new cross slidefor a old 12 x 36

[topgun]

[TGTool]

Very nice job. Looks good there. Is that one of Andy's castings?

[topgun]

cross slide

No Bill. a friend came over and handed me a slab of cast and said to make something out of it, and thats what I got . It really makes the lathe act like a new one.
Don

[lakeside53]

nice, very nice...

[tony ennis]

What's the black knob?

[topgun]

black knob

Tony
the knob is for the cross slide power, don't know if it's original, was there when I bought the lathe.
Don

[tdkkart]

That appears to be a very late model Atlas, 1/2" thick ways, slightly different design tailstock and compound, "large" dials. The crossfeed lever was standard equipment. The late model was a bit more rigid than the 10F series models.

I did one of the T-slot crossslides from a casting a few years ago for my older 12" Atlas. The 12" models were identical to the 10" with an added inch on the components below the centerline of the spindle. As if the lathe wasn't flexible enough, the added inch made it worse, particularly in the crossslide and compound areas.
When I did my crossslide paid particular attention to leaving it as thick as possible. Which ended up raising the compound approx. 3/4". I then got hold of a compound from a 10" lathe which was 1" lower, leaving a 1/4" difference which I made up for when I made the new mount to attach the compound to the cross slide.

In the end, the extra thickness in the cross slide made a fairly dramatic difference in the rigidity. I lost a slight amount of capacity over the carraige but it was worth it.

[SGW]

Do you think the extra thickness is responsible for the greater rigidity, or a longer dovetail? I made Andy Lofquist's T-slot cross slide for my 10K, and certainly noticed a marked increase in rigidity, but I attribute it to the fact that the dovetail is now approximately 2X as long as it was on the original stock cross slide. I'm sure the increased cross-section doesn't hurt, either, of course.