atlas lathe lead screw

[shade23]

I have an Atlas 12" Quick-Change model 3996 lathe. I need to run the carriage feed but not the head stock. I can disengage the head stock but I need to use the carriage feed for my project. Can this be done, I can not find anything relating to this topic in my manual.
Thank You!

[John Evans]

In a word no,as the carriage feed is driven from the HS. You would need to find a way to drive the carriage feed gear train with the tumbler in neutral .

[SteveM]

I believe that if you disengage the bull gear pin, the entire drive mechanism should work, but not transmit power to the chuck.

You can lock the spindle with the pin the front side of the casting, but that pin is not meant to take a lot of load.

I thought about this a few days ago thinking I could use that to power a slotting bit, although I did not try it to see if it would work.

Steve

[earlgo]

I just rebuilt the 12" Atlas in my shop and the spindle has a chuck mounted on the one end and the gear train drive gear on the other. The back gear drive does not disconnect the spindle from the change gear train. As was pointed out only the tumbler gears disconnect the change gear train.
Having said all this, my dad, the previous owner, did drive the change gears externally, but I was away getting edjumakated and didn't see how it was done.
--earlgo

[spro]

I Had a 12" Atlas lathe and the lead screw tail support was different. I thought it had been broken off but the end of it was threaded. This support was fine and there were threads at the end and locking nut. I never used it this way but the captive worm would turn also and that drives the feeds.

[shade23]

I want to thank everyone for their input. I appreciated all the help and I learned what can not be done on my lathe. Thank You