DIYbanter - View Single Post

Rex B wrote:
wrote:

I'm looking into the old Craftsman mills and lathes now, since it seems
that older may be better for my purposes.

The problem I'm running into is that I wouldn't know a good(or bad)
deal when I see one on a machine like an old Atlas mill or Atlas lathe.
And there seems to be little info on these machines on the internet.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

Au contraire! There is a wealth of information on Atlas lathes. start
with the atlas_craftsman Yahoo group. Check the files section and the
links.
Less info on the mills, because they are fairly scarce. I don't
recall your original purpose, but I can tell you from experience and
wide research, that an Atlas lathe is very light-duty. The beds are
light and flexible, compared to anything else with a similar work envelope.
They also tend to be a little pricy compared to some better lathes.
I've had 2 Atlas machines, one of which I bought as a basket case. you
learn a lot about a machine that way. Once mine was finished, I sold it
muy pronto.
For the same money as an Atlas you can buy a decent Logan. Logan is
well supported by Scott Logan. You can get almost anything for them,
even though they were last built in the 1960s. They are a heavier
lathe, on a par with Southbend. For example, I have a 36" bed from a
10" Atlas. it weight exactly 50 pounds. My 9" Logan bed the same length
is easily double that. You should be able to pick up a nice, tooled,
Logan 10" QC model for under $1000. I bought my 9" for $350. I looked at
a 10" in Dallas last weekend which sold for for $500.

As for mills, all the nice small vertical mills seem to go quickly for
silly money, at least in this area (Texas). Right now I'm looking at
Pantographs as a lower-cost alternative.

(Sigh). Back to the drawing board. It seems that everytime I start to
zero in on what machine to get, someone comes up with a reason to look
at something else.(So I'll scratch the Atlas stuff).

I think that most here just have to do heavier work in larger envelopes
than I am thinking about for myself. So perhaps I can get away with a
machine that only weighs a couple hundred pounds.

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.