I am about to purcahse an atlas lathe in relatively good condition. I work at a machine shop and one of the older gentleman that works there mentioned htat he had a lathe just sitting around and he wanted to get rid of it. So i went to look at it the other day.... heres the story.
He got it from someone in the city that barely used it about 15 years ago, he never set it up and never used it. He oiled it, and covered it and let it sit in a friends garage where they did body work on cars.
2 years ago he had to move it, so it ended up in his yard (yes in his yard) under a tarp with the chip pan over it to keep out the rain. This concerned me at first but i thought what the hell, its worth looking at...I got there, and we tramped through the grass to where it was sitting, pulled off the blue tarp ( in decent shape) and pulled off the canvas over it, the chip pan and etc. To my surprise it was in relatively good shape for sitting outside. IT was an atlas 10" with the quickchange gearbox and tapered roller bearings. dont know the serial number cause i forgot to look. Having been oiled and put in a shop, the dust had adhered to the oil, and hardened to the consistancy of a latex paint or a cosmoline type coating. I took my fingernail and scraped it away and underneath the ways were shiny and smothe!!! There was some surface rust on the chuck, the original toolpost, tailstock and the chuck in the tailstock. had a piece of scotch- brite with me and it took care of it with no problem. The crossslide was free and easy to turn, no noticeable backlash, the saddle was free buti didnt want to move it too much.... crabbed the chuck and shook it as hard as i could to see if there was any play, there was none, spindle spun free, all gears looked good, well greased and intact, the spindle was shiny with no rust.
He then took me to the garage (filled with crap as many machinsts garages are, with no room for the poor lathe) and he had boxes of stuff for it, including an extra 3 jaw, 4 jaw 2 faceplates, dogs, spindle drill chuck, taper attachment, 3c or 3at collet setup with drawbar(original atlas i believe), steady and follow rest, brand new half nut(score!! lol) had the original (working) 1 phase motor mount and pulleys. so at this point im thinking, how much does he want for this thing.... He didnt know... and neither did i. I knew it wasnt worth nothing but i had no idea where to start, i had seen some similar go for upwards of 1000$ and for as little as 200.
I told him i would think about it and left. saw him at work the next day and we talked again and i told him that it would deffinately take work to get running but it was possible to do. and i finally asked, how much do you want for the damn thing cause i have no idea what to offer.... we agreed on 300$ and i am gonna pick it up sometime this week.
So, after this longwinded post i hope someone can tell me if i am in for a huge undertaking or if my investment is worth it. I am concerned with parts for this lathe even though i am sure at the moment it doesnt need any. i know many parts are available from clausing and ebay but somehow i cant see spending preemium prices for original gears made of that pot metal zmak.... has anyone rebuilt parts for these lathes by hand with better materials, or found a source for new cast iron gears?
Thanks in advance.
-Brian-