Hey William,
Good that you’re tackling this job on your lathe rather than using a die. This type of practice will pay off big time in the future. Getting to know that Craftsman (Atlas) is always a good thing. I know you had doubts about that lathe being good enough for clock work. This video should convince you that your machine is capable of doing a lot! Only thing that I remember that was a problem with my Craftsman was that I couldn’t slow the feed down enough to get a great finish. There’s a video that TubalCain put out covering a modification to slow down the feed on his craftsman. He actually disengages the gear box and runs a separate motor off the back of the lead screw. I’ll try to find it and will post it up here. If it’s something you would like to do with your machine then I’m sure David could help with choosing a suitable drive motor and controller. He’s really up on that stuff.
Enjoy that machine 
Life before the half nut & thread dial: Cool machine though. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65sWv212kqo
Bob