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[Shop-talk] Sears Atlas lathe

Subject: [Shop-talk] Sears Atlas lathe
From: marka at maracing.com (Mark Andy)
Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2011 12:59:36 -0400 (EDT)
References: <4E415A4E.4060104@gmail.com>
Howdy,

On Tue, 9 Aug 2011, Scott Hall wrote:
> There's a Sears Atlas lathe for sale locally.  From the pictures, it looks 
> like an overgrown bench lathe sitting on a wood cabinet.  Nothing like the 
> Monarchs I usually keep my eye out for.  And he wants $900--you can usually 
> find CKs for $1500-ish.  On the price alone, I'd rather spend twice that and 
> drive for a nice(r) Monarch.
>
> But it's local, and I understand these things used to be popular, and what do 
> I know?  Is it worth going to look at?  It's an Atlas 618 or Sears 101.214.

This is the small 6" swing Atlas, right?

I certainly wouldn't spend $900 for one.  Personally, I'd much rather have 
a chinese 9" swing lathe like 
http://www.grizzly.com/products/9-x-19-Bench-Lathe/G4000 vs. the smaller 
Atlas any day of the week.

If you'd prefer old iron, Southbend 9" workshop lathes are in that price 
range as well.  The 9A in particular is a nice smaller lathe.

For any of these though, the size footprint doesn't go up to much to get 
to a little bigger lathe, and bigger is pretty much better overall I 
think.  A Southbend heavy 10 is better in every way compared to the 9" 
workshop.  And for chinese stuff, the generic 12" or 13" swing lathes seem 
to be a decent bit of lathe for the money.

Hell, I think I'd actually rather have one of the chinese mini-lathes over 
a 6" Atlas, for that matter.  Swing and capabilities are similar with 
_way_ better parts support.  Those cost ~$500 new (with some blueprinting 
usually required).

In short... No way in hell would I buy a 6" Atlas for $900.  At $200 I 
might consider it.

Mark

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