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Photo lathe (was Identify my lathe)

TomParko

Plastic
Joined
Nov 19, 2018
Hi All,

I'm hoping to get some help with identifying a lathe that was given to me (right place, right time).
I have limited pictures to work with at the moment as it's not at my house yet, but hoping someone could provide some clues..

It seems to be some kind of re-badged Atlas 12", however it's labelled as a photo-lathe made by Graphic Electronics Inc. I can't find any information about this company or the badges. I've attached a few photos of the plates.
It came with three carriages and what looks like a shorter leadscrew. The motor is mounted beneath the bench, called an Underdrive, and is all run on belts. The main leadscrew has no threading in the centre for about 10".
I'll have to wait a couple more weeks before I can have a better look or take more photos.

Any additional information on it would be great!

(Also, I'm in Victoria, Australia)

Cheers,
Tom

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I was a newspaper photographer from 1958 to 1963. My pictures were first printed on ordinary photographic paper. Then they were mounted on a cylinder next to a sheet of thin plastic. The cylinder rotated while a photo cell scanned the picture and a mechanical device cut various size dots into the plastic. The same machine could also receive and engrave AP wirephotos. I think the machine was made by Fairchild. The machine I remember was not very large, with limited capacity as far as picture size. The plastic sheets were used to print the newspaper, glued to lead rolls that had been cast with the surrounding text in a huge rotary press.

The Photo-Lathe was probably large enough to engrave a full page of a newspaper. Back in the 50's and 60's, my hometown paper had a weekly "Roto" magazine section that was apparently produced by the rotogravure process. The many pictures in that section were of higher quality than the regular part of the newspaper.

Rotogravure - Wikipedia

Here is the Photo-Lathe patent, applied for 28Dec1970 and issued 13Feb1973: US3716668A - Engraving machine
- Google Patents


The tag on your lathe says US patent applied for, meaning the tag, and probably the lathe, dates between 28Dec1970 and 13Feb1973.

Larry
 
Last edited:
That patent tag looks like 1982 to me. The picture is just a bit too small to be certain.
 
Well there you go.
I'm entirely new to the world of lathes. Interesting to hear the range of purposes they can be used for!
The three carriages makes sense if it used to hold two rotogravure cylinders. Two of the carriages are identical with no rest, and the third looks like a standard tooling carriage.
I believe the patent is marked 1952. Uploading reduces the quality slightly.

Thanks everyone for your comments! Looks like I have more research to do on Atlas lathes.
I intend on breaking it down and servicing each component.
 
Sorry to revive an old thread but I have come across a similar piece of equipment which looks to be a little bit older than the OPs but the same model number. OP did you find any additional information that you could share with me? Is there any value or market for these? Thanks All!

IMG_1488.jpgIMG_1489.jpgIMG_1490.jpg
 
What this thread is about is an adaptation based on an Atlas lathe, made for some kind of color reproduction (printing process of some sort). Before this thread goes any further, there is a rule prohibiting discussion of Atlas/Craftsman lathes on this 'board.

As for market, it would be the same for any similar Atlas lathe in fair/serviceable condition. Since these lathes were originally purchased as component parts by the makers of the "Photo Lathe", they were ordered without a quick change gearbox for threads/feeds. These lathes, being part of some sort of color reproduction process machine, had no need of different threads and feeds. With neither a quick change gearbox nor a set of loose change gears, these lathes are limited in what they can do when used as lathes. This point is borne out by the lack of the usual "chart" plate giving threads and feeds (as well as gears needed) for the lathe to cut.

My guess is when used for their original purpose, the two carriages ran "in synch" by means of the lead screw and half nuts. One carriage may have had some kind of scanning device mounted on it, while the other might have had some sort of "burner" to make a copy using a tiny electric arc.

In 1981, I was construction superintendent on the construction site for a small hydroelectric plant. I was it as far as people in the field office. My boss equipped me with a "telecopier" (if I remember the name correctly). In the pre-computer days, it was how I was supposed to send all my paperwork to the home office, via a voice phone line. The telecopier was a packaged small lathe with a pair of drums on a common shaft. There was a small lead screw with two carriages. One of these carriages had a light source and some kind of photocells. The other carriage had a "burner". If I was sending a copy, I dialled the "telecopier line" to the home office and waited until I got a series of chirps and other tones. I then started the telecopier running. It took 6 minutes to scan a page and get it sent. Major pain in the a--. Most time, the connection was interuppted or the people down in the copy room at the home office said they had received an illegible copy. If anyone in the home office wanted to send me a document, memo, etc, I would get a phone call telling me to setup my telecopier to receive. The second carriage with the "burner" was used along with special paper. The machine could also be used as a copier, scanning a page and literally "burning a copy" with both sheets on the drums on the common shaft.

I was glad to see the last of the telecopier. More trouble than it was worth. My guess is these Photo Lathes were built for some similar application. Digital printers and scanners have obsoleted all of this sort of thing, including these Photo Lathes. No disrespect intended, but these Atlas lathes were adapted for a single purpose and are not too useful as lathes in their present configuration. I would not be surprised if both carriages have their half nuts engaged so they are "in synch", having the same starting point relative to the ends of the drums.

