new lathe or rebuilt one?

M

metal novice

Registered
Registered
Joined
Sep 19, 2013
Messages
4
I hope everyone will forgive me if I'm posting a thread inappropriately. I just joined the Forum earlier today and am not clear if I'm supposed to wait to post until I'm approved. I decided to give it a try and ask for forgive due to ignorance if I'm out of line.

Up until about a year ago I would hang out at an elderly neighbor's garage learning how to work on machinery. He passed away and left me a Logan 850 lathe he had planned on restoring but never got around to it. I intended to complete his vision, then take some classes so I could learn to use it. After a lot of research and speaking to some very helpful people at Logan Actuator Company, it became clear it was going to be cheaper to buy something than to refurbish this lathe. I'm embarrassingly ignorant of metal lathes and mills but I know I could build some great things with them once I learn how. Since this forum provides me a wealth of knowledge from very experienced machinists, I'd like advice on if I'd be better off purchasing a Smithy or Proxxon lathe or an old restored machine. Thanks.
 
First get some pictures and post them. Pics of everything that came with the lathe.

He mentored you and left you the lathe, maybe you should attempt the restore. If it get's into large $ then fine, give it up for parts, but wouldn't you feel awesome if you got it running, for him?

People here will help you along the way.
 
I agree, let's have a look first. That would be a very nice HSM lathe and would have to have major issues to be unusable for hobby use.

One can still make acceptable parts with a less than perfect lathe.

http://www.mermac.com/klunker2.html
 
Show us some pictures if you have them! You need to figure out what parts are needing to be replaced. The restoration may not be as bad as a parts dealer may lead you to think.

If it's yours at no cost, may want to get it to your place, disassemble some of it and and see where it goes!!

There are a lot of knowledgeable people here who can help.

New is good, but grabbing the handle on an old friend sure does feel good. I have an old buffalo drill press that belonged to my dad that I use often. It sure does feel good!

Welcome to the group!

David
 
I also agree, but the machine maybe ok. It sounds as if Logan want to sell you a new lathe. It might be a cherry of a machine with little or no work. Take some pictures. If you don't already have one, go buy a digital camera and learn how to down load the pic's into your post. There area couple of threads under introduction on how too, or ask in ere and we cn get you there, if you need the help. Phil Perry on for our moderators does complete restorations on lathes that size. Look up "Gold Plated lathe" and you can see some of his work. He sold that one for I think $5000.00 Don't give up hope on your mentors lathe yet, we can help you. Rich
 
Even a lathe with some wear,if not completely worn out,can make short parts suitably. Long parts will be shaped like a wooden barrel(larger in the middle by several thousandths). But,you can file the gradual "bulge" in long parts and measure them until they are pretty accurate if necessary. A worn lathe may not do facing accurately either. If you intend to make small steam engines,the lathe may be o.k.,though boring a cylinder may not leave a true,straight bore. You might could ream them true after boring.

I recommend learning how to grind turning tools from HSS. Stay away from carbide,HSS is sharper. Small lathes really do not need carbide