Bob Cleek

PS. as our posts overlapped:
 
- drill-chucks are made for drilling and do not like to take side-loads as occur in turning; they would be imprecise at least and can outright dangerous, when the loads are too high. Do not entertain this idea.
 
- in hobby-turning one would not use any cutting-oil; brass and aluminium are always turned dry and for steel nether the turning speeds nor the cutting depths would lead to so much heat generation, that cooling of the tool-tip is needed - which is the purpose of cutting fluids here, not lubrification. Cutting fluids are for production lathes. On milling machines the situation is somewhat different, here you will need lubrification for steel, but not for brass normally.
 
As to chucks: I believe there are hollow (China-made) MT2 to ERxx adapters available on ebay et al. This arrangement would be perfectly ok for working with bar-stock that passes through the whole length of the collet. If the material is shorter than say half the collet length, then there is a risk that it is being pushed out and the collet is damaged due to overtightening. If my memory serves my right, such adapters go at around 20US$ and collets, depending on size at 2 to 3 US$ a piece - I have bought such collets for use in lieu of a drill-chuck on my watchmakers lathe and as cheapo as they are, they are perfectly adequate for our needs.
4-jaw-chucks are very precise for centring material that has been already machined, but a pain to set up. You will also need a dial-indicator and stand for this. I wouldn't bother with a 4-jaw-chuck and unmachined round stock.
Remember also that unless you need to re-chuck a piece (say to work on both ends), when working from bar stock, the quality of the chuck/collet is pretty unimportant. All machined surfaces will be concentric to each other.

I've owned a number of lathes over the years.  Unimat, Sherline, South Bend, Precision Matthews.  I've used Standard Modern at work. 
 
There is the basic underlying question for you to consider here.

Are you planning to work on your lathe, or do work with your lathe?
 
I built a functional firearm with my Sherline a few years ago.  (3 meetings with the Chief Provincial Firearms Officer, registrations, license checks, etc.  LEGALLY DONE.)
 
It took me almost 50 hours of machine time to make the bolt with the Sherline.  I bought that lathe for probably $500 off e-pay, ordered new parts to expand the capability and size, make it capable of milling, drilling, and so on.  And it was still a tiny little lathe/mill combo that while modular, was not rigid enough to do actual machine work effectively.  
 
So.  I upgraded from that to a SB 10K lathe that I bought out of an old technical high school.  It was great - but it needed a lot of work.  It came with a 3 jaw chuck and after 35 years in a school, it was worn beyond repair in the first 6 inches of the bed.  I put a lot of work into trying to fix it up, new parts, repairs, etc, but in the end, the bed wear and damage was impacting my tolerances too much. 
 
I have since upgraded from that to a newer Precision Matthews of similar footprint.  (10x30) 
 
I haven't had to make a single part for the PM.  I have used it to MAKE parts for other projects.  
 
I will suggest that the lathe you have (Atlas/Craftsman) is great for you to repurpose into a wood working lathe.  But, if you find yourself needing to do actual precision machining, you might find yourself having to throw a lot of money at repairs, particularly if you have issues in the headstock or bed wear.  
 
Do a cost analysis of what you're going to spend to get this one running and doing what you want with it before you get yourself too deep.
 
I will observe that when threading, I do miss the Quick Change gear box on my SB.  My PM does not have that. I have to deal with manual change gears.
 
Last observation - what is the largest size item you are considering working on with your lathe?  Are you going to do a prop shaft?  Are you going to do a rifle barrel?  Are you going to be doing a ship's mast?  How big a lathe do you NEED to have for your planned projects.  That's a big factor.  I got a lathe a bit bigger than the maximum I thought I'd go, and I'm happy I did.  It's let me do slightly larger projects (Tripod legs, etc) that I hadn't considered in my original planning stages. 
 
NS
 

There are two elements to engage the backgear:
 
- there is a pin or other type of lock that engages the small gear on the spindle, which has the pulleys permanently coupled to it, with the large gear on the spindle; in this situation the lathe spindle is driven directly.
- if the rear gear/pulley is not locked to the large gear, it idles on the spindle; the ball-handle lever on the backgear spindle works on excentric bearings, which allow the backgears to swing into mesh with the gears on the lathe-spindle.
 
If you lock the gears on the main spindle and swing the back backgear into mesh, the whole system is locked. When you then start the motor, either the belt will slip on the pulleys or it may sheer-off the locking pin. If you suspect the latter is the case, you have to dissamble the whole headstock and drill out the remains of the pin.
 
I have taken anything with Babbitt-bearings apart, so I wouldn't know, how to deal with them. I am sure you can find some advice for this on the Web. Normally, there would be a nut on the back of the spindle and a corresponding lock-nut, most likely to be worked with a C-spanner. These serve to adjust the end-play. If you take out the nuts, you can pull out the spindle to the front. There would also be a grub screw to loosen that locks the large gear onto the spindle.

I keep going back and forth on getting a smaller lathe or not.  The lathe I have,  this is information from my dad.    Which might be true may not be but here’s what he remembers.  The lathe he believes at first was in the ford motor company plant in Detroit.  Then a man that worked there got it (have no idea if bought out given).  That man had it for a few years in his own garage at home then sold it to a mechanic that would use it to true up arbors for something.  Then my grandfather got it from him which in turn was given to my father and now to me.   Between my grandfather and me it wasn’t used much.  My grandfather got it back in the 50’s it doesn’t look like it had been used much but the headstock does have babitt instead of bearings and the headstock has little if no play in it.
 
 I’ve messed with it a little bit over the years but I’ve never turned metal with it.  Only wood to make scale wagon wheel hubs.  Like the ones shown on this 1/8 th scale stage coach I’ve been building off and on.
 

 
I want to keep this lathe but for my “hobby shop” would like to have something smaller because of space and be able to move it around if needed.
 
 

kgstakes, what is actually wrong in your opinion with your lathe ?
 
When pondering lathes it is important to draw up a list of the things and their enveloppe sizes that you are expecting to make. An old rule of thumb is to by a lathe that has twice the capacity you think you need 😉
 
Apart from that the other end of the size range also needs to be considered. If you are expecting to make (lots) of small parts, a chuck is not such a good option for a couple of reasons: it is less precise than collets and the spinning jaws are always a risk for valuable body parts, such as fingers. As you already have a lathe, you may want to look into a collet-chuck for it (I don't think the Craftsman has an internal spindel taper for collets). They are easy to obtain though ES-collets are more for tool-holding and not so good for work-holding. A 5C collet-chuck would be better. On the other hand, as you have thread-cutting capability on your lathe, you could make a collet-adapter four your own lathe quite easily yourself. You could then make one for WW-horological collets to work with really small parts.
 
