I have had the Atlas 10" version for 35 years. It's a good lathe, but,
as others have said, isn't as rigid as a south Bend, etc.. That simply
means that you may have to take 30 thou roughing cuts instead of 50 or
60 at a time. Also, this rigidity issue (at least for me) becomes a
bigger deal when using carbide tooling. I just recently dug out my HSS
cutters and reground a bunch of them to fit my AXA QC tool holders and
things are working much better.
The only thing I can add to all the other posts is that the hole
through the spindle IS slighlty OVER 3/4", so you can chuck up a 3/4" shaft.
If the 3 jaw chuck has a couple of thou runout, I would throw it
away and get a nice new 6" 3 jaw set-true style chuck and be done with
it. When I bought my Atlas lathe, I paid $125, with lots and lots of
tooling.

Pete Stanaitis
-------------------------------------------
JonJonJon wrote:
Someone in my area is selling an Atlas/Craftsman lathe. He couldn't get
a model number, but I've seen this model before. He says it must be 20
years old at least. Here's a pictu

http://jonjonjon24.tripod.com/lathe.jpg

Would anyone have any specs on this machine, pros and cons that come to
mind? He is asking 3000$ CAD (about 2500$ USD right now) It comes with
the tooling that's hanging on the wall behind the machine and a milling
attachment. All I know is that it has 12" swing over bed and the bed is
about 4 feet long.

Any tips on what to look for when buying a used lathe would be
appreciated. The other option I have is to buy a much smaller 9x19"
from BusyBee Tools (same thing as Grizzly). It's a smaller machine, but
closer to my price range considering I also want to buy a small milling
machine.


Thanks
Jon