Back in July I mentioned my first lathe, an Atlas from 1938. I bought it as a basket case. I bought another from 1942 that was even less complete but had the parts that had been removed from the older one. They both had babbit bearings and the older one was trashed. The spindle was loose as the bearing journals were worn out of round and off center. The bed was worn so badly you could see and feel the grooves worn into it. There is adjustment for wear but this was in one place toward the front so it was sloppy and loose by the front and bound up when you tried to move the apron toward the rear. The back gear parts had been removed. The Atlas uses flat ways. These are a little less precise than V ways but easier to repair or recondition. I had no machines to use so everything had to be done by hand, other than the Drenel work I mentioned in July. I took the lathe apart and sanded the bed flat. This meant removing all material until the grooves were even. I used a ground stainless steel plate I had that was about 10″ x 11″ and wet or dry paper. It took a very long time. I used a 1 1/4″ diameter by 3′ long ground shaft I had to check and correct straightness of one edge and then made the other four parallel to it. I had removed enough material from the bed that the apron could not be adjusted to fit it properly so I had to remove enough material from it that it would grip the bedways, and then shim it to a proper fit. I made the spindle bearing journals round and centered and then fitted the bearings to it. I transferred the back gear parts and counter shaft from the 1942 lathe and fitted them to the older one. I ended up with a good lathe with just a few ten thousandths of spindle runout that would turn as or more accurately than the cheap newer lathes. The soft bearings limited the speed to 700 rpm but it would go down to 30 rpm and had very fine feeds. The biggest fault in most cheaper machines is to high a low speed and too course a fine feed. Low rpm just means you run slower on small work and take longer. Too high a speed or too course a feed means you can not get the precision or finish you want and there is little you can do, so I was satisfied. Many people paint and sproose up a machine when they recondition it. I am afraid I was not that civilized. Here is the machine after I finished it.
There is a clear plastic guard in front of and over the pulleys and gears. I made and mounted this so it would not throw oil. The three jaw chuck was a 5″ modern chuck I bought and fitted to an extra backplate that came with the lathe. I made a sort of quick change tool post once I had a milling machine. It worked well and cost nothing but some 3″ diameter stainless steel bar. I learned a great deal on that machine. Before it I only had a little Unimat, almost a toy. When trying to turn steel you had to take ridiculously small cuts, the chips were gossamer threads. The first time I set up the Atlas to take a cut in steel I had a 1/4″ wide and fairly thick chip curling up from ther tool and it brought tears to my eyes, a real lathe at last. Later I sold it and bought a 10 x 36 Atlas from 1946. It was sturdier, had roller bearings on the spinle, and had power cross feed. I only have this picture I am afraid.
I started all this in the late 1980s as a hobby while I was a manager at a plumbing wholesaler. I had gone there to get out of management but got sucked back into it on 1985. This is where I met my Little Mouse in 1984. I liked the company and it was the first time I felt I had a future and retirement as I had no college or skills other than low level management, but I ended up having to leave. The owner was afraid I might hire a black employee for the warehouse and tried to prevent it. When I took the manager position I made one condition, I hire and fire my own people. I did not want to spend another 12 years working up in a company just to have this happen again so I decided to try machine shops. I could read prints and make parts so I was worth trying but I knew nothing about production machining and had much to learn. I was working two full time jobs and making less than I had at the plumbing place but I worked up. I made a connection with Sandisk while working at one of the shops and started doing side work at home on nights and weekends. I ended up making about $9,000.00 in 9 months on my home machines. Little Mouse stopped complaining about the cost of my machines. This was my milling machine at home. It weighed about 375 pounds and cost $900.00. This was about the most I could have at home as we lived in a mobile home. I had to have 12 extra jacks under that one room as it was.
I was doing so much side work I needed bigger machines so I rented a bay and bought a Bridgeport clone mill and later a bigger lathe.
When I got up to about 140 hours a week between my machinist job and my side work a big project came up at Samdisk. They were developing the Compactflash matchbook sized format and the VP told me it would mean a big commitment of my time, so I quit my job and went Weaver Machining.
A test fixture. It held and located a board on the bottom. The upper deck held a probe card with fingers that touched contacts on the board when it was lowered. The probe fingers only had a couple of thousandths of movement so the fixture had to control travel precisely. I built in a solid stop and set up a micrometer head to adjust height to the tenth of a thousandth. It had a toggle linkage I designed to allow rapid travel when clearing or approaching the card to facilitate changes but gave very slow speed when approaching the stop. It ran on four linear bearings so it moved freely but with no play and the return used a damper airspring unit from the hatchback of a car so it allowed free movement down but if released it damped the upward movement so it did not slam against the top. The round knobs on the bottom were to adjust the position of the test board. The white box to the right was the tool kit with tools for adjusting it.