An engineer's lathe is not ideal for woodturning, as dust can easily clog the drive spindle. A plain lathe would be better. When you turn wood, you should remove the saddle and apron as much as possible without going so far to disassemble the lathe and cover well the spindle in front of the bed. Dito for the backgear etc. I would tape it up. Otherwise you would need a thorough cleaning session as wood dust together with oil makes a nasty combination that can clog vital parts of the lathe easily.
 
To fashion a T-rest (or several sizes for convenience) should be quite simple. You would need to make a bed adapter that clamps to the lathe bed and to which a stem is screwed that carries the actual tool-rest. On the Internet there should be pictures of the (way overpriced) T-rest Sherline used to sell for their lathes, which should give you design ideas. I think that could be done without needing a milling machine, just using stock materials and simple tools.
 

Note that Sherline is selling these chucks with back plates to fit Unimat DB/SL spindles that are 12mm in diameter x 1mm threading (or 14mm x 1mm for the Unimat 3) or "1/2" by 20 TPI for "old 6" Sears lathes." Sears sold lathes in a variety of sizes. The smallest was a 6" lathe (capable of handling material up to 6" in diameter,) there was a 9" model, and the 12" model made by Atlas. I've never seen a 6" Craftsman lathe in the flesh, but the 9" Craftsman lathe was a nice little lathe. 
 
Back in the day, "Craftsman" was Sears' middle of the line "house brand" for tools while "Craftsman Professional" or "Craftsman Industrial" were the top of the line and "Dunlop" was Sears' lowest quality - lowest priced line of tools (which were later called "Sears," then "Companion," and are now called "Evolv.")   It's only been in recent decades as Sears began its long decline into oblivion that Craftsman tools began to be sold anywhere other than in Sears stores or mail order from their catalog. Stanley-Black and Decker bought the Craftsman brand in 2017 with Sears holding a license to use the Craftsman brand name without paying royalties to Stanley-Black and Decker for 15 years, so now you can buy Craftsman tools at a Sears store (if you can still find one, there's only 13 Sears stores left) or one of the many other stores now supplied by Stanley-Black and Decker.
 
The various old Craftsman stationary power tools were made by leading U.S. stationary power tool manufacturers of the day such as Atlas Press, Co. (in later years bought out by Clausing lathe company), King-Seeley, and Double A Products. These Craftsman tools were identical to the models made and sold by their manufacturers, save for the "Craftsman" label badges and model numbers attached to the tools made for sale by Sears, Roebuck, and Co. This was basically the same business model as Costco uses today with its "Kirkland" house brand. (Interestingly, the "Dunlop" line was named in honor of the man who was Sears' West Coast hardware manager who, in 1937, came up with the idea of making the Craftsman line of hand tools polished chrome plated and rust proof which resulted in a six-fold increase in sales the following year.)
 
The 12" Atlas Craftsman lathes have a spindle with an outside diameter of an inch and a half with eight threads per inch. This is a fairly standard spindle size and threading and there are all sorts of chucks that can be purchased with backing plates that have an inside diameter of 1.5" X 8 TPI, so you should have no problem finding a chuck in the size you desire. In passing, I'll mention that you may want to give some thought to investing in a four-jaw chuck instead of a three-jaw one since the four-jaw chuck is more versatile and accurate than the three-jaw. Four-jaw chucks come in "self-centering" and "independently adjustable jaw" types. For modeling work, you won't need the "watchmaker" tolerances of a Sherline chuck. One of the half-way decent Chinese imports will probably serve just fine. 
 
Here's a YouTube video from Mr.Pete22 / "Tubal Cain" on the 12" Atlas Craftsman headstock and spindle that you might find helpful.
 
 

I couldn't say offhand, but, as I recall, the Atlas/Craftsman 12" lathe has a standard 1.5" spindle with a standard thread, so a whole lot of chucks should fit it and there's no trouble finding one. That spindle is a lot larger than the Sherline lathes would have, so I'd be surprised if Sherline were selling chucks with spindle sizes that large.  However, the way lathe chucks are often sold, the chuck itself is a "one size fits all" sort of item in different chuck sizes. The chucks are sold with "backing plates" which are bolted to the back of the chuck itself. The backing plates have differently sized threaded "necks" on them to fit a wide range of spindle sizes. It is possible that Sherline is selling a small three-jaw chuck and that chuck manufacturer (which isn't necessarily Sherline) also offers a 1.5" backing plate that will fit on the Atlas/Craftsman spindle.

Note that Sherline is selling these chucks with back plates to fit Unimat DB/SL spindles that are 12mm in diameter x 1mm threading (or 14mm x 1mm for the Unimat 3) or "1/2" by 20 TPI for "old 6" Sears lathes." Sears sold lathes in a variety of sizes. The smallest was a 6" lathe (capable of handling material up to 6" in diameter,) there was a 9" model, and the 12" model made by Atlas. I've never seen a 6" Craftsman lathe in the flesh, but the 9" Craftsman lathe was a nice little lathe. 
 
Back in the day, "Craftsman" was Sears' middle of the line "house brand" for tools while "Craftsman Professional" or "Craftsman Industrial" were the top of the line and "Dunlop" was Sears' lowest quality - lowest priced line of tools (which were later called "Sears," then "Companion," and are now called "Evolv.")   It's only been in recent decades as Sears began its long decline into oblivion that Craftsman tools began to be sold anywhere other than in Sears stores or mail order from their catalog. Stanley-Black and Decker bought the Craftsman brand in 2017 with Sears holding a license to use the Craftsman brand name without paying royalties to Stanley-Black and Decker for 15 years, so now you can buy Craftsman tools at a Sears store (if you can still find one, there's only 13 Sears stores left) or one of the many other stores now supplied by Stanley-Black and Decker.
 
