Bernard
I am a retired 35year high school technology teacher. I have taught beginning metals on 15 10" south bend lathes. Maintenance is how you keep machines running. I understand the Atlas is a lighter machine but it turns metal just fine, speed and time is not a concern. What are you using instead of Keystone 122 gear lube. I tried chain oil but it seems to fluid and flew off easily. I did not find an 8 threads per inch ready rod and then thought about the kind of steel in the ready rod. Does your Atlas have a vertical or horizontal assembly? The vertical over center roll bar seems more likely to vibrate off rather than the lock system on the horizontal assembly. Just lots of learning on this style of machine.
Dbq49
I have tried most oil lubes for the gears, if it doesn't fly off it all just drips off later...never used grease because of chips, today I used 140 'vintage tractor gear oil', ran nice and quiet too. I mostly over lube everything and my chip tray will never rust.
Mine is a vertical counter shaft, it flexes about as the pulleys are a bit wobbly as most seem to be, but the over center bar has never unlocked itself, it was a bit worn so I welded and filed it back to shape.
I'm happy with mine, it is a little bit lighter than I would like as I get more adventurous but I won't bother getting a heavier type. Today I turned down the worn bull gear shaft for my shaper between centers, I did a few test cuts on another piece of steel to check the run-out, tool shape and speeds but got a ripple in the surface. After checking and re-checking everything I found it was the automotive belt I was using on the motor to counter shaft pulleys, which had that indented inner side like they have nowadays. I had previously tightened as it had worn and the indents being lower in the groove affected the finish.
I also added another compound gear to get a slower feed.
After all that, when I'd done the job I took it around to a retired machinist mate for checking and measuring properly (don't trust mine) he reckoned the finish is a better than new would have been and he couldn't find more that half a thou variation anywhere, this is the best work I've done on my Atlas and I'm a bit chuffed to say the least....
You're right they turn metal just fine, tomorrow the entirely different challenge of making the bronze bushes to fit the shaft...
Bernard