Restoring Dads Craftsman 101.07403

[Rockridge]

I inherited dads lathe and am getting it running again. It hasn't been run in about 30 years. It's a Craftsman 101.07403 Serial Number 18639. It has Timken bearings and is a change gear machine.. The spindle is tight with no appreciable wear, so no plans to remove it at this time.
So far, I've managed to get all the parts to work Except the half-nuts are stuck open. The plan is to pull the carriage and clean/lube the half-nut assembly. I've managed to get everything else working so far with general cleaning and lubrication.
I was about 10 or so I think when this lathe was delivered. (That would've been about 1965). I do remember it was delivered strapped to the back of an Army surplus jeep! I have no idea what the cost was. As long as I can remember, it has been this shade of green, though it's starting to chip off and the original blue/grey is underneath. I have quite a few accessories including the original Atlas branded 6" 3 jaw chuck and Craftsman 1/2 HP motor

Enough talk.... How about some pictures!

 

[tq60]

The 1/2 nuts may be stuck open if the power cross feed is engaged. If it has it.

Does the cross feed work?

Sent from my SM-G781V using Tapatalk

 

[Rockridge]

It does have power cross feed and it engages/disengages fine; no apparent problems with the lead screw either. I'm pretty sure the assembly just needs cleaning and lube.
The half-nuts are currently open and the handle is stuck in the "up" position. If I put some pressure on the handle, I can see the upper half-nut move a few thousandths.... leading me to believe it's just a cleaning/lube problem.......but I'm open to further suggestions!

 

[Nutfarmer]

Be careful with the gear case housing in the saddle if you disassemble the saddle to clean and lubricate. An other fragile part is the lead screw end support. These lathes made extensive use of a zinc alloy castings that are easily broken if not careful. There are many members here with this type of lathe and should be a good source of information. A good source of parts was MyMachineShop.net if he is still in operation.

 

[wachuko]

Welcome to the forum!!! And for sharing the story. Glad you are bringing it back to working condition

 

[Aaron_W]

Welcome.

I bought it's little brother (6x18") a couple years ago. It had also been sitting for many years.

It had been kept well lubricated, so no rust but I found the oil had basically turned to a sticky varnish in many places gluing a lot of moving parts together. In particular the half nut engagement lever was completely frozen. The prior owner said he had never threaded with the lathe since buying it in the 1970s so the oil there was probably 50 years old. Repeated soakings with WD40 and Simple Green eventually loosened up all the old oil, and everything works as it should now.

There is still good parts support for these lathes. Clausing still stocks many parts and you can also find new and used parts on ebay. If you are into 3D printing or know somebody with a printer you can also find stl files for 3D printed change gears and a few other useful contraptions like carriage bed stops and indicator holders.

 

[markba633csi]

The two little tumbler gears are pretty worn- you can tell when the teeth get pointy like that
Looks to be in good shape otherwise- The spindle bearings are probably fine. There is a threaded collar on the left end that
adjusts the bearing preload if you notice any looseness. Lubricate first and run for a while before adjusting anything

 

[wa5cab]

Unfortunately, access to reading the hand-engraved spindle bearing inspection dates (which will reveal the date of manufacture within about +2-0 years), requires removal of the spindle because the visible end of the spindle bearings is too narrow for the dates. However, should you ever pull the spindle for some other reason, be sure that you record and report the bearing inspection dates. The proper location for reporting the dates is in the first thread of the Atlas /Craftsman forum.

Note that this practice began at least as early as 1938 and seems to have stopped around 1953. It was never followed with the 6" lathes or with the mills, shapers, or with any of the 1/2" bed lathes made later.

 

[wa5cab]

Also, the reason for using Zamak V instead of cast iron for the right end lead screw support bearing is JIC one should crash the machine by running the cutter into the chuck, the right lead screw support bearing will break off, allowing the lead screw to extract itself from the drive key at the left end of the screw. Or at least that is the official explanation. I have never tested it.

 

[Nutfarmer]

A shear pin would have protected the lead screw. The Atlas lathes used zamak to make a machine to a price point. That’s ok because it opened up owning a lathe to a lot of people that couldn’t afford a more expensive machine. I am impressed by what some of the members can do with an atlas lathe.