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wrote:
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.

Darren, let's temper that a little. If you run across a nice
Atlas/Craftsman 10" or 12" at a good deal, buy it. I would, and I do.
I just missed a late-model cabinet-mount 12" in the classifieds that was
a few miles from me, for $200. I'd have been on that like a duck on a
june bug, but someone beat me to it. I'd give $500 for one of the
late-model square-headstock, cabinet-mount units with basic tooling.
Still a light-duty 12x36, but nothing to dismiss out of hand. Heck, a
10x36 earlier model with a QC is an OK lathe too.
One thing I can say about the Atlas is that it's dead easy to check
bed wear on the flat ways - just mic 'em. Nominal thickness is .375 or
..500. Compare the working area to a virgin section at either end.
My point is, all things being equal - price, condition, tooling,
location - go for the Logan and you'll only have to buy once.
Actually, my own projects tend to be pretty small - bushings and
adapters and such. I could do most anything I've attempted on a 7X
asian lathe just as well. But I like good machinery. It just feels good.