The various old Craftsman stationary power tools were made by leading U.S. stationary power tool manufacturers of the day such as Atlas Press, Co. (in later years bought out by Clausing lathe company), King-Seeley, and Double A Products. These Craftsman tools were identical to the models made and sold by their manufacturers, save for the "Craftsman" label badges and model numbers attached to the tools made for sale by Sears, Roebuck, and Co. This was basically the same business model as Costco uses today with its "Kirkland" house brand. (Interestingly, the "Dunlop" line was named in honor of the man who was Sears' West Coast hardware manager who, in 1937, came up with the idea of making the Craftsman line of hand tools polished chrome plated and rust proof which resulted in a six-fold increase in sales the following year.)
 
The 12" Atlas Craftsman lathes have a spindle with an outside diameter of an inch and a half with eight threads per inch. This is a fairly standard spindle size and threading and there are all sorts of chucks that can be purchased with backing plates that have an inside diameter of 1.5" X 8 TPI, so you should have no problem finding a chuck in the size you desire. In passing, I'll mention that you may want to give some thought to investing in a four-jaw chuck instead of a three-jaw one since the four-jaw chuck is more versatile and accurate than the three-jaw. Four-jaw chucks come in "self-centering" and "independently adjustable jaw" types. For modeling work, you won't need the "watchmaker" tolerances of a Sherline chuck. One of the half-way decent Chinese imports will probably serve just fine. 
 
Here's a YouTube video from Mr.Pete22 / "Tubal Cain" on the 12" Atlas Craftsman headstock and spindle that you might find helpful.
 
 

Actually ...  my Unimat can 'convert' to a mini drill press by putting a drill chuck on the spindle, unbolting the head stock, installing the vertical bar, mounting the head stock on the bar with levered pinion for downstroke, putting the milling table on the tool slide, and topping that with a mini vise.  Its sort-of a pain, and to go back to a lathe one must reverse the process.  Also, the Unimat is typically underpowered.
 
  "All in one" type of tools have a certain amount of gimmickry involved - a friend of mine had a 'Shop Smith', that could be re-configured (with some fiddling) into a wood lathe, table saw, drill/mill press, spindle shaper, belt sander, jointer or a spindle shaper ... only one type of work at a time.  The other example of "overkill" was the PBS 'The New Yankee Workshop' with Norm Abrams (Naahm) ... I mean this guy had every conceivable power tool for wood working in existence - multiple table saws, jointers, planers, biscuit joiners, mortisers, band saws, lathes, spindle shapers plus all sorts of specialty jigs and fixtures.  THEN, after machining virtually every part by one machine or another - he'd pick up a chisel (good heaven's, a HAND tool) and say something like,  "To clean up this corner, I'll need a couple taps with a chisel."  Then, tap-tap - and the hand tool was put down.
 
  More to my liking was 'The Woodwright's Shop' with Roy Underhill.  The man has a respect for hand work and traditional tools ... with occasional power tools used - one only needs a few.

Keep the Atlas.  You can turn wood on it no problem.  Just clean the wood chips out of the lathe when you are done.  There is a Facebook group for Atlas lathes that you might find useful for info and finding parts.  Lots of Youtube videos about Atlas lathe operation and repair.
 
Check out this website for wood turning on a metal lathe. https://www.lathematters.com/turning-wood-on-a-metal-lathe/

No matter how you cut it, cutting the rolling bevel in a planking rabbet (sometimes called a "rebate") is a tedious process that takes some thought and care. You will find lots of theoretical instructions in boat building and modeling books about how to do it using the information that may be developed using lofting techniques. The exact angle of the rabbet can be developed for any point along the rabbet's length from the lofting (or lines drawings) and from that the rabbet, back rabbet, and bearding lines can then be developed and drawn or lofted. These varying angles define the shape of the rolling bevel that forms the rabbet. In small craft and model construction, there's an easier way to cut the rolling bevel without reference to the drawn or lofted the rabbet lines at all. Experienced boat wrights dispense with a lot of the lofting by "building to the boat," as  they say, rather than "to the plans." With the planking rabbets, this means that the angle and depth of the rabbet at any given point along the rabbet is developed using "fit sticks" and battens to define the rabbet lines and the bevel's rolling angles. It's easier done than said.
 
What you do is frame out your boat or model. Take care, as is always necessary, to fair the frame face bevels. This requires setting up the frames and sanding the faces so that a flat batten laid across the frames in a generally perpendicular relation to the frames, as well as at lesser angles, will always lay flat against the frame faces. (You may need to place temporary blocking between the frames or otherwise secure them well so they don't wobble when you sand across them.) Your frames should be cut and set up as in full size practice, with the corner of the outboard-most side of the face precisely cut and set up on the section lines such that when fairing wood is removed from the forward side of the faces of frames forward of the maximum beam and from the after side of the faces of the frames aft of the maximum beam. The accurately cut frame corner, the forward corner on frames aft of the maximum beam and the aft corner of frames forward of the maximum beam, is the reference point for fairing your frames. Use one batten for marking the faces of the frames and another, with a suitable sheet of sandpaper glued to its face, or a manicurist's emory board, to sand the excess off the faces until they are fair. The batten used for marking is chalked with carpenter's chalk and rubbed against the faces of the frames to mark the high spots. Where the colored carpenter's chalk transfers from the marking batten to the frame faces is where the frame face is too high and needs to be sanded down some more. When the marking batten lies flat in contact with all the frame faces, transferring chalk to the entire frame face, the frame faces are fair.
 
Now, with your frames faired, take a small stick of wood the same thickness as your planking and cut across at the ends perfectly square, which is called a "fit stick," and place it against the face of a frame and slide it down until the lower back corner of the fit stick (the inboard corner) rests against the keel. Accurately mark the point where the corner of the fit stick and the keel meet. This mark is where your bearding line is at that point.
 
Then take a second fit stick and place it on top of the first with the first in the position it was in when you marked the bearding line point and slide it down over the first fit stick until its lower back (inboard) corner touches the keel and mark that point. This mark is where your rabbet line is at that point.
 
Make these two marks at each frame. Spring a batten between all the upper and lower marks on the keel and draw lines through all the marks. These lines will be your bearding and rabbet lines. Extend them out as far as they will go, but, for the moment, they are relevant only for the span from the forward-most frame to the after-most frame.
 