A machine for grinding through ceramic covers on components without damaging the boards underneath. I made this for Fujitsu.
A tool setter. A CNC machine operator wanted to be able to pre-set tools to the same length in #30 tool holders such as those on the bottom left so he could just change tools without having to reset zero on the machine. I designed and made this.
Machining was good to me and I do love the trade but I got into it for fun and I do miss it. When we moved to Texas we got a three car garage so I could have a lathe and mill, but I used my machine fund to help a friend and have no regrets. I have joined some home machinist forums on Facebook and it does stir the longing a bit. I have been working on getting in better shape and have lost 8 pounds so far since the start of August and have gotten to over a mile a day on the treadmill. Maybe if this continues I can look at a part time job. Elena is very not in favor of this but it would let me play a bit. There’s this neat lathe…..
Thank you, Paddy. That video might give me flashbacks if I had it.
I wish I had more pictures of my machines and some of the things I made. I made a drop testing fixture for Sandisk that was really something. It would adjust from 12″ to about 40″ and would drop the parts from different positions. It had a spring loaded platform that would snap down out of the way letting the part free fall. It was activated by a trigger switch that was connected to the body by a bicycle brake cable. It had a brake type lever mounted to a hand piece so nothing disturbed the tester when triggering it. The body slid along a 20mm shaft and was secured by a split cotter. (I liked using split and solid cotters and used them often. I also found toggle linkages handy and made many of them).
Of course, most of the work was smaller parts but some of those were interesting too. I have some samples of smaller things but I don’t know if they will photograph well. I did a fair amount of work under illuminated magnifiers.
G’day, Wheelizens!
CasaK still stands.
Forecast is very light showers all day; almost no wind.
Got nothin’ else…buh.
Happy Tuesday, Gerbil Nation!
Good morning, Fatwa!
I’m glad CasaK suffered no damage from Irma. Hopefully your roof will hold out until you get it replaced.
Back in July I mentioned my first lathe, an Atlas from 1938. I bought it as a basket case. I bought another from 1942 that was even less complete but had the parts that had been removed from the older one. They both had babbit bearings and the older one was trashed. The spindle was loose as the bearing journals were worn out of round and off center. The bed was worn so badly you could see and feel the grooves worn into it. There is adjustment for wear but this was in one place toward the front so it was sloppy and loose by the front and bound up when you tried to move the apron toward the rear. The back gear parts had been removed. The Atlas uses flat ways. These are a little less precise than V ways but easier to repair or recondition. I had no machines to use so everything had to be done by hand, other than the Drenel work I mentioned in July. I took the lathe apart and sanded the bed flat. This meant removing all material until the grooves were even. I used a ground stainless steel plate I had that was about 10″ x 11″ and wet or dry paper. It took a very long time. I used a 1 1/4″ diameter by 3′ long ground shaft I had to check and correct straightness of one edge and then made the other four parallel to it. I had removed enough material from the bed that the apron could not be adjusted to fit it properly so I had to remove enough material from it that it would grip the bedways, and then shim it to a proper fit. I made the spindle bearing journals round and centered and then fitted the bearings to it. I transferred the back gear parts and counter shaft from the 1942 lathe and fitted them to the older one. I ended up with a good lathe with just a few ten thousandths of spindle runout that would turn as or more accurately than the cheap newer lathes. The soft bearings limited the speed to 700 rpm but it would go down to 30 rpm and had very fine feeds. The biggest fault in most cheaper machines is to high a low speed and too course a fine feed. Low rpm just means you run slower on small work and take longer. Too high a speed or too course a feed means you can not get the precision or finish you want and there is little you can do, so I was satisfied. Many people paint and sproose up a machine when they recondition it. I am afraid I was not that civilized. Here is the machine after I finished it.
