Tailstock on a Craftsman 12x36

[mickri]

There is only one thing on my lathe that I don't care for. That's the placement of the locking bolt on the backside of the tailstock. Just down right awkward to use. I have often wondered why Atlas/Craftsman made the switch from having the bolt on the front side to the back side. Anybody know why they made the switch?

 

[wa5cab]

I have always assumed that it was because they went to a captive wrench to prevent anyone from using pliers or whatever other inappropriate tool or implement that would eventually damage the clamping nut or threads on the bolt. But the captive wrench sticks out over the edge of the bed. So would be liable for hanging up on the operator;s clothing or getting bumped and loosened. I've never had any problem with it or any wish to change it.

 

[mickri]

Robert I don't wish to change mine either. It is just awkward to use. Wonder if the old yahoo craftsman group is still around after yahoo got rid of all of their groups. Maybe somebody on that forum might know why they changed from the easy to use front side to the awkward to use backside.

 

[wa5cab]

Well, (a) the Atlas-Craftsman group that was on Yahoo as the the Atlas_Craftsman group moved to groups.io lock, stock and barrel in Feb/Mar of 2018. I am a Co-Owner. For better or worse, if you were a member of the A_C group on Yahoo, you or your registered membership was moved as well. However, within the first hour of so after the move, about 300 members unsubscribed.

I had always assumed that they were people who had once joined the A_C group but had no further interest in Atlas or Atlas-Craftsman machines. But since then, most members who use Yahoo.com as their email address and a few who don't have periodically been unsubscribed from groups.io or rather from the A-C group on groups.io for marking emails from A-C as spam. Which Yahoo used as an excuse to send a complaining message to groups.io.

However, if you were to ask any of the current members your question, odds are about 5:1 that they would tell you to ask me.

But (b) I don't know of any other reasons for putting the tailstock clamp bolt and wrench on the back side of the tailstock. I don;t find it awkward, but the 3996 was the first lathe that I owned so I didn't get used to it being on the front

 

[mickri]

Thanks Robert.