Now, at each frame, with your two fit sticks stacked as when you marked the lower rabbet line, take a knife or chisel and using the lower edge of the upper fit stick as a guide, cut into the keel at the same angle as the face of the bottom edge of your upper fit stick, i.e. with the flat of your blade against the edge of your lower fit stick. This cut should be as deep as your planking is thick. (This first cut can be easily made with a small circular saw blade on a rotary tool if you know what you're doing. Mark the blade face with a Sharpie to indicate the depth of cut.) Cut down to the point of the rabbet cut you've made from above so that you end up with the back rabbet face of the keel at a right angle to the rabbet line cut.  Test your cut with a fit stick, which, when the rabbet section cut at that frame is done, should lie perfectly fair on the face of the frame with its bottom edge fit perfectly into the rabbet you've cut. Because the angle of your rabbet is defined by the lower edge of the top fit stick and it's depth by the thickness of your planking, there's no need to worry about where the back rabbet line is. You'll develop the back rabbet naturally when the two lines you are cutting to meet at right angles at the bottom of the cut.
 
Now, you simply "connect the dots" or rabbet "notches" you've created at each frame by carving out the wood in the way of the rabbet and bearding lines between the frames to form a continuous rabbet with a fair rolling bevel.
 
The stem, deadwood, and stern post are a bit trickier than the sections where the frames are set up on the keel, but the method of marking them and taking the rabbet angles off of fit sticks is the same and shouldn't need much further explanation. The main difference is that a batten of the same thickness as your planking is place across the frame faces, rather than perpendicular to the frame faces, and extended to where its bottom inboard edge touches the stem, deadwood or stern post and is marked there for the bearding line, and then another fit stick batten is placed on the first to find the rabbet line. You will find a chalked marking fit stick batten to be handy again in fairing up the dubbing on the wide deadwood rabbets. These techniques are a lot easier to learn by doing than to explain in writing. 
 
On a real vessel, cutting the planking rabbets is a very exacting process because the ease of caulking and the watertightness of these seams are dependent upon the perfect fit of these faying surfaces (where the planks and keel touch.) This isn't a big consideration in a model. What's important for a model is only that the visible rabbet lines and the planking are fair and tight. If the angle is off behind the planking and a bit too much wood is removed, it makes no difference because a sliver can always be glued in place to raise the plank to where it has to be and the rest filled with glue, or if too little is removed, the plank face can be sanded fair after it's hung. (The latter being the less preferable. It's generally better to remove wood from behind the plank than from the plank itself.)
 
This may seem like a tedious exercise and it is, but doing it correctly will make your planking a far easier task, particularly in hull forms where there is considerable twist in the planks at the ends. A final word of caution for the modelers with a machinist's background: This is a hand job. You won't find a way to do it more easily on your mill. Many have tried to devise some sort of jig which would permit cutting these rolling bevel rabbets with saws, routers, or other power tools. As far as I know, and those I know who know a lot more about it than I do, nobody's succeeded. Don't waste a lot of time trying to figure out what nobody else has been able to accomplish. I expect that it could be accomplished, in theory, at least, with very sophisticated CNC technology, but would probably take a lot longer to program and set up than doing it by hand will.
 
This video of full-sized construction illustrates the method described fairly well:  
 
 
 

Yes, what you have there is an Atlas, or an "Atlas/Craftsman" (Atlas badged by Sear, Roebuck, and Co.) 12"X42"16-speed Standard model machinist's lathe. That model was, as near as I can tell from the photo, the introduced in 1939 and continued in production throughout the War and up to the late '40's or early '50's. (You can look up the serial number online someplace and get the actual manufacture date.) There were reportedly a very large number of them manufactured during the War to be used for "piecework" war parts production by home shop machinists. There are still many around in the various configurations in which they were made.  Early Craftsman Metalcraft & Metalmaster 9" and 12" Lathes and  Atlas - 12-inch Lathe (Late Models including the Craftsman) Manual & Data Pack | store.lathes.co.uk at Lathes.co.uk .  
 
I have a Unimat DB modeling lathe, a 1950 Craftsman wood lathe, and one of the Craftsman/Atlas 12"X42" machinist's lathes (which I believe were also made in a 36" bed version.) The metal lathes are fine for turning wood. Tool rests which mount on the cross-slide of metal lathes for wood turning are common accessories for metal lathes. I use my metal lathes interchangeably for wood and metal work and they handle it just as well as my woodworking lathe. The woodworking lathe does have the advantages of being less complicated, handling larger work pieces for the price, and being a lot less expensive to buy over the machinist's lathes, but it won't turn metal and it isn't capable of the high accuracy tolerances the machinist's lathes are. The one drawback with using a machinist's lathe for wood turning, is that unless care is taken to cover the lathe machinery as well as possible when turning wood, the huge amount of sawdust and shavings created by turning wood will end up clogging everything on the oil-covered machinery of the machinist's lathes and require serious cleaning and re-lubrication on a regular basis if they are used primarily for turning wood. I find liberal amounts of tinfoil and masking tape greatly minimizes the problem.
 
The little Unimat is good for turning small parts, drilling, and milling. It's easily moved around and can be operated sitting down at a table. It was given to me for nothing, and I rebuilt it, but just about had to take out a second mortgage to pay for the parts and proprietary tooling necessary to do basic turning and milling work on it. There's an active second-hand parts and accessories market for all things Unimat, primarily on eBay, since they've developed a cult following, but the various attachments and accessories for which the Unimats are so famous are now high-priced collectables. The Unimat SL1000/DB200 (same machine, different model numbers) and Unimat 3 are excellent little machines, but only capable of relatively light weight work in softer metals, plastics, and wood. There are a multitude of YouTube videos and websites dedicated to the Unimat machines. For all their "charisma," I have to say without hesitation that anyone looking for a very small light duty lathe today would be far better off in terms of both price and parts and tooling availability buying a Sherline or Taig mini-lathe or, actually, one of the ubiquitous Chinese Sieg-manufactured "7"by" mini-lathes, making sure it came from one of the top of the line retailers such as Grizzly, who import those machines manufactured to the highest quality control standards. (This is why there is such a large difference between what Grizzly or MicroMark charge for the "7 bys" and what Harbor Freight sells them for.) The "7bys" are very common, their numbers support a huge after-market tooling selection as well as keeping prices low, they are sufficiently powerful to handle machining iron and steel easily, and they have the greatest weight by far of all the small lathes. The single most determinative factor in any machine tool's accuracy is its mass or weight. It's certainly a matter of opinion, but I think it's better to opt for the largest and most powerful lathe one can afford because, as mentioned above already, how much you can do with a lathe is only limited by its weight, working capacity, and power.  Within reason, a large lathe can make small stuff, but a small lathe can't make big stuff.  As has been said about other tools, when it comes to lathes "size matters."  (See: Emco Unimat lathes)
 
