THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT

[Kenny G]

I told myself when getting into this craft that I wasn’t getting into any of the restoration. Well that was all good until a few days ago when my wife says there is this add on a local facebook yard sale for a hobby lathe a guy wanted $150 for. To make a long story short it turned out to be an Atlas Clausing 10100.


s it turns out it’s in a little rough shape. The ways look pretty good but every thing is just gummed up with old grease. The carriage and lead screw were bound up at least they would move under duress. The half nut wouldn’t budge. With copious amounts of carb cleaner applied to all the gears and screw I got it to work and seems ok but every thing needs more cleaning. Well I knew I should have given it a better cleaning before trying any thing but no I had to see if it would run. Not a good idea, apparently the tumbler gears for the lead screw direction selector were still bound up. Well as you might have guessed one of the gears and the selection lever broke. I have been able to find the gears on ebay and a couple other places. Does anyone know if the selection assembly fro a 618 would inter change I see one of those too. Question about Zamak I have been reading a recent post on it and think well pretty sure the gears are but from what I’ve been reading the head stock is too. So can Zamak be repaired , weld or brazed or some other obscure method?

 

[rwm]

Looks like a good project. Go for it and dont look back!
Robert

 

[markba633csi]

Check the headstock and the bed feet with a magnet to see if they are iron or zamak before you invest any money in it
mark

 

[T Bredehoft]

If it is Zamak, (magnet falls off head stock) and it might be, don't fret about it. If it was going to self-destruct, it would have by now. Bad Zamak has a short shelf life. Ditto the gears. I have an iron one, the gears are Zamak, and work perfectly.

 

[Kenny G]

turns out it is cast iron so that's good. Got most of the gears off today what a job I never thought that dried up grease would bind stuff up so much. The lathe actually looks like it is going to be pretty nice once it is cleaned up.I wounder what it would cost to have an American lathe like this if it was produced today.

 

[wa5cab]

Atlas built around 5000 3950's, 4000 101.21200's and an estimated 12,000 10100's. Only the last approximately 4000 of the 10100's had Zamak headstocks. I don't know of any reported Zinc Pest incidents with them. They just broke. Reportedly, Clausing put together repair kits that consisted of the earlier cast iron headstocks and a few other parts but no one has any idea how many they actually supplied. We have no first-hand accounts of any of the failures.

On the subject of the broken parts, the tumbler gear bracket is not the same as the one on the 618. However, the three gears are the same.

 

[Kenny G]

wa5cab thanks for the info. I did notice that the bracket was a little different but good to know the gears are the same. It's good to know about the gears being the same as the one that I saw had all three gears and the price was just slightly more than the individual gear cost. I'll probably post a want add here in case someone here has one, would just as soon give my money to a member.