restored craftsman 12x36

[300sniper]

i was just going through some of my pictures and thought you may like to see the restoration of my old craftsman 101.27590 12x36 lathe. i put a ton of time into restoring it but ended up getting a new, larger lathe and just didn't have the room for the craftsman anymore. as much as it hurt to do, i had to sell it. i did make out ok selling it though as i got what i was asking.

when i got the lathe it was in good mechanical shape and still very tight. it was in rough shape cosmetically from sitting in someone's barn for years.

this is the lathe when and where i bought it.

 

[300sniper]

i bead blasted everything to remove the old paint. i went light on the ways to just to remove the surface rust. after that i resprayed it with sherwim williams industrial alkalyd paint. i found a clean surface on the inside that i was able to match the color from.


i masked off the machined surfaces and ways before paint.

 

[300sniper]

all the small parts were bead blasted. the chrome handles and wheels were cleaned up with carb cleaner (what i had in the cabinet) and they turned out nice. during the disassembly, all shims were labeled to make sure they went back where they came from.

i started reassembling the lathe. all the hardware that was standard was replaced with new.

 

[300sniper]

 

[Shawn Ghormley]

So you like taking things apart also! Looks good, post finished pictures when you're done.

 

[300sniper]

 

[300sniper]

 

[300sniper]

all the black hardware and some other black parts were finished in black oxide from caswell.

 

[300sniper]

 

[300sniper]

the quick change gear box.

 

[Tdkkart]

FWIW, since this post will likely come up when somebody searches for Atlas lathes, this lathe is what is referred to as a "late model" Atlas/Craftsman. The main distinguisher is this model had 1/2" thick bed ways as opposed to 3/8" that the earlier models had, and the headstock is more boxed looking. This model has somewhat thicker castings throughout which helps the rigidity slightly.
On thing to notice, the 3rd picture from the bottom is the crossslide, the part with 3 threaded holes in it, which is very short, very thin top to bottom, and has a short gib in it. This light piece is a large portion of the lack of rigidity in these lathes. A T-slotted cross-slide casting kit(unmachined) is available for these from Metal Lathe Accessories that is about 12" long and considerably thicker. This piece makes the lathe work much nicer.

 

[300sniper]

some of the parts that i thought would see higher wear such as the pulleys, back gear and change gears got coated with a flat black bake on firearm finish. it is moly resin from john norell arms (link: http://www.johnnorrellarms.com/). i preheated the parts to 100* then sprayed them with the moly resin. after they were sprayed they went back in the oven at 300* for an hour.

 

[300sniper]

 

[davohouston]

Hey 300, You are everywhere! All the forums im on your on!! But nice job, the lathe looks beauty. Dave aka davo727

 

[300sniper]

i used warm soapy water to clean up the labels. i didn't want to use any harsh chemicals in fear of wrecking them. they were still available from sears believe it or not but were very expensive.

the stand that came with it was home-made junk so i needed to build another. i had just recently got a tig machine and needed some practice. i figured this was an easy thing to teach myself on.

 

[300sniper]

i took apart the motor and cleaned it up. i then repainted the housing.

 

[300sniper]

 

[300sniper]

and this is as far as i got with it before i sold it.

a switch mount still needed to be fabricated, the motor needed to be wired and the stand needed to be finished. it was a shame to not even be able to run it before i sold it but i needed the room and the right buyer came along at the right time.

 

[300sniper]

So you like taking things apart also! Looks good, post finished pictures when you're done.

yea, i like taking things apart. unfortunately it is rare that they get put back together. i was proud of this project, mostly because of how far i got with it.

 

[300sniper]

a before and after comparison.