BELOW: Very nice Unimat DB200 with basic turning, drilling, and milling tooling, upgraded variable speed continuous duty motor, and table saw and scroll saw accessories at a very reasonable price. A decent basic lathe without tooling and the original intermittent duty motor will run around US $750.00. 
Vintage Unimat SL miniature/jewelers lathe DB 200 w/case, attachments Austria | eBay

 
Several years ago, I was very fortunate to be able to obtain an Atlas/Craftsman 12"X42" lathe very similar to the one pictured in the post above, in very good shape, along with a huge number of attachments and tooling, from a retired master machinist's widow. It had been her husband's personal home machine, and he'd pampered it since it was new in the early 'fifties. It does not have the "quick change gearbox" attachment evident on some later models, so in order to cut any thread known to man or beast requires manually configuring the gear ratios, but that's a minor consideration unless you plan to do a lot of specialty threading of obscure thread types and sizes. It does have an aftermarket reverse rotation switch which is very handy for threading, but which can be a mixed blessing, since an inadvertent change in the rotation direction can cause a 20 pound-plus chuck to unscrew itself from the headstock spindle at speed! These Atlas/Craftsman lathes are highly desirable for home hobby use and there is a fair amount of aftermarket parts and accessory manufacturing ongoing even though the machines are long out of production. As happens with popular models of old machine tools these days, when one wears out, it inevitably is cannibalized by the used parts cottage industry and ends up for sale in bits and pieces on eBay, so you can pretty much find any part you need there. (See: Craftsman Atlas 12" lathe for sale | eBay) As with so much "old 'arn," these Atlas/Craftsman lathes are "oldies but goodies." Mind you, they are somewhat light weight for their capacity, but that's a relative concept and they aren't slouches in the power department. They get some criticism for their flat ways vis-a-vis rigidity, but I've never had any problems with that. If I had the option of a South Bend in the same size category with all the tooling I've got for the Atlas/Craftsman, sure, I'd take the South Bend which was the "Cadillac" to Atlas' "Chevy," but there are a lot more Atlas/Craftsman lathes out there and they're still "takin' a lickin' and keepin' on tickin'." My lathe certainly can do a whole lot more than I'll ever figure out how to do on it, so I'm not complaining.
 
The internet is full of information on the Atlas/Craftsman 12" lathes. All of the original manufacturer's literature is still available, such as maintenance and operation instruction manuals as well as a ton of after-market publications. YouTube is full of videos on the subject. The well-known YouTube retired shop teacher and machining instructor "Tubal Cain" AKA "Mrpete222" has many very helpful videos on these lathes specifically, as well as on machinist work generally and is a very valuable resource. (See (12) Mr. Pete 222 + atlas lathes - YouTube)
 
Hell yes! Your Atlas/Craftsman 12"X42" lathe is worth restoring! It's a real gem that a lot of guys would give their back teeth for. From your description, I'd say it probably needs routine maintenance rather than "restoration." The threading dial gears apparently wear out and are regularly available on eBay. (See: Atlas Craftsman 10" 12" Lathe Thread Dial Indicator 9-63 | eBay ) You should check out your spindle bearings if you have play in the spindle. There are two types of spindle bearings on the Atlas 12's, old school poured babbit bearings and modern Timkin roller bearings. If your babbit spindle bearings are worn (which I've read does occur, but I'm no expert on the subject) you'll have to pour new babbit bearings and that's something I'd find some old school machinist to show you how to do, or perhaps, if possible, you can retrofit your lathe to use the Timkin roller bearings, which are readily available generic parts. It is indeed unfortunate that you didn't have your father-in-law work it over for you before he passed away. I think most of us have one of those sorts of stories in our past!
 
I hope you have a lot of tooling with your lathe. If not, fortunately unlike the Unimats and a lot of other lathes, there's plenty of Atlas/Craftsman 12" tooling around as well as lots of generic tooling that will fit it perfectly since it's all standard U.S. threading and Imperial measurements. The cost of tooling is always a big consideration in choosing a lathe. The rule of thumb is that basic tooling alone will run about as much as the cost of the basic lathe when new. If you have a lathe that can use the inexpensive tooling that's imported from China and India and you don't need the close tolerances of the super-expensive highly accurate U.S. and European tooling, you can save a bundle. There are a few specialty attachments you may want to acquire for your Atlas/Craftsman 12" when you have some "mad money." I would consider a decent collet holder and collet set and the proprietary Atlas 12" milling attachment that permits using your lathe as a milling machine as near "must haves," with the Atlas 12" tapering attachment bringing up a close second. Your Atlas 12" is a "medium" sized lathe that will allow you to do anything you would want to do on any of the smaller lathes while at the same time permit you to do anything larger up to what would fit into its theoretical "capacity envelope" of a 12" by 42" cylinder shape. It's definitely a "keeper" unless for some as yet undiagnosed reason it has some fatal defect that renders it unusable and is too expensive to make repair worthwhile. Should that occur, you probably will have little problem "parting it out" and making enough selling the parts on eBay to buy a new Sherline!  
 

Yes, what you have there is an Atlas, or an "Atlas/Craftsman" (Atlas badged by Sear, Roebuck, and Co.) 12"X42"16-speed Standard model machinist's lathe. That model was, as near as I can tell from the photo, the introduced in 1939 and continued in production throughout the War and up to the late '40's or early '50's. (You can look up the serial number online someplace and get the actual manufacture date.) There were reportedly a very large number of them manufactured during the War to be used for "piecework" war parts production by home shop machinists. There are still many around in the various configurations in which they were made.  Early Craftsman Metalcraft & Metalmaster 9" and 12" Lathes and  Atlas - 12-inch Lathe (Late Models including the Craftsman) Manual & Data Pack | store.lathes.co.uk at Lathes.co.uk .  
 