There is a clear plastic guard in front of and over the pulleys and gears. I made and mounted this so it would not throw oil. The three jaw chuck was a 5″ modern chuck I bought and fitted to an extra backplate that came with the lathe. I made a sort of quick change tool post once I had a milling machine. It worked well and cost nothing but some 3″ diameter stainless steel bar. I learned a great deal on that machine. Before it I only had a little Unimat, almost a toy. When trying to turn steel you had to take ridiculously small cuts, the chips were gossamer threads. The first time I set up the Atlas to take a cut in steel I had a 1/4″ wide and fairly thick chip curling up from ther tool and it brought tears to my eyes, a real lathe at last. Later I sold it and bought a 10 x 36 Atlas from 1946. It was sturdier, had roller bearings on the spinle, and had power cross feed. I only have this picture I am afraid.
I started all this in the late 1980s as a hobby while I was a manager at a plumbing wholesaler. I had gone there to get out of management but got sucked back into it on 1985. This is where I met my Little Mouse in 1984. I liked the company and it was the first time I felt I had a future and retirement as I had no college or skills other than low level management, but I ended up having to leave. The owner was afraid I might hire a black employee for the warehouse and tried to prevent it. When I took the manager position I made one condition, I hire and fire my own people. I did not want to spend another 12 years working up in a company just to have this happen again so I decided to try machine shops. I could read prints and make parts so I was worth trying but I knew nothing about production machining and had much to learn. I was working two full time jobs and making less than I had at the plumbing place but I worked up. I made a connection with Sandisk while working at one of the shops and started doing side work at home on nights and weekends. I ended up making about $9,000.00 in 9 months on my home machines. Little Mouse stopped complaining about the cost of my machines. This was my milling machine at home. It weighed about 375 pounds and cost $900.00. This was about the most I could have at home as we lived in a mobile home. I had to have 12 extra jacks under that one room as it was.
I was doing so much side work I needed bigger machines so I rented a bay and bought a Bridgeport clone mill and later a bigger lathe.
When I got up to about 140 hours a week between my machinist job and my side work a big project came up at Samdisk. They were developing the Compactflash matchbook sized format and the VP told me it would mean a big commitment of my time, so I quit my job and went Weaver Machining.
My mill and lathe.
A couple of things I designed and made.
A test fixture. It held and located a board on the bottom. The upper deck held a probe card with fingers that touched contacts on the board when it was lowered. The probe fingers only had a couple of thousandths of movement so the fixture had to control travel precisely. I built in a solid stop and set up a micrometer head to adjust height to the tenth of a thousandth. It had a toggle linkage I designed to allow rapid travel when clearing or approaching the card to facilitate changes but gave very slow speed when approaching the stop. It ran on four linear bearings so it moved freely but with no play and the return used a damper airspring unit from the hatchback of a car so it allowed free movement down but if released it damped the upward movement so it did not slam against the top. The round knobs on the bottom were to adjust the position of the test board. The white box to the right was the tool kit with tools for adjusting it.
A machine for grinding through ceramic covers on components without damaging the boards underneath. I made this for Fujitsu.
A tool setter. A CNC machine operator wanted to be able to pre-set tools to the same length in #30 tool holders such as those on the bottom left so he could just change tools without having to reset zero on the machine. I designed and made this.
Machining was good to me and I do love the trade but I got into it for fun and I do miss it. When we moved to Texas we got a three car garage so I could have a lathe and mill, but I used my machine fund to help a friend and have no regrets. I have joined some home machinist forums on Facebook and it does stir the longing a bit. I have been working on getting in better shape and have lost 8 pounds so far since the start of August and have gotten to over a mile a day on the treadmill. Maybe if this continues I can look at a part time job. Elena is very not in favor of this but it would let me play a bit. There’s this neat lathe…..
And that’s how Jeff became Mac. There will be no video. You are welcome, and lucky.
Not even video of us avoiding the fireball at the Gerbilee?
Those are some amazing things you designed and built, Mac!
Thank you, Paddy. That video might give me flashbacks if I had it.
I wish I had more pictures of my machines and some of the things I made. I made a drop testing fixture for Sandisk that was really something. It would adjust from 12″ to about 40″ and would drop the parts from different positions. It had a spring loaded platform that would snap down out of the way letting the part free fall. It was activated by a trigger switch that was connected to the body by a bicycle brake cable. It had a brake type lever mounted to a hand piece so nothing disturbed the tester when triggering it. The body slid along a 20mm shaft and was secured by a split cotter. (I liked using split and solid cotters and used them often. I also found toggle linkages handy and made many of them).
Of course, most of the work was smaller parts but some of those were interesting too. I have some samples of smaller things but I don’t know if they will photograph well. I did a fair amount of work under illuminated magnifiers.