New to me 1939 Atlas 101.07301

And you will need an arbor press with a throat deep enough to hold the apron part of the carriage in order to install the replacement M6-29 lever. And be sure that you match-mark the old M6-29 Lever and the M6-38 Cam which you will reuse. The lever will fit the cam four ways, only two of which will work. Murphy's Law says that if you try to put the new lever on the way that you think it should go, you will be wrong.

And I would use a Groove Pin for a retainer instead of a small set screw. The set screw will eventually work loose.

On whether or not you could machine the M6-13 into an M6-13A, the answer is "yes, but". The M6-9 Carriage did not change and the M6-38 Cam did not change so the tapped holes and therefore the OD of the M6-13 did not change. However, the part is available and it would be more than a simple milling job to make the M6-13A out of the M6-13. If you had to, you could. But I wouldn't. The M6-13A was used on every Atlas 6" made from about 1940 up through 1980 or 81. Plus it is probably still available from Clausing. So finding one should be no problem.
 
I decided that it would best to not take those couple parts apart, it was being done for the purpose of striping down all the way, but the those items are able to be cleaned in place and have no signs of issues. one less thing for me to break by accident.

I appreciate the info on the M6-13A. I did buy the one suggested. Thank you for the help!.
 
I've inspected the tool post gib and found the basic dimensions all correct, however it is thin. .092 +/- vs .125 Its uniformly thin with a thickness variation along its length of .0910 to .0935. the drawing tolerance for these dimensions are .005. Is this wore out and needs replacing? I suspect it is ok, but something I should plan on getting a new one sometime.

The crossslide gib is not there. The gib screws were being used instead. There were no grooves are damage to the dovetail, but I need to find a new gib. Any ideas on where I can get that? Ebay is nada, and I'll call clausing Monday but I'm not going to be surprised when they don't have one. Not something I can currently make with tooling I own.

Other than that there is one nut I have to get for the tool post screw, and I want to replace all of the set screws and nuts on the assembly as they are mixed and matched.

The tool post slide was replaced with a steel one like I can see online in stead of the original one. It'll work until I find an orignal.

So other than Gibs, I have or have coming the parts to have the carriage and cross slide assemblies all squared away. (i lied, I have to inspect and measure the carriage gibs)
 

Attachments

  • Atlas M6-304 Tool Post Slide Gib- as built.pdf
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I have that same lathe. I rebuilt mine a couple of years ago and have been learning on it ever since.

The one you have looks incredibly clean and rust free. Nice score. Did it come with the change gears or any other tooling not shown in your pics?

Removing and reinstalling that half nut lever may be easier than you think. Mine pried off with a couple of wide flat blade screw drivers and pressed back on without a great deal of force. You won't need an arbor press.

When rebuilding mine i came across the website "deansphotographica" - a camera repairman who made his own gears and such, but also got into making small steam engines and tooling for his benchtop machines (including the one you have). He's retired from camera repair but still maintains his site with pages for his various projects and machines. He has a page for this lathe,
which includes various projects and detailed instructions on how to rebuild the headstock (http://www.deansphotographica.com/machining/atlas/spindle/spindle.html). I recommend this particular read before you tear into yours.

Scanning through his other work is also pretty impressive. http://www.deansphotographica.com/machining/projects/projects.html

There is a lot of other great info out there.
Have fun with your lathe and keep us up to date.
 
I have that same lathe. I rebuilt mine a couple of years ago and have been learning on it ever since.

The one you have looks incredibly clean and rust free. Nice score. Did it come with the change gears or any other tooling not shown in your pics?

Removing and reinstalling that half nut lever may be easier than you think. Mine pried off with a couple of wide flat blade screw drivers and pressed back on without a great deal of force. You won't need an arbor press.

When rebuilding mine i came across the website "deansphotographica" - a camera repairman who made his own gears and such, but also got into making small steam engines and tooling for his benchtop machines (including the one you have). He's retired from camera repair but still maintains his site with pages for his various projects and machines. He has a page for this lathe,
which includes various projects and detailed instructions on how to rebuild the headstock (http://www.deansphotographica.com/machining/atlas/spindle/spindle.html). I recommend this particular read before you tear into yours.

Scanning through his other work is also pretty impressive. http://www.deansphotographica.com/machining/projects/projects.html

There is a lot of other great info out there.
Have fun with your lathe and keep us up to date.

It is not terrible. I got it for 500 from a pretty cool farmer outside Cedar Rapids. I do have all the changes gears ( i think all of them), and some tooling (chucks and bits).

There are some surprises I'm finding as I take things apart to clean it. (not a surprise). I do need a new bed, I am not at a point where I am confident I have the skills to scrape or recondition the ways. I will sometime do that as this is an early model.

I have been looking to get a lathe on and off for a long time, and had found Deanphotographica, he has documented some pretty neat stuff. My objective is to build parts for vintage scuba regulators and associated modernization upgrades. I am part of a small business that has been doing this for a while.

while I'm waiting on a few parts, I have to decide on how I am going to repaint/ coat the parts. I'm toying with the idea of cerakote.
 
All of the 6" metalworking lathes that Atlas made used the same size gibs. Unfortunately, although they do still carry them, in the early 1970's the changed the material used in the compound and cross slide gibs on the 6", 10" and 12" from steel to plastic. You do not want the plastic ones. I have in the past had steel replacements for all of the plastic gibs. They were made by another member to the original Atlas drawings. Those drawings are also in Downloads for anyone who wants to make their own.

The only one of the gibs that I currently have on hand is one M6-304 Cross Slide Gib.
 
OK. Good. When we started making them a couple of years ago, no one else was doing it, and all that Clausing had were the plastic ones. What was his price?
 
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