I have a Unimat DB modeling lathe, a 1950 Craftsman wood lathe, and one of the Craftsman/Atlas 12"X42" machinist's lathes (which I believe were also made in a 36" bed version.) The metal lathes are fine for turning wood. Tool rests which mount on the cross-slide of metal lathes for wood turning are common accessories for metal lathes. I use my metal lathes interchangeably for wood and metal work and they handle it just as well as my woodworking lathe. The woodworking lathe does have the advantages of being less complicated, handling larger work pieces for the price, and being a lot less expensive to buy over the machinist's lathes, but it won't turn metal and it isn't capable of the high accuracy tolerances the machinist's lathes are. The one drawback with using a machinist's lathe for wood turning, is that unless care is taken to cover the lathe machinery as well as possible when turning wood, the huge amount of sawdust and shavings created by turning wood will end up clogging everything on the oil-covered machinery of the machinist's lathes and require serious cleaning and re-lubrication on a regular basis if they are used primarily for turning wood. I find liberal amounts of tinfoil and masking tape greatly minimizes the problem.
 
The little Unimat is good for turning small parts, drilling, and milling. It's easily moved around and can be operated sitting down at a table. It was given to me for nothing, and I rebuilt it, but just about had to take out a second mortgage to pay for the parts and proprietary tooling necessary to do basic turning and milling work on it. There's an active second-hand parts and accessories market for all things Unimat, primarily on eBay, since they've developed a cult following, but the various attachments and accessories for which the Unimats are so famous are now high-priced collectables. The Unimat SL1000/DB200 (same machine, different model numbers) and Unimat 3 are excellent little machines, but only capable of relatively light weight work in softer metals, plastics, and wood. There are a multitude of YouTube videos and websites dedicated to the Unimat machines. For all their "charisma," I have to say without hesitation that anyone looking for a very small light duty lathe today would be far better off in terms of both price and parts and tooling availability buying a Sherline or Taig mini-lathe or, actually, one of the ubiquitous Chinese Sieg-manufactured "7"by" mini-lathes, making sure it came from one of the top of the line retailers such as Grizzly, who import those machines manufactured to the highest quality control standards. (This is why there is such a large difference between what Grizzly or MicroMark charge for the "7 bys" and what Harbor Freight sells them for.) The "7bys" are very common, their numbers support a huge after-market tooling selection as well as keeping prices low, they are sufficiently powerful to handle machining iron and steel easily, and they have the greatest weight by far of all the small lathes. The single most determinative factor in any machine tool's accuracy is its mass or weight. It's certainly a matter of opinion, but I think it's better to opt for the largest and most powerful lathe one can afford because, as mentioned above already, how much you can do with a lathe is only limited by its weight, working capacity, and power.  Within reason, a large lathe can make small stuff, but a small lathe can't make big stuff.  As has been said about other tools, when it comes to lathes "size matters."  (See: Emco Unimat lathes)
 
BELOW: Very nice Unimat DB200 with basic turning, drilling, and milling tooling, upgraded variable speed continuous duty motor, and table saw and scroll saw accessories at a very reasonable price. A decent basic lathe without tooling and the original intermittent duty motor will run around US $750.00. 
Vintage Unimat SL miniature/jewelers lathe DB 200 w/case, attachments Austria | eBay

 
Several years ago, I was very fortunate to be able to obtain an Atlas/Craftsman 12"X42" lathe very similar to the one pictured in the post above, in very good shape, along with a huge number of attachments and tooling, from a retired master machinist's widow. It had been her husband's personal home machine, and he'd pampered it since it was new in the early 'fifties. It does not have the "quick change gearbox" attachment evident on some later models, so in order to cut any thread known to man or beast requires manually configuring the gear ratios, but that's a minor consideration unless you plan to do a lot of specialty threading of obscure thread types and sizes. It does have an aftermarket reverse rotation switch which is very handy for threading, but which can be a mixed blessing, since an inadvertent change in the rotation direction can cause a 20 pound-plus chuck to unscrew itself from the headstock spindle at speed! These Atlas/Craftsman lathes are highly desirable for home hobby use and there is a fair amount of aftermarket parts and accessory manufacturing ongoing even though the machines are long out of production. As happens with popular models of old machine tools these days, when one wears out, it inevitably is cannibalized by the used parts cottage industry and ends up for sale in bits and pieces on eBay, so you can pretty much find any part you need there. (See: Craftsman Atlas 12" lathe for sale | eBay) As with so much "old 'arn," these Atlas/Craftsman lathes are "oldies but goodies." Mind you, they are somewhat light weight for their capacity, but that's a relative concept and they aren't slouches in the power department. They get some criticism for their flat ways vis-a-vis rigidity, but I've never had any problems with that. If I had the option of a South Bend in the same size category with all the tooling I've got for the Atlas/Craftsman, sure, I'd take the South Bend which was the "Cadillac" to Atlas' "Chevy," but there are a lot more Atlas/Craftsman lathes out there and they're still "takin' a lickin' and keepin' on tickin'." My lathe certainly can do a whole lot more than I'll ever figure out how to do on it, so I'm not complaining.
 
The internet is full of information on the Atlas/Craftsman 12" lathes. All of the original manufacturer's literature is still available, such as maintenance and operation instruction manuals as well as a ton of after-market publications. YouTube is full of videos on the subject. The well-known YouTube retired shop teacher and machining instructor "Tubal Cain" AKA "Mrpete222" has many very helpful videos on these lathes specifically, as well as on machinist work generally and is a very valuable resource. (See (12) Mr. Pete 222 + atlas lathes - YouTube)
 
Hell yes! Your Atlas/Craftsman 12"X42" lathe is worth restoring! It's a real gem that a lot of guys would give their back teeth for. From your description, I'd say it probably needs routine maintenance rather than "restoration." The threading dial gears apparently wear out and are regularly available on eBay. (See: Atlas Craftsman 10" 12" Lathe Thread Dial Indicator 9-63 | eBay ) You should check out your spindle bearings if you have play in the spindle. There are two types of spindle bearings on the Atlas 12's, old school poured babbit bearings and modern Timkin roller bearings. If your babbit spindle bearings are worn (which I've read does occur, but I'm no expert on the subject) you'll have to pour new babbit bearings and that's something I'd find some old school machinist to show you how to do, or perhaps, if possible, you can retrofit your lathe to use the Timkin roller bearings, which are readily available generic parts. It is indeed unfortunate that you didn't have your father-in-law work it over for you before he passed away. I think most of us have one of those sorts of stories in our past!
 
