Introduction - New Atlas Lathe Owner

Does anyone have an exploded view of the drive pullies on the swing arm? I think I could be missing some pieces.
 
Yes, they do look pretty good. How about the journal areas on the spindle?
 
I think that you will find what you are looking for in Downloads. But for simple financial reasons, Access to Downloads requires Donor status.
 
wa5cab said:
Yes, they do look pretty good. How about the journal areas on the spindle?
Click to expand...

Journals look pretty good.


When installing the back gears I find that they feel "tight" when trying to use them (after tightening down the castings). The more I tighten the castings, the harder is is to throw the lever. Is this normal?
 
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I assume that the "castings" that you are referring to are the left and right counter shaft mounting brackets There should be a stack of shims between the brackets and the headstock casting. The "official" reason for the shim packs is to let you adjust the back gear tooth mesh. Ideally there should be the same number of shims in each stack. But if the tolerance build-up happens to place the counter-shaft at a slight angle to the spindle then you would compensate by having one more shim under one bracket than under the other. Or unlikely but possibly two more. So the first thing to do is to count the shims in each stack. If one has more than the other, perhaps you switched the stacks when you assembled the back gears. Try switching the stacks. you will either improve the "feel" or make it worse.

Torque the two bolts to about 25 lb-ft. There should be a slight clearance between the teeth of the two mating pairs of gears with everything tight. Cut a strip of 20 pound printer paper and try to feed it through the gear teeth by turning the spindle by hand with the direct drive pin pulled out and the back gears engaged. If one strip feeds through each pair but two is tight, the mesh is OK. If engaging the gears is still too tight, loosen one of the bolts and check the difficulty in engaging. It should either get better or not change. If no change, re-torque that bolt and loosen the other one. The one that improves when loose probably needs an additional shim.
 
wa5cab said:
I think that you will find what you are looking for in Downloads. But for simple financial reasons, Access to Downloads requires Donor status.
Click to expand...
This place is an awesome resource and ten bones is a small price for access to the downloads. I upped my membership to gold this year :encourage:

John
 
wa5cab said:
I assume that the "castings" that you are referring to are the left and right counter shaft mounting brackets There should be a stack of shims between the brackets and the headstock casting. The "official" reason for the shim packs is to let you adjust the back gear tooth mesh. Ideally there should be the same number of shims in each stack. But if the tolerance build-up happens to place the counter-shaft at a slight angle to the spindle then you would compensate by having one more shim under one bracket than under the other. Or unlikely but possibly two more. So the first thing to do is to count the shims in each stack. If one has more than the other, perhaps you switched the stacks when you assembled the back gears. Try switching the stacks. you will either improve the "feel" or make it worse.

Torque the two bolts to about 25 lb-ft. There should be a slight clearance between the teeth of the two mating pairs of gears with everything tight. Cut a strip of 20 pound printer paper and try to feed it through the gear teeth by turning the spindle by hand with the direct drive pin pulled out and the back gears engaged. If one strip feeds through each pair but two is tight, the mesh is OK. If engaging the gears is still too tight, loosen one of the bolts and check the difficulty in engaging. It should either get better or not change. If no change, re-torque that bolt and loosen the other one. The one that improves when loose probably needs an additional shim.
Click to expand...

Thank you sir, sounds like I need some more shims... There is only one shim per side.


This is where I'm at with the re-build:

IMG_3300.JPG

And this is my attempt at a "10-F11"... It's not pretty and I made some major mistakes, that I had to repair to make functional.. but I think it will get the job done once I finish it up.

IMG_3309.JPG
 
That looks pretty good. You appear to have made the tabs with the three mounting holes thicker. You will need to use three mounting screws that are about 1/4" longer, . And I would recommend using flat washers under both the bolt heads and the nuts. And a drop of Blue Locktite in the nuts.

On the back gear subject, confirm that the two shims are both the same thickness. Try loosening the two bracket bolts one at a time. It just doesn't make sense if you re-assembled the same parts in the same way that it should be misaligned now but wasn't before.
 
wa5cab said:
That looks pretty good. You appear to have made the tabs with the three mounting holes thicker. You will need to use three mounting screws that are about 1/4" longer, . And I would recommend using flat washers under both the bolt heads and the nuts. And a drop of Blue Locktite in the nuts.

On the back gear subject, confirm that the two shims are both the same thickness. Try loosening the two bracket bolts one at a time. It just doesn't make sense if you re-assembled the same parts in the same way that it should be misaligned now but wasn't before.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips! Yeah, it was tight before being taken apart. I don't think I received the tool shimmed correctly. I was thinking of getting some 0.002'' shim stock and going to town.
 
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