Atlas TH54

[schor]

A friend bought an Atlas lathe, missing a leadscrew and some busted gears so he brought it to me to fix. This project will cover tearing the lathe down, replacing broken/missing parts, the rebuild of the machine and then some operation instructions.

Here's parts 1 and 2.

[EdK]

Oh, this is going to be an interesting thread.

Ed

[schor]

Tailstock, carriage and gearbox removal and inspection.

[Mayhem]

Looking good Steve. I think you just beautifully illustrated why link belts were invented!

I did a similar think with my lathe but fortunately I have white metal bearings, so I just have to remove two end caps and lift the whole spindle assembly out. The down side is it takes two people to lift it out.

I'm looking forward to seeing this thread unfold...

[dallen]

most people don't know that a flat belt on a Lather or similar machine with a pulley setup such as on an atlas lathe can be installed without removing the spindle by simply gluing the joint and lacing it with flat lacing, no reason to remove the spindle to simply put on new belt, lots faster also. they also make fasteners for flat belts where all you do is slide in a pin.

also when switching from flat belt to a V-belt, you need to really watch the belt tension and not get it too tight which will cause undo wear on the babbit bearings/white metal. wide flat belts run lower belt tension the V-belts to deliver the same amount of power to the driven spindle.

[schor]

(10-10-2014, 08:15 AM)dallen Wrote: most people don't know that a flat belt on a Lather or similar machine with a pulley setup such as on an atlas lathe can be installed without removing the spindle by simply gluing the joint and lacing it with flat lacing, no reason to remove the spindle to simply put on new belt, lots faster also. they also make fasteners for flat belts where all you do is slide in a pin.

also when switching from flat belt to a V-belt, you need to really watch the belt tension and not get it too tight which will cause undo wear on the babbit bearings/white metal. wide flat belts run lower belt tension the V-belts to deliver the same amount of power to the driven spindle.

Good points on the flat belts Dallen, thanks. I do not believe that Atlas ever had flat belts on their F series lathes. I needed to pull the spindle anyways to figure out why the oiling holes were plugged up, which ended up being that someone greased the bearing.

[schor]

(10-10-2014, 07:56 AM)Mayhem Wrote: Looking good Steve. I think you just beautifully illustrated why link belts were invented!

I did a similar think with my lathe but fortunately I have white metal bearings, so I just have to remove two end caps and lift the whole spindle assembly out. The down side is it takes two people to lift it out.

I'm looking forward to seeing this thread unfold...

Thanks for the comment. Babbit bearings make the job easier, but I wonder in the end will having to re-pour the bearings eventually be the down side.

[Mayhem]

(10-10-2014, 08:36 AM)schor Wrote: Thanks for the comment. Babbit bearings make the job easier, but I wonder in the end will having to re-pour the bearings eventually be the down side.

Not at the speed that my lathe runs!

[schor]

(10-10-2014, 06:57 PM)Mayhem Wrote: Not at the speed that my lathe runs!

lol. That is a good point.

[krv3000]

hi as looking fowherd to this as i have one of them siting on me workshop flaw