I hope you have a lot of tooling with your lathe. If not, fortunately unlike the Unimats and a lot of other lathes, there's plenty of Atlas/Craftsman 12" tooling around as well as lots of generic tooling that will fit it perfectly since it's all standard U.S. threading and Imperial measurements. The cost of tooling is always a big consideration in choosing a lathe. The rule of thumb is that basic tooling alone will run about as much as the cost of the basic lathe when new. If you have a lathe that can use the inexpensive tooling that's imported from China and India and you don't need the close tolerances of the super-expensive highly accurate U.S. and European tooling, you can save a bundle. There are a few specialty attachments you may want to acquire for your Atlas/Craftsman 12" when you have some "mad money." I would consider a decent collet holder and collet set and the proprietary Atlas 12" milling attachment that permits using your lathe as a milling machine as near "must haves," with the Atlas 12" tapering attachment bringing up a close second. Your Atlas 12" is a "medium" sized lathe that will allow you to do anything you would want to do on any of the smaller lathes while at the same time permit you to do anything larger up to what would fit into its theoretical "capacity envelope" of a 12" by 42" cylinder shape. It's definitely a "keeper" unless for some as yet undiagnosed reason it has some fatal defect that renders it unusable and is too expensive to make repair worthwhile. Should that occur, you probably will have little problem "parting it out" and making enough selling the parts on eBay to buy a new Sherline!  
 

Yes, what you have there is an Atlas, or an "Atlas/Craftsman" (Atlas badged by Sear, Roebuck, and Co.) 12"X42"16-speed Standard model machinist's lathe. That model was, as near as I can tell from the photo, the introduced in 1939 and continued in production throughout the War and up to the late '40's or early '50's. (You can look up the serial number online someplace and get the actual manufacture date.) There were reportedly a very large number of them manufactured during the War to be used for "piecework" war parts production by home shop machinists. There are still many around in the various configurations in which they were made.  Early Craftsman Metalcraft & Metalmaster 9" and 12" Lathes and  Atlas - 12-inch Lathe (Late Models including the Craftsman) Manual & Data Pack | store.lathes.co.uk at Lathes.co.uk .  
 
I have a Unimat DB modeling lathe, a 1950 Craftsman wood lathe, and one of the Craftsman/Atlas 12"X42" machinist's lathes (which I believe were also made in a 36" bed version.) The metal lathes are fine for turning wood. Tool rests which mount on the cross-slide of metal lathes for wood turning are common accessories for metal lathes. I use my metal lathes interchangeably for wood and metal work and they handle it just as well as my woodworking lathe. The woodworking lathe does have the advantages of being less complicated, handling larger work pieces for the price, and being a lot less expensive to buy over the machinist's lathes, but it won't turn metal and it isn't capable of the high accuracy tolerances the machinist's lathes are. The one drawback with using a machinist's lathe for wood turning, is that unless care is taken to cover the lathe machinery as well as possible when turning wood, the huge amount of sawdust and shavings created by turning wood will end up clogging everything on the oil-covered machinery of the machinist's lathes and require serious cleaning and re-lubrication on a regular basis if they are used primarily for turning wood. I find liberal amounts of tinfoil and masking tape greatly minimizes the problem.
 
The little Unimat is good for turning small parts, drilling, and milling. It's easily moved around and can be operated sitting down at a table. It was given to me for nothing, and I rebuilt it, but just about had to take out a second mortgage to pay for the parts and proprietary tooling necessary to do basic turning and milling work on it. There's an active second-hand parts and accessories market for all things Unimat, primarily on eBay, since they've developed a cult following, but the various attachments and accessories for which the Unimats are so famous are now high-priced collectables. The Unimat SL1000/DB200 (same machine, different model numbers) and Unimat 3 are excellent little machines, but only capable of relatively light weight work in softer metals, plastics, and wood. There are a multitude of YouTube videos and websites dedicated to the Unimat machines. For all their "charisma," I have to say without hesitation that anyone looking for a very small light duty lathe today would be far better off in terms of both price and parts and tooling availability buying a Sherline or Taig mini-lathe or, actually, one of the ubiquitous Chinese Sieg-manufactured "7"by" mini-lathes, making sure it came from one of the top of the line retailers such as Grizzly, who import those machines manufactured to the highest quality control standards. (This is why there is such a large difference between what Grizzly or MicroMark charge for the "7 bys" and what Harbor Freight sells them for.) The "7bys" are very common, their numbers support a huge after-market tooling selection as well as keeping prices low, they are sufficiently powerful to handle machining iron and steel easily, and they have the greatest weight by far of all the small lathes. The single most determinative factor in any machine tool's accuracy is its mass or weight. It's certainly a matter of opinion, but I think it's better to opt for the largest and most powerful lathe one can afford because, as mentioned above already, how much you can do with a lathe is only limited by its weight, working capacity, and power.  Within reason, a large lathe can make small stuff, but a small lathe can't make big stuff.  As has been said about other tools, when it comes to lathes "size matters."  (See: Emco Unimat lathes)
 
BELOW: Very nice Unimat DB200 with basic turning, drilling, and milling tooling, upgraded variable speed continuous duty motor, and table saw and scroll saw accessories at a very reasonable price. A decent basic lathe without tooling and the original intermittent duty motor will run around US $750.00. 
Vintage Unimat SL miniature/jewelers lathe DB 200 w/case, attachments Austria | eBay

 
Several years ago, I was very fortunate to be able to obtain an Atlas/Craftsman 12"X42" lathe very similar to the one pictured in the post above, in very good shape, along with a huge number of attachments and tooling, from a retired master machinist's widow. It had been her husband's personal home machine, and he'd pampered it since it was new in the early 'fifties. It does not have the "quick change gearbox" attachment evident on some later models, so in order to cut any thread known to man or beast requires manually configuring the gear ratios, but that's a minor consideration unless you plan to do a lot of specialty threading of obscure thread types and sizes. It does have an aftermarket reverse rotation switch which is very handy for threading, but which can be a mixed blessing, since an inadvertent change in the rotation direction can cause a 20 pound-plus chuck to unscrew itself from the headstock spindle at speed! These Atlas/Craftsman lathes are highly desirable for home hobby use and there is a fair amount of aftermarket parts and accessory manufacturing ongoing even though the machines are long out of production. As happens with popular models of old machine tools these days, when one wears out, it inevitably is cannibalized by the used parts cottage industry and ends up for sale in bits and pieces on eBay, so you can pretty much find any part you need there. (See: Craftsman Atlas 12" lathe for sale | eBay) As with so much "old 'arn," these Atlas/Craftsman lathes are "oldies but goodies." Mind you, they are somewhat light weight for their capacity, but that's a relative concept and they aren't slouches in the power department. They get some criticism for their flat ways vis-a-vis rigidity, but I've never had any problems with that. If I had the option of a South Bend in the same size category with all the tooling I've got for the Atlas/Craftsman, sure, I'd take the South Bend which was the "Cadillac" to Atlas' "Chevy," but there are a lot more Atlas/Craftsman lathes out there and they're still "takin' a lickin' and keepin' on tickin'." My lathe certainly can do a whole lot more than I'll ever figure out how to do on it, so I'm not complaining.
 
