# Atlas 618 + Pictures!



## lazylathe (Feb 20, 2011)

Hi All,

Picked up an Atlas 618 lathe this morning! ;D
Needs a lot of work and a total strip down and clean.
Someone decided to paint it silver without taking anything apart... What a mess!
Anyway once it has a good clean it should look pretty good!
Still need to decide on a colour for the lathe.
I was thinking machine grey to match the Myford!

It also came with a very neat accessory!!!!
One that is very rare and hard to find.
Unfortunately it is also one that i do not think i will ever use.... :-\

It is the complete armature kit!!
2 fancy Jacob's chucks and some small cutters. One of the chucks have the brass jaws.
I did say a complete kit, so it also came with the attachment that fits on the cross slide with the small motor!!
Very neat and luckily it did not get painted silver!!

Will post pics as soon as i clean up a bit!

Andrew


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## Metal Butcher (Feb 20, 2011)

Hi Andrew. Another lathe! :wall:

If you don't think you'll ever use the armature kit, you can allways sell it and buy somthing else!

Maybe another lathe? ;D

http://cgi.ebay.com/JACOBS-ARMATURE-CHUCK-KIT-CASE-ATLAS-CRAFTSMAN-LATHE-/150565500965

-MB


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## GWRdriver (Feb 20, 2011)

Here's one I rebuilt a few years ago (lower photo) . . . . the first photo is one I have now, soon to get the same treatment.


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## shred (Feb 20, 2011)

I had an old 618 a few years ago that had most of the Armature kit with it, it's kind of interesting there was that much demand for that sort of thing.


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## Metal Butcher (Feb 20, 2011)

It was standard protocol in repair shops to rebuild car generators and to re-cut their commutator.

WOW! Am I getting old. :'(

-MB


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## lazylathe (Feb 20, 2011)

Yes Another lathe...
Always wanted an Atlas for some reason...
I have the kit that is on ebay plus the motor that you attach to the cross slide!
Pretty neat at best!
Might be worth something to a collector, but for now i will clean it all up.



			
				Metal Butcher  said:
			
		

> Hi Andrew. Another lathe! :wall:
> 
> If you don't think you'll ever use the armature kit, you can allways sell it and buy somthing else!
> 
> ...





			
				GWRdriver  said:
			
		

> Here's one I rebuilt a few years ago (lower photo) . . . . the first photo is one I have now, soon to get the same treatment.



GWRDriver - How did you clean it all up???
I have it in pieces and i have used a brass brush in the drill press to clean most of the junk off.
Any tricks to getting all the paint off?
Alo what do you prep aluminium with to get it ready to paint?

Your resto looks awesome!!

I did not realize that it would be this much work, but it is a lot of fun!
I may take the bits to work and sandblast all the old paint off.

One question i have is how to remove the plaques?
I would rather take them off and do all the prep and painting and then put them back on.

It looks like i will have to try and find a new bed for it.
It is pretty beat up and whoever removed the rust took a bit of the bed with it...

I was kind of tossing the idea around of rebuilding the bed with JB Weld and smoothing it out.
Any ideas on other ways to do this??

Andrew


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## GWRdriver (Feb 21, 2011)

lazylathe  said:
			
		

> GWRDriver - How did you clean it all up???


Andrew,
The photos are of different machines but the restored one (photo 2) was in about the same condition as in photo 1. The bare metal on the restored one, in particular the critical surfaces such as the ways and spindle, were all in very good condition so one of the challenges was to protect these during restoration. Most of the cleaning work was done in a home-built parts washer using kerosene (parafin) as the solvent and various bristle brushes and scouring pads, Scotchbrite, etc. I used furniture paint stripper on stubborn stains or grunge, but generally I got by with very little of that. I used Scotchbrite wheels to brighten up misc bare metal but NOT on plated or ground surfaces. For the bed surface I scrubbed it well with Scotchbrite and kero, and ran a large, new, file along all sides to knock down any pips that had been raised from impacts, and that was it.

As for finishing, first I would prefer not to sand-blast anything. It's too easy for the guy to blast something that shouldn't be, but if you can control the blasting and mask well, that would be different. I'm currently rebuilding a Rockwell 15" drill press and have discovered soda and Co2 blasting. This medium removes paint and grunge and leaves machined and even ground surfaces virtually untouched. I was amazed. I gather it's now the preferred thing for auto restorationists. For painting, generally I try to get back down to the bare metal surfaces but sometimes when the paint has been there for a lifetime that's not easy to do. When that's the case I figure the old paint will be as good as a primer so just leave it, and prime over it. Once things are stripped and cleaned, the last time with hot soapy water, I prime bare metal (including aluminum) with an automotive self-etch primer and iron castings with a high volatile red oxide primer. I then usually put on one light coat and then one heavy brushed coat of machine grey enamel. The aerosols I used to use no longer have enough body and pigment to suit me so I've gone back to cans.





