Atlas Spare Fab

You may not be able to do so, and if you try it may ruin it. Keep in mind that low carbon steel does not heat treat. Your only option if that was your material choice would be to case harden it. and that's asking for trouble. You'd have had to use something like 1040 steel to do any serious heat treat, or other alloys that are heat treatable. The big problem you'd have is the part not staying straight, and I have serious doubts if it would. Some materials also change length in heat treat, so your lead could be affected. Most material has considerable stress within, and heat treat tends to relieve it. Quenching also can create serious distortion, especially if one side cools slightly faster than the other. You can create a nice banana far too easily. My suggestion to you is to enjoy your screw as it is. If you're using your machine for pleasure, it's likely to see you to your grave, still in good condition. Just make it a policy to keep it well lubed each and every time you use your lathe. I've done that with my Graziano, purchased in '67, and it's still in excellent condition after all these years, and it was used for commercial work for 16 of them.

Good luck!

Harold

What are the half nuts on that - Zamak or something similar? Even a soft steel lead screw will be harder. I don't think the originals were hardened.

It's my guess that the biggest contributor to leadscrew wear, though, is the crud that gets packed into the half nuts. Especially if you've been turning some scaly cast iron or doing any grinding. Keep the half nuts clean and the leadscrew should las a long time.

John Martin

John Martin

||>

||>Hey All ||>

||> I just fabbed a new lead screw for the crossfeed on my Altas 10". Should I ||>harden ||>the thing or not? ||>

||> It's nice to have a small backlash that is uniform over the entire screw. ||>

||>-- ||>Andrew ||>

||>

|| ||What are the half nuts on that - Zamak or something similar? Even a soft steel ||lead screw will be harder. I don't think the originals were hardened. || ||It's my guess that the biggest contributor to leadscrew wear, though, is the ||crud that gets packed into the half nuts. Especially if you've been turning ||some scaly cast iron or doing any grinding. Keep the half nuts clean and the ||leadscrew should las a long time.

The crossfeed leadscrew screws into a brass nut on those Texas Parts Guy

His point is well taken though. Abrasive spooge that gets embedded into a zamak or brass nut does a great job of lapping the leadscrew.

Note that this wear mechanism will wear out even a *hardened* leadscrew!

Jim

Actually, it is bronze, not brass (at least based on the Clausing which I have, which was made by the company). The bronze is quite a bit harder, though still softer than the steel.

But it is truly a single nut, not a pair of half nuts, which you would find on the longitudinal leadscrew, not the crossfeed one.

And the above mention of abrasive stuff getting in is critical. Note that it embeds in the softer piece, and then acts as a lap to wear the harder part, so even a hardened leadscrew (if you could do it given the risks) would be at risk.

Enjoy, DoN.

Hey Folks:

Thanks for the replies. Okay, I'll put it into service as is. Max backlash is .009" as measured by dial indicator.

Someone told me I could have purchased one new. Who would sell me one?

Andrew

Not bad at all.

I would suggest calling:

Clausing Service Center 1(574) 533-0371

Clausing and Atlas went through some kind of name juggling some time ago, and are both the same company.

Have the model number and serial number ready to hand, and they will sell you (for not too much) a photocopy of the manual tailored to what you have, and send along a price list for the replacement parts still in stock.

They seem to keep the leadscrews and nuts in stock, and based on what mine for my 12x24" Clausing cost, they are not too expensive -- especially compared to some prices which I have seen posted for South Bend leadscrews before they went under and were taken over by some other company.

I was out of town for several days, so this is my first chance to reply. I have over 670 still to read -- after the killfile zapped most of the political ones. I'll probably be zapping some more as I go, so it may not take as long as usual to wade though it alls.

Good Luck, DoN.