Bob Cleek

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.
 

 

Growing up, we lived in a house with hardwood floors that required regular waxing with one of those "iron holystones," too. When I got old enough, that job fell to me. I was greatly relieved when Bissell came out with an electric floor waxer for home use! I have no idea whatever happened to that old hand buffer that I had to swing back and forth. It'd be good for a "What is this tool?" contest these days.  

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.
 

 

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.
 

 

The machine that are useful to you will very much depend on the jobs that they are needed for.
 
My Byrnes 5" disk sander is an integral part of my process.  I need a lot of precise end meets end joints that have zero room for play. I have never needed anything more aggressive than 220 grit and even that chews thru narrow stock quickly.  I need A LOT of light at the action point. I do not know if a slower speed would be of much help.   The key step is with the feed rate of the stock. The mass of the 5" disk does not mess around - it takes a while to power down - the dust collection is as effective - better even  - than with any other machine that I use.  Were I using plastic as a material, the variable speed 4" would be vital to avoid melting.  With wood, finger force rate can control heat generation.
 
I have a combo 1" belt/5" disk machine. Mine is branded Dremel, but all of the ones that I have seen look the same.  I find it noxious to use.  For the disk - the table is poorly designed and fabricated.  Dust collection is a joke.  The belt is too narrow and the tracking is flimsy.  It takes being overly generous to call what it has "a table".  Dusk collection is an unfulfilled wish.  It is useless for inside curves and the wrong geometry for outside curves.  A drum is better at doing both.  There is a single contact point with a round drum.  Collateral loss is limited by the round versus a flat grit face.   I guess for other types of woodworking, this could be a useful tool.  Ship modeling involves working with complex curves and this limits our degrees of freedom for useful machines.

 
 

Excellent advice about powered modeling tools! To this in fourth place after the above mentioned three, I'd add a quality stationary disk sander and I'd say move heaven and earth to buy one of the new Byrnes 4" variable speed disk sanders. There are lots of cheaper alternatives on the market, but the mass of the disk and the variable speed set the Byrnes variable speed model light years ahead of the rest. If that's just too costly, you should at least get the regular Byrnes 5" fixed speed disk sanders. Nobody I know of makes a better fence and table system on a disk sander than Byrnes. 

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.
 

 

I found that a relatively narrow belt sander was useful for general shop work (furniture, metalwork), but have only used it for one application in model making - setting the table at a slight angle from the belt to adjust the angle of 2 deck cabins (made from solid blocks) where they meet the the fore and aft decks, respectively, on my Gorch Fock restoration.  The builder had the face of the higher decks at a slight angle, as the hull had been cut from a single block of pine ... so I imagine that if shaping a block for a hull from scratch, the 'hogging' of material (after band sawing) would be made much easier with a belt sander.  It was certainly helpful shaping pieces for repro wooden dolls of the Colonial era.  I'm seeing some advantage to a solid hull versus P.O.B. - but each has its own plusses and minuses.
 
  I think that the most useful wood modeling powered tools are a scroll saw (makes cutting-out curved pieces from stock a breeze), a mini table saw (super useful for straight cuts from various model stock - as a full size table saw is both overkill and too dangerous for small work) and a variable speed rotary tool (foot controlled, and there are very many things that can mount on the rotary tool for a particular job on the model) ...  These are my 'go to' machines of choice.  Obviously, higher priced quality tools are best in the long run, but if money is tight (many of us have Admirals to report to), you can get less expensive alternatives that will work, as long as you are aware of some limitations.

I have a combined belt and disc sander. I don't think I have ever used the belt sander for model making. The disc sander is single speed and I constantly find myself wishing that I could turn the speed down. I am thinking of buying a variable speed disc sander and relegating the combined machine to non modelling work.

Small disc sanders range from the single (high) speed models to the variable speed state of the art models made by Byrnes Model Machines with many in between at all price points.  All are highly useful.
 
I assume that the belt sander that you mention is a stationary one, not a hand held model.  In my opinion belt sanders are way to aggressive for fine work and have little direct application to model making.
 
I have both disc sanders and a stationary belt sander.  I use the disc sanders all the time.  The belt sander is only used to grind and sharpen cutting tools for my metal lathe.
 
Roger

If you have a table saw you could make your own plywood that would be more suitable than anything that you could buy including the high priced stuff.  Cut strips from ordinary lumberyard construction grade pine and laminate them with  PVA glue. Two plies with grain oriented differently and joints staggered Harold Hahn style should work.
 
Roger

A shameless plug for the (very) inexpensive thin rip guide sold by MSW’s owner the Nautical Research Guild.  Using this, the wood being cut is not squeezed between the fence and the blade.  This should produce more even cuts.
 
Since you haven’t used the Saw for a while, have you checked the fence alignment.  There are instructions for doing this here on the forum.
 
Adding to Mark’s comment #2 above, a handy Saw accessory is a simple block of wood that can be used to press the piece being cut against the fence.  Using this, the right hand pushes with the push stick while the left with the wooden block presses the wood being cut against the fence.  The NRG’s guile eliminates the need for this.
 
Roger

Hi - If you had the arbours wrong the blade would not run true and give you all sorts of problems - you would know it wasn't right.
 
So assuming they are ok if your wood is tapering during a cut it could be one of many reasons.
 
1.  The edge of the wood that is on the fence is not straight and true.  This will need correcting.
2.  You are not keeping the wood tight up against the fence as you cut?
3.  The blade is too thin and is deflecting - what size blade and with how many teeth are you using?
 
Cheers Mark