TH54 Atlas lathe rebuild/refurb project (pic heavy)

aforsman,

This is a little late to be replying to this, but I think that if you look again at your serial number you will find that it is actually 04194S, not 5. A five digit serial number is much too high for 1942, but I didn't catch it at the time.

Also. maxfli1707, if you still have the serial numbers and dates off of the three Craftsman 12x36's you mentioned, could you either post them or send them to me in a PM?

Robert D.

Model TH54
Serial #041945
Bearing/race #1 - 12/23/42
Bearing/race #2 - 12/29/42
 
This is a little late to be replying to this, but I think that if you look again at your serial number you will find that it is actually 04194S, not 5. A five digit serial number is much too high for 1942, but I didn't catch it at the time.

Robert,

Thanks for the info. I guess that's a good indication I've hit middle age - 5's and S's look just alike now :))

Allen
 
a lathe milling attachment is useful for milling the groove for the extractor on gun barrels,even if you have a milling machine. Easier than tilting the head 90 degrees,or mounting a 90 degree attachment.(Well,maybe.)
 
Additional data collected over the past 6 months (including three nearby examples, only one of which ended in "5" or "S") cause me to conditionally change my statement about the "5" in your serial number being an "S". It appears more likely that you had it right to begin with. I'll continue collecting examples. Maybe one day we will know for certain.

Robert D.

Model TH54
Serial #041945
Bearing/race #1 - 12/23/42
Bearing/race #2 - 12/29/42
 
I've thoroughly enjoyed the thread so far guys,
One tip I can give you all is that when you have wheels & pulley's or anything made of alloy metals on steel shafts that is tight to take off is to enclose the area/item in a thick walled cardboard box and light up a 100 watt mains bulb in the enclosed box for eight or more hours so the gentle heat can expand all parts .

Then after switching off the lamp 8 or more hours later squirt in your free off stuff in the joint area and gently start wriggling the part you want to come off and tapping it with a block of wood . Don't use pullers or start braying with a hammer as though you want to kill it for that's what you'll surely do .

Don't use gas or oxy /acet torches to heat the alloy for your likely to melt it , gentle heat dissipated through out is what does the trick almost every time . It's how we used to put steel gudgeon pins in or pull them out ..those pins join the crankshaft connecting rod to the engines pistons in days of yore before circlips became the norm.

The bigger the item your working with the longer the heating period required , remember aluminium & zinc alloy coefficients of linear expansion are greater than steel so you in effect expand the joint apart .

Sometimes for big casings like cast iron or alloy gear boxes we used live steam to heat wooden or steel box enclosure for four or five hours . Occasionally you can boil up a part in clean plain water in a steel drum/bucket out on the BBQ if you have big side burners . The use your freeing oils etc. after you have pulled the hot part out of the water .


I wouldn't recommend using the oven in the kitchen as the heat source as most of the time it will be either be too cold or too hot and dry as well as stinking out the homestead and like as not causing a fire .


The tip of taking pictures is good , in this digital age we can take 10,000 pics for almost nothing . It is also worth while to take several pictures of an item from different angles before , during and after and as you take them apart then scribble a greasy picture number referenced note in pencil on a pad of stapled up scrap paper as to what each shot actually is and what your trying to concentrate upon. Pencils write on greasy paper fairly well .

There is nothing more amusing than trying to find a home for the last piece in the Ziploc bag after eight months of rest time once you have almost fully assembled the item from 67 other bits , only to find that you never realized you hadn't got a picture of it and which would have been part No five in your photographic sequences as you took things apart . Guess how I know?

This is especially important with screws which are same thread & diameter but of different lengths .
You can also use a cardboard box side with a drawing plan and make holes where each bolt came out of then slip the bolt in the nominated hole . In my time I've often come across casings where the bolt has popped through because it was not the correct bolt for the hole ..made me wonder where the shorter bold was and what problem that had cause by being in the wrong hole . I've also had numerous occasions cases where I have had to depth gauge each blind hole to find the correct bolt length for the cast iron & alloy casings because someone dumped all of the removed couple of hundred nuts , bolts & washers in a bag & I've had to finish their job many weeks /months later or asi n one case about 18 years later.
 
For disassembly I tend to lay everything out in order I remove it. snap a picture throw it in a bag. I have good memory for parts though so I rarely ever do it. But if I'm unsure I'll lay it out and snap a picture
 
It's temporarily on hold till the fall semester is over. I'm going to be picking up some Oilite bronze to fix the bushings in the QCGB when I start up on it again over the winter break.

FWIW, I ordered plastic bushings to replace the original bronze bearings on my QCGB:

Igus iglide bushings
http://www.igus.com/iglide?C=US&L=en

iglide® vs. bronze bushings
http://www.igus.com/wpck/6410/plastic_bushings

iglide® plastic bushings: product selection tool
http://www.igus.com/wpck/7174/productoverview_iglidur

I have them ready now, in the box waiting for me to get back to "that project", but curious if anyone here has experience with them?
 
I'm back in the land of the living... mostly. I had to have a second back surgery on Nov 12 and have just recently been cleared to start physical therapy. Now I'm just waiting for the VA to authorize the PT visits first before I can begin.

I started working on the X2 CNC conversion project a little bit already. I want to finish that before I start working on the Atlas again. I haven't been able to work for quite a while due to my back issues, so money has been pretty tight around here lately. As a result I can only work on one project at a time until my financial situation improves. :/

For the bushings in the QCGB I still need to pick up the Oilite to make the bushings from. The QCGB shafts will be turned down at the worn ends and then I plan on making some interference fit sleeves to repair the areas that ride in the bushings.
 
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