> One question i have is how to remove the plaques?


Sometimes you can't without buggering up the plaque, but Atlas typically used drive screws for plaques and if you are careful these can be pried out from the front or driven out from the back, if the holes were drilled through. I have also filed off the heads and then drilled out the holes.





> whoever removed the rust took a bit of the bed with it...


I hate to hear that. Frankly IMHO a 618 isn't worth spening a lot of money on to restore, if it has a bad bed for example. Don't get me wrong, I think they are good small machines, but there are lots of them out there and if your bed is beat up eventually one with a good bed will come along and you could spend the money you would have spent on a new bed or restoration on a better machine. One alternative you could look into is a Turcite treatment. Turcite is a plastic which is for laminating to sliding surfaces, such as machine tool ways, to reduce friction and restore the surfaces and I also think it has been superceded by something better. That's all I know about the process, and it wouldn't make for a restoration to original condition, but it would improve the operation of a purely utilitarian machine. If your bed is really beat up it seems to me the really bad spots could be filled with weld and then Turcite applied.


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## steamer (Feb 21, 2011)

Try a product called "Simple Green"


Works great , usually takes everything off.

Dave


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## don-tucker (Feb 21, 2011)

This is very much like the Sphere lathe I used to own




A good machine.
Don


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## lazylathe (Feb 22, 2011)

Just added some puctures to this thread.
That was the lathe as it arrived in the back of my car.
It is now in hundreds of pieces, a lot of them cleaned and stripped of paint.

Am going to try and sandblast some small bits and see what they come out like.
Tape any critical areas first!

I was wondering if anyone can answer this question?
Galvanic reactions have been known about for a long time.
So why do they put aluminium parts in contact with steel parts on this lathe?
Some parts have thick, heavy surface rust on them from this.

Would a good coat of paint protect from this?

Most of the parts are going to be washed in some form of degreaser this week.
Will see what is available at our local auto stores.

As for a new bed, that will run about $400!
I think i will have a go with the JB Weld for now and get it functional.
If a better one comes around for the right price i may consider it.
But since this will be my first restoration job, it is a learning experience and i am having a good time with it! ;D

Andrew


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## GWRdriver (Feb 22, 2011)

don-tucker  said:
			
		

> This is very much like the Sphere lathe I used to own.


Don,
It obviously is. Atlas 10" lathes were made under license in the UK by Acorn Tools, but I was not aware that the 6's were.

After lathe production ceased, Clausing Corp (sucessor owner of Atlas) allowed spares stocks to dwindle away to almost nothing before realizing that huge numbers of Atlas lathes were still in operation and being rescued and restored, and what a gold mine that could be. Now most machined parts and some die cast parts are available again. In the interim, during the Dark Ages when practically no spares were available, I found two sources of NOS parts. The first was Sears, who sold Atlas lathes under their Craftsman brand, and who at the end of production ended up with a cache of NOS parts in their Memphis TN distribution center. All one had to know was the Sears part number. The other source was Acorn Tools who also for a short time had parts remaining which one couldn't find over here. How many others thought to try Sears and Acorn I don't know but I was able to replace all the die cast parts on my 10" Atlas which needed replacing. My best find was a set of NOS spindle gears from Sears. Before anyone goes running to Sears, all this took place 30 years ago, when I first restored my Atlas 10.


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## RICHARDDV (Feb 22, 2011)

> One question i have is how to remove the plaques?



  when i worked for john deere i removed those pesky drive screws by using a dremel cut off and slotting the head and using a screwdriver to turn them out-----richard


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## lazylathe (Feb 22, 2011)

The ones that mount the plaques on my lathe seem to be riveted onto the base and headstock, so no option to unscrew them.

May just grinding off the expanded portion would do it.
But then how do i reattach them?
Never seen pop rivets that small before.

Andrew


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## GailInNM (Feb 22, 2011)

Most often the plates are attached to castings with drive screws that look just like rivets when installed. They have a high helix multiple start thread and are attached by inserting in a hole in a casting and hitting with a hammer or snap rivet punch. 

Sometimes they can be removed by grinding a slot in the head and turning out with a screwdriver. When they can't then drill them out. In either case you replace them with new ones when reattaching the plate.
Gail in NM


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