atlas lathe bed wear - how much is too much

[Henrik]

I recently picked up an atlas 10f for a cnc conversion project. I originally only wanted the bed, however it came with the headstock, tailstock, carriage etc etc, basically a whole lathe in bits, minus the gearbox.

There appears to be no play in the bearing headstock or tailstock, and the carriage etc is not shabby either (the "Zamak" material gears, which tend to go on this lathe, look in real good nick), and now i'm thinking that the lathe is too nice for my intended project, so I might just build it up as a decent'ish manual lathe.

There is a small amount of bed-wear (flat ways) near the headstock, namely such that if I put a straight edge along the way, I can get an a4 sheet of paper in between the straight edge and the straight edge. This wear is only present right next to the headstock, all areas seem real flat.

The question I have is, basically, if a sheet of papers worth of wear (0.05mm?) is enough to worry about? I.e. would that make the bed "a pile of crap", in which case I'll use it for my original CNC project, or does that really not matter, in which case I'll build it up and use it as a normal lathe (and get something else for the CNC project).

 

[MattF]

It's not unexpected to see wear like that on a used machine. Within the first few inch of the headstock is where most work is done, so it does get more wear there. If it were I, I'd reassemble and run the machine for a while and see what you think. You'll likely find you can easily compensate for that amount of wear during use.

 

[Gritineye]

I've got an Atlas 10f too, it's in very good nick and very accurate, I had another quite worn one before and found the only real difference a worn bed top makes is that the tool drops a little below center nearer the chuck. This makes almost no difference in normal everyday turning, if necessary you can set the tool height in the worn area, instead of against a center in the tailstock for short work.

Wear in the vertical rear of the ways can be more of a problem with accuracy as it allows the carriage to be pushed towards the front by the cutting forces, which affects the workpiece diameter much more.

I have a spare bed with very little wear if you're interested.

 

[Henrik]

Thanks, I'll measure the vertical bits too, in that case.

Not looking for another bed at present - if this one turns out to be shot I'll use it for its original intended use of CNC conversion (with profile rails).

 

[Rig Pig]

A flat bed lathe should be fairly cheap to get reground, Assuming you can find an machine shop with a surface grinder with a big enough table. Probably cheaper than your rail system.

 

[DanielW]

If the wear is as you say it is? then I don't think its feasible to use as CNC convertered,simply because the CNNC relies up instructions within the programmed code and therefore the turning will be not true due to the wear on the bed whereas manually you know about the wear and can compensate for that wear.