The internet is full of information on the Atlas/Craftsman 12" lathes. All of the original manufacturer's literature is still available, such as maintenance and operation instruction manuals as well as a ton of after-market publications. YouTube is full of videos on the subject. The well-known YouTube retired shop teacher and machining instructor "Tubal Cain" AKA "Mrpete222" has many very helpful videos on these lathes specifically, as well as on machinist work generally and is a very valuable resource. (See (12) Mr. Pete 222 + atlas lathes - YouTube)
 
Hell yes! Your Atlas/Craftsman 12"X42" lathe is worth restoring! It's a real gem that a lot of guys would give their back teeth for. From your description, I'd say it probably needs routine maintenance rather than "restoration." The threading dial gears apparently wear out and are regularly available on eBay. (See: Atlas Craftsman 10" 12" Lathe Thread Dial Indicator 9-63 | eBay ) You should check out your spindle bearings if you have play in the spindle. There are two types of spindle bearings on the Atlas 12's, old school poured babbit bearings and modern Timkin roller bearings. If your babbit spindle bearings are worn (which I've read does occur, but I'm no expert on the subject) you'll have to pour new babbit bearings and that's something I'd find some old school machinist to show you how to do, or perhaps, if possible, you can retrofit your lathe to use the Timkin roller bearings, which are readily available generic parts. It is indeed unfortunate that you didn't have your father-in-law work it over for you before he passed away. I think most of us have one of those sorts of stories in our past!
 
I hope you have a lot of tooling with your lathe. If not, fortunately unlike the Unimats and a lot of other lathes, there's plenty of Atlas/Craftsman 12" tooling around as well as lots of generic tooling that will fit it perfectly since it's all standard U.S. threading and Imperial measurements. The cost of tooling is always a big consideration in choosing a lathe. The rule of thumb is that basic tooling alone will run about as much as the cost of the basic lathe when new. If you have a lathe that can use the inexpensive tooling that's imported from China and India and you don't need the close tolerances of the super-expensive highly accurate U.S. and European tooling, you can save a bundle. There are a few specialty attachments you may want to acquire for your Atlas/Craftsman 12" when you have some "mad money." I would consider a decent collet holder and collet set and the proprietary Atlas 12" milling attachment that permits using your lathe as a milling machine as near "must haves," with the Atlas 12" tapering attachment bringing up a close second. Your Atlas 12" is a "medium" sized lathe that will allow you to do anything you would want to do on any of the smaller lathes while at the same time permit you to do anything larger up to what would fit into its theoretical "capacity envelope" of a 12" by 42" cylinder shape. It's definitely a "keeper" unless for some as yet undiagnosed reason it has some fatal defect that renders it unusable and is too expensive to make repair worthwhile. Should that occur, you probably will have little problem "parting it out" and making enough selling the parts on eBay to buy a new Sherline!  
 

This picture is not my lathe but it is the same as what I have.  Fix it and use it??
 

As to fixing the larger lathe- You can make small parts on a big lathe, but you can't make large parts on a small lathe.

Beautiful work! Thanks for sharing it.

Funny coincidence. I happened to see this book listed in the WoodenBoat Store book section: Crash Boat published in 2021. It apparently recounts the exploits of the ASR's in the South Pacific. I thought it might be of interest to you if you haven't come across it in your research as yet.  See: Crash Boat: Rescue and Peril in the Pacific During World War II: Jepson, George D.: 9781493059232: Amazon.com: Books (Shop around, it may be available for less elsewhere. Apparently available in both hardcover and paperback.)

Beautiful work! Thanks for sharing it.

Funny coincidence. I happened to see this book listed in the WoodenBoat Store book section: Crash Boat published in 2021. It apparently recounts the exploits of the ASR's in the South Pacific. I thought it might be of interest to you if you haven't come across it in your research as yet.  See: Crash Boat: Rescue and Peril in the Pacific During World War II: Jepson, George D.: 9781493059232: Amazon.com: Books (Shop around, it may be available for less elsewhere. Apparently available in both hardcover and paperback.)

Bob,
 
I discovered this fairly cheap source of good quality wood (along with bamboo barbecue skewers) long ago. Other useful sources of supplies are paint mixer sticks, roofing gutter flashing, jewelry supplies, carpentry wedges and even bundles of fire starters! Walk through a crafts store or hardware store with an open mind and you can find all sorts of materials useful for our hobbies.

Easier still is a method I've used with satisfaction: Laminate "Hahn style" frame shapes (and whatever else desired) with PVA glue using birch tongue depressors sold in quantity dirt cheap at craft supply stores. These can be neatly "chopped" at angles using a standard "classroom" paper cutter, which, BTW, is also a very handy ship modeling tool.
 

 

Funny coincidence. I happened to see this book listed in the WoodenBoat Store book section: Crash Boat published in 2021. It apparently recounts the exploits of the ASR's in the South Pacific. I thought it might be of interest to you if you haven't come across it in your research as yet.  See: Crash Boat: Rescue and Peril in the Pacific During World War II: Jepson, George D.: 9781493059232: Amazon.com: Books (Shop around, it may be available for less elsewhere. Apparently available in both hardcover and paperback.)

Funny coincidence. I happened to see this book listed in the WoodenBoat Store book section: Crash Boat published in 2021. It apparently recounts the exploits of the ASR's in the South Pacific. I thought it might be of interest to you if you haven't come across it in your research as yet.  See: Crash Boat: Rescue and Peril in the Pacific During World War II: Jepson, George D.: 9781493059232: Amazon.com: Books (Shop around, it may be available for less elsewhere. Apparently available in both hardcover and paperback.)

Easier still is a method I've used with satisfaction: Laminate "Hahn style" frame shapes (and whatever else desired) with PVA glue using birch tongue depressors sold in quantity dirt cheap at craft supply stores. These can be neatly "chopped" at angles using a standard "classroom" paper cutter, which, BTW, is also a very handy ship modeling tool.