atlas lathe?

Or would the zerks be replaced with those flush mounted kind of oilers?

Also how tough is it to remove the ram to clean out the grease? I imagine you would remove the two top plates holding the ram into the slide channel but what kind of connections exist inside the machine body? Is it worth trying to disassemble it completely just to clean out the grease?

 

[C-Bag]

the ram oilers are those cup type of oilers as is the one on the bull gear shaft. But I’m afraid it wouldn’t do anything if you tried to oil it after it’s been pumped full of grease.

it’s not the easiest thing to remove the ram, just be careful as it has a hidden taper pin and other little surprises that’s not well documented by the “manual”. I hate to be vague but it’s been several years since I got into mine. Mine had several problems and was really dirty for decades of sitting. Luckily it had been generously oiled so there was no rust, just needed a cleaning and a number of problems that I think were caused be people who didn’t know how to run or adjust the machine. i was lucky they didn’t put grease where oil should have been.

 

[Weldo]

This morning I removed all the grease fittings and started taking stock.

Here's the grease cup removed from the pinion shaft. The zerk pulled right out and this is good to go like factory.

This one is supposed to be a grease cup also. It's the opposite side of the pinion shaft. If I can't find a threaded grease cup I can re use the zerk. The lube chart calls for grease on this shaft. It's one of the only places where grease is speced.

Next was the fitting on the feed case. This is supposed to be a oiler cup. Unfortunately it's pumped full of grease.

Here's some shots of the inside. Grease abounds.

Grease is the correct lube for the gears according to the lube chart. Occasionally some graphite based grease should be applied to the gear teeth. All the other grease is not proper.

I'm now looking at disassembling almost the entire machine to clean it up enough to accept oiling. Personally I feel like grease is not a bad choice for a lot of the inside parts pictured above since they are shielded from dust and chips, but the manual calls for oil on everything except the gear teeth.

Anyone know of a good resource for tearing this thing down?

 

[Weldo]

I found some oilers on ebay. NOS from Gits, Oilers

As far as I could tell these are the proper ones, press fit into a 1/4" hole.

For the grease cup on the left side of the pinion shaft, this one.

I'm guessing these are 1/8" NPT threads?

 

[Weldo]

Just picked up one of these too.

Grease Cup

I also bought a 5/16" oil cup for this hole on top of the ram. The parts list doesn't show one there but it seems better to cover it with an oiler than leave the hole open.

I think that's all the parts I need.

 

[ErichKeane]

My atlas is relatively untouched, and I have the zerk on the left-side as well. Though, I'm missing the grease cup on the right-side (operator side). I've been greasing it by plopping some in the center, then running a bolt in the middle.

The rest of mine is either ball oilers (where you have them), or the gits cups.