FWIW: the inventor of the "spiral cut ham" took his cue from a similar lathe. The first spiral cut hams were made on a simple screw cutting lathe adapted to turn the ham while spiral cutting it. The spiral cutting was done by a circular saw blade mounted on a motor-driven mandrel in place of the tool post. Kind of like thread milling. I believe the inventor of the spiral cut ham used a similar Atlas lathe for the first prototype spiral ham cutters. I am sure with fat from the hams, way lube was not an issue.

There is also no tailstock, just a pillow block bearing to support the roll shaft. Without a tailstock, these lathes are even more limited in what work they can perform.
 
A coffee grinder can be mounted on the bed or carriage and driven by the spindle. At least the lathe can grind coffee. If this lathe is in an old-time machine shop, the machinist might boil the water for the coffee in any number of ways:

-put a pot on top of the shop's woodstove
-shoot a jet of live steam from the shop's boiler (if the shop were steam powered) into a speckleware pot filled with water and a handful of ground coffee
-put the pot on a "bench furnace" (as was made by "Buzzer"/Hones for heating soldering coppers and small babbitt ladles)
-heat a pot of water to boiling with a blowtorch (the old gasoline 'blowtorch' or 'blowlamp' as our UK brethren refer to this tool)
-heat a pot of water with an oxyacetylene torch
-drain some hot water from the cooling hopper of an engine (if the shop were powered by a hopper cooled gasoline or diesel engine and no antifreeze were used).

Or: send the apprentice boy up the street to get coffee. Important first step for many youngsters starting out in the workplace was to be sent to get coffee. I joke that my own life came full circle. As a young person, I would often be the one to go make a coffee run. This meant going around to all the journeymen and asking what they wanted, getting money, writing it down to know what change they had coming, etc. This list usually went beyond just coffee: buttered hard rolls or a sticky bun or donut (this all predated fast food placed like 'Dunkin Donuts' or 'Krispy Creme' or McDonald's). After getting the order filled, it meant making the rounds again to distribute the "coffee-and". In the process I got to know the journeymen and asked about their work, got some quick lessons on the work as well as life in general. A little banter and a 'hard time' of 'ball breaking' by the journeymen was a part of the process, and a youngster learned to take this sort of thing and knew how much he could 'give back' without crossing the line into disrespectful or insulting.

Sending "the kid" up the street for coffee was a good thing in many ways. The more senior men kept on working and the kid learned a bit more about existing in the everyday workplace world. I joke that my own life has come full circle: Towards the end of my regular employment, as a senior mechanical engineer, once a crew got to working, I'd be the one to make the coffee runs. The crew had their work, I had done my part of it to design the job and get them started, so I was the least-needed at that moment and could make the coffee run without slowing the work down. In "retirement", it is much the same. If I am on an engineering job, I will offer to make the coffee run.

The lathe is well described as the "mother of all machine tools" or 'the prince of machine tools', but a good machinist or toolmaker might well be described as at least a Duke, if not a King. During this Covid-19 pandemic, with its restrictions on much of daily life, and me being "retired", I pulled the trigger on putting air conditioning into our home. Something my wife has wanted for years. Call it 'basic lessons', but there is quite a bit of truth to "A happy wife for a happy life".
The reefer contractor was a friend, and we agreed I'd work on the job with him and one or two other people. As the job went along, we needed hardware to hang some of the A/C equipment. No problem, I went down to my shop and cut all thread rod, cut flat bar and made plate washers, cut angle iron for clip angles. Then, we went into a wall opening and had to run a hole saw thru a row of studs in a non-bearing wall to snake reefer lines and wiring through. No problem, I went to my shop, took a tie rod from a Dodge Ram diesel pickup, and made a set of shank extensions from it. I machined the extensions in a four-jaw chuck so that everything was nice and concentric. The contractor was amazed. The holes thru the studs were a snap to put in, and a lot easier than using a "Planetor" wing type drill. The lathe and the Bridgeport came through handily. The Dodge truck tie rod machined beautifully with HSS, the shanks have a finish like it was ground with no visible tool marks. I gave the contractor the extensions I'd made. And, it was me who made the coffee for the contractor and his crew. We whipped through the A/C job, wife is beyond delighted, and never a word as to why I keep acquiring machinist tools and have the shop that I do. The lathe may well be the kind of machine tools, but a good wife is beyond priceless and light-years beyond the title of "Queen". Get a good wife and keep her happy and the lathe (along with the rest of your shop) becomes a necessity for domestic life.
 
I got minor points for doing a run of a couple dozen little brass threaded inserts to go into the fused glass drawer pulls she made, so we could fancy up the kitchen. Probably could have bought something instead but I'd rather have the credit... Got bonus credit for the Bridgeport because I had to drill the glass to receive the inserts- I saw no need to mention smaller drill presses... :D
 
Hi Matt.
Unfortunately my lathe has been in storage still since this post. I haven't even had time to do any more research on it. Looks like some of the other guys have shed some light on it.
From what they mention, the value probably isn't as much as a standard lathe because it is very specialised, and not likely to be needed.

My lathe also came with three different carriages, but no compound rest / tool post. It also has a tail stock, and has an extra lead screw.
I'm planning on seeing how far I can convert it to make it useable as a more standard lathe. So far it's cost me nothing, so I don't mind putting some money into it.
If all else fails, I can sell it and put the money towards something more useable.
 








 
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