I am now the caretaker of a late 1940's 12" x 48" Craftsman (made by Atlas) lathe! My good friend Dale inherited it from his father, but had to move it out of the basement where it had lived for over fifty years (before Dale was born)! Getting it out of the basement was a trick in itself.
After replacing the 1940's power cord, and cleaning and oiling everything, I got the guts to fire it up tonight. Never used a lathe. Chucked a small piece of 1/2" brass rod stock I had from another project, and did my first turning. Too cool. I wonder how many of Mr. Fisher's rules I broke in the first 15 minutes...
This lathe was pretty top of the line for Sears. Headstock has Timken roller bearings. Has a compound tool rest, automatic feed/thread cutting, and a quick change gear box. The 1/2 hp motor looks like it was made in 1948. I have lots of tooling too, some of which I can't identify yet. Lots to learn.
Tools = Power. Lathe = Superpower... COOL!!!
Dale was kind enough to let me use a drill press too, since his father had two... Sweet!
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