Please accept the following comments in the spirit they have been offered. There will be those who have a totally different opinion, but mine is based on the views of a guy who owned one of those lathes, and then became a machinist (commercially, not hobby).CarguyRoy wrote: I recently purchased an Atlas 109.20630 that needs some work. Is it worth spending a lot of money getting it to a "usable" condition, or do you suggest that I get something else? For example, it has a 4 jaw and I'd like to get a 3 jaw, but just buying the 3 jaw will cost more than what I paid for the lathe. I would like to get something bigger but not too big, since it's for hobby/automotive stuff.
Don't spend any time or money on that thing. Even in pristine condition, it leaves way too much to be desired, as they have no dials, no power feed on the cross slide, a spindle that is bent WAY too easily (don't ask
), and lack sufficient power and rigidity to be capable of doing much work. I'd also comment that the limited power feed that is offered is via the half nuts, which is NEVER a good idea, as that wears out the screw and nut, so that creating a desirable thread becomes difficult, if not impossible, assuming you'd be able to cut the thread, anyway. They are simply too small and underpowered to be useful unless all you hope to do is fiddle with things. Please note that I have not said, nor would I say, that they don't work. They just don't work well. I purchased mine, new, with both chucks, a 1/3 horse motor (big mistake--now you have more than enough power to damage the machine) and used it for fun things, all when I was but a young lad. That was in the early 50's. Paid a grand total of $180 for everything, including two sets of drills (numbers and fractions) and inside and outside calipers. The moment I touched a serious lathe (a LeBlond, in high school) I realized it was worthless. Up to that point, it was the devil I knew, and didn't expect more.
Welcome to the board.
Harold
