Trial by fire while humbling, is the best way to learn a skill as long as you remember yours errors and try.not to repeat them. Self taught is very rewarding. That is a awesome rebuild.
Man your videos on this machine have given me the courage to pick one up it all ready has a Version of a vertical mill attachment for 650 so I basically just wanted to say thank you for doing these videos
ThunderDog how did the milling attachment work for you. I really want to pick up the one I found of gunsmithing at home. 80% 1911’s AR lowers and stuff of that nature.
Huh, I paid the exact same price for mine but it didn't have the horizontal arbor. Regarding vertical milling: I had two small horizontal mills at the time, the Atlas and that little Jefferson. The Jefferson was converted as a dedicated vertical mill. So, I can't say how the Atlas would perform with a vertical attachment. I ended up selling both because of two main reasons: very small work envelope. Fixturing almost anything was a pain, too far forward and you can't reach the section to be cut, too far back and you're hitting the face of the machine. Second reason, light cuts were the only way to go. Of course, I tended to only cut steel. Aluminum worked well on these bench top mills. That's why I eventually made the garage space to accommodate the Wells Index Super 55. Now, I don't have those issues and machining parts is enjoyable again. Regardless, the Atlas was a fun little machine.
I have had my mill for 30 plus years.I was able to find a Du more aux. Milling head with a #3 mt.The neat part is it is geared 1 to 1. I made a simple stub arbor that fits the spindle, and the attachment has a smooth bore with a 3/16 straight keyway.it does allow some adjustment in and out. Made a head mount out of 1-1/4 plate,bored it on a faceplate on the mill.The head has 15-deg. Grads. So you can slew the head up to 90 deg.And since the spindles are on the same plane,the attachment sits lower than the mill spindle ,so I added a 2"riser block that I made from a solid piece of cast iron. This mod completely changed this mill into a very usable, more versatile machine. You can buy collets outright from your tool jobber and mt 3 gives a wider variety of tools that you can use as well. Super rigid, no extra motor all feeds and speeds are stock. I will admit it was a bear to tram. Vrey pleased with this mod. I have made a bunch of parts with this machine.
Thanks. Make sure to carefully inspect those gears. They really are prone to breaking if not properly cared for. Also, carefully check the mechanism to change gear speeds is not hitting the sides of the machine. Just passing along some tips to help you out.
Awesome rebuild, looks great. What a difference from when you started the teardown process to the finished end . Now I have an idea of what to expect when I rebuilt my Atlas MFC, you addressed a couple of issues I have with my little mill. Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to your next videos.
You've done a splendid job on that machine, I have one as well it still needs some odds and ends, bit is in great working order. Thanks for bringing back another piece of American history. And isn't is a blast to use. Many of my machines are Atlas and I find myself making parts for one on the other. I love it. Keep up the great videos. There are more than one way to do most things as you've shown.
Good work, looks great, and will probably work well also when you fabricated the missing parts. You saved a awsome old quality machine for the future, I love that.
Now that's starting to look like something. :) I know nothing about machining or millwork, but I've really been enjoying watching your restoration of this beautiful piece of machinery. Can't wait to see it in action!
I just picked one up for $225. It looks complete, but I haven't dug into it yet. Of course....plenty of grime and rust. I appreciate you taking the time to do a series on your rebuild. I'll be referencing it quite a bit.
Sounded like the tapered roller bearings for the arbor/pulley drive might have been noisy, but they went on so fast I could not tell. Looks like a really dirty position. Nice little machine! Your overhaul looks great. It looks so simple to work on you may be right in choosing a clean and reassemble job and get all parts in place and running and become familiar with it, then decide how much precision you need and address fine tuning at your leisure. This is my first video at your site, I’ll be back!
Hey ThunderDog, good job on the rebuild for your Atlas Horizontal milling machine. Wanted you to know that I just picked up a Craftsman Atlas Lathe and one of these Atlas Mills from a guy selling them on Craigslist. From what the guy told me both the lathe and mill have been sitting for over 35 years. When I got there to check them out they were covered with saw dust. But I plugged them in and they both pretty much worked fine. The best part of the deal is that I only paid $1000 bucks for both of them and a bunch of tooling. Though they have been sitting for quite a while, both the lathe and mill. Do not have any noticeable wear on the table for the mill and the ways on the lathe. Like you the mill has a change -o- matic gear selection and the window you can not see through. So that is something I'll need to fix. I know you are probably a busy guy. But if you have a chance to read this, I would like your input.
Nice machine! And restoration job as well...it's so well badged an accented, plus the exposed drive-shaft is the epitome of gadgetry. Thanks for sharing this, and as always, I'll be looking for anything more...Aloha, Chuck.
Excellent series. Great job on the machine, the videography, and the editing. You have a knack for omitting or speeding up material to create an effective means of communicating. I've got one to fix now. Only thing I'll do differently is apply primer and use an enamel paint. You may want to get new headstock bearings and cups and chase the threads on the spindle nose a bit. Doubtless it will be an extremely useful little tyke. You can get speeds lower than some Bridgeports on that mill, if I recall correctly. Again, excellent work and congratulations.
Awesome! Thank you so much for watching and leaving feedback. I replaced the cups and bearings with all new Timken products, just didn't put it in the vid.
Hahahaha. Hardly man. Cheers! Hey I was thinking of something fun to do with all the guys that make chips or dream of making chips. A little shoutout vid "first chips". Just a quick "fuck yeah!" and a couple seconds of a new to you machine making it's first chips. You in?
