The rollers should all look pristine and polished, with no roughness at the ends, or visible flaking. If there is wear it will be found in the outer race area as a diference in the polish of the race, from mere dulling to actual spalling with a sandbalsted looking surface. If you pull it apart and inpect the bearings, Do you know what to look for? In the area of straight up, and directly to the push area accross from the tool bit, is where all the pressure wear resides. Newbe's are responsible for wrecking good servicable machines through ignorance more tthan any other way. So if you plan an inspection intrusion, then consider that you may be anewbe. The smaller lathes of this style are pretty simple, not so with others. Add to that the minor clinking and grinding of the drive and feed moving bits from their relatively generous working clearances and they are just noisey machines.Įh, uh. The Atlases are all noisy machines to begin with, especially when running in back gear where the die cast Zamak gears can set up a harmonic ringing which can really get on your nerves (or SWMBO's nerves if you are in the basement under the kitchen.) The main spindle drive is via V-belt pulley through a bull gear which has a detent driving pin which when running fast and loose or under an intermittent load will make a clock - clock - clock sound. After inspection I elected not to replace the outer races on my 10' rebuild but I replaced both roller cages and inner races and it ran without a whimper for a further 20 years until I retired it. The outer races, which are pressed into the bearing caps of the headstock, are more accessible but need a very careful press (or puller) setup to get the races out without damaging (or breaking!!) the headstock casting. Spindle removal is kind of tricky, it withdraws toward the front and the backgear bull gear assembly, the V-belt pulley, and the rear inner race must be pressed or pushed off as the spindle is withdrawn. The roller cage and inner race (on the spindle) are relatively easy to replace once the spindle is out of the machine although an arbor press will make the job easier. I don't know that the additional cost of spindle grade bearings would be justified by significantly improved performance and accuracy in these machines.

My first rebuild was a 10' model mfg ca.1953, and when the original bearings were pulled out were found to be Timken standard grade.

These are standard tapered roller bearings with an inner and outer race and roller cage, and so far as I know they are standard tolerance bearings as opposed to machine tool spindle grade bearings. Generally, unless they have been damaged by gross neglect and/or abuse, the spindle (Timken tapered roller) bearings should last the life of the lathe. I have rebuilt several Atlas/Craftsman lathes although my last 10'/12' model was many years ago and I'm relying on distant memories of those jobs.

Atlas lathe bearings