Ya, just upload a little first chip footage, in HD. No talking during the chip cutting. Then a bit about the machine, what it felt like to finally be making chips with the machine and whatever else you want me to say. Send me the private link.
I have this exact model, but mine was never used until I got a hold of it, the difference between the b and c model was our b models had a "cover" over the support bar. I would recommend putting a bit of grease in the automatic feed gear box though. I also am considering using a Burke milling attachment and fitting it to my mill by using the horizontal arbor to power the Burke.
Good job. Would suggest that you spend some time, if you haven't already, verifying the geometry of the machine as part of your rebuild process. Both the arbor support and support bracket castings are on Ebay, been looking at doing one of these myself so shopping around, and they would be a fine addition to this machine. Like the thunder but it scared me the first time!!! Thanks for the post. UA
Thanks for watching. Yeah, I sold this little machine for a Wells Index Super 55, which I rescraped(see newer videos). The Atlas was simply too small of a work envelope.
I recently got my hands on one of these mills as part of a deal with an Atlas B7 Shaper. The horizontal mill needs some work, the shaper on the other hand will only need a quick clean and degrese as well as a new cap to work properly.
I know its been brought up a little but I am going to be getting one of these fairly soon and I would be really interested in maybe trying to reverse engineer some of these more simplistic vertical milling attachments so as to possibly DIY them with the lathe and mill ... for this particular machine of course :)
Excellent video and series... Love it... I do have the same mill that I want to restore as well and I am curious, did you take photos and make copious notes, or is there a parts diagram that someone can actually read that you have? Thank you.
thanks for videos...be watching the series...got a mfc basket case so prob wont be a full restoration ..modify ..after teardown couldnt pass it up for 60$ has the same verticle attachement...same wizard welded it to shaft..so ill have remake that
Have you considered using a #2MT test bar as your arbor? Or perhaps there's something similar out there where you can buy stock with the MT already turned. Looks like the main arbor section is a bit wider diameter than the widest part of the #2MT, but you know- just throwing that out there. Some kind of pre-turned end on stock might be available.
I've been thinking about the same thing. I've considered buying a MT2 "something" that can be sacrificed and attach it to a piece of round stock via set screw or some other secure/permanent method. Then turn that between centers. Or, just continue to practice turning morse tapers via offset of tailstock or setting the compound to the appropriate angle. :)
Hey T-dog, when you were putting the Change-O-Matic gear cover on. Did you put some type of lubrication on the gears before you put it back together? If so what type of oil or grease did you end up using?
T-dog, where did you get those link belts that you are using on the other horizontal mill rebuild video? I need to get a couple of them for my Atlas horizontal mill rebuild project. I looked at H.F. and they want like $27 bucks for one link belt!!!
Let me say this, do NOT use link belts on the Atlas mill. Since that video I was struggling with the mill jamming and severe heat build up on the pulleys. It even burnt up one of the Oilite bushings. I replaced all of the belts with the factory spec size belts and have had no problems. The machine needs the correct belts to effectively transfer the power.
Well damn, I was hoping I didn't have to take the spindle apart. Just to replace the freaking spindle belt!!! But I am glad that you had experience with the link belts and told me about it before I ended up buying them!!! You know what sucks, when I was taking my mill apart to clean it up and paint it. I unfortunately cut the spindle belt and it was perfectly fine, thinking I would just buy one of those link belts. Do you happen to know the part number for the spindle belt you ended up buying?
+Steve Billmire Spindle belt is 5L280. On the bright side it was cheaper than a link belt. And think of it like a test to see how fast you can disassemble/assemble the spindle. 😁😁
I know its kinda late but i just found your channel.I have the same mill that i am currently restoring. I can send you dimensions of the arbor support if you need them. it should be simple to make with the tooling that you have. I am missing the arbor as the previous owner turned mine into a vertical also. Did you ever make one? Ryan
Well, I actually found one via Ebay a while back. I have since sold the Atlas mill and the little Jefferson mill, too. I fully rescraped and restored a Wells-Index Super 55 milling machine.
I have a suggestion for your mill. Instead of making that bracket so you can snake a belt up to basically convert this into a vertical mill. Why not buy a ER13 or larger spindle motor and make an adapter that bolts to that shaft. This way you use your original gearing and motor for horizontal work and a much more compact and probably more powerful 500-1kw spindle with a built in collet chuck for the vertical work. The machine rigidity is there, just a spindle, some steel an some ingenuity and you have two machines in one.
www.hobby-machinist.com/attachments/mill-complete-005-custom-jpg.38677/ I wish I had designed this, but I'm only partway on my project to copy it. From www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/atlas-horizontal-mill.6773/
I have 2 Atlas Mills both are 12 Speeds. the one I lucked out on the previous owner put a Rusnok mill head on it for Vertical milling the other Machine I still have to rebuild . as for an easy fix for a milling head you can use a Taig Lathe Spindle Head with a small Motor just make some simple Brackets There is one on RU-vid to give you some Idea of what's involved . those ones on Ebay are just a copy of the Marvin Head Offered many years ago . it used to mount on the Support Bar and was driven by the spindle with a pulley adapted to it . I love to see People restoring the old machines I have quite a few myself
I love the video, in reference to another motor have you thought about a treadmill motor that drives a dc bridge rectifier and an 11.00 dollar power supply made in china ....from eBay......... idid it for my 9'' southbend lathe and my 10 k southbend lathe ....they both work like a charm its variable speed with a pot and has reverse........simple......my 2 cents for what its worth....waiting for next vid...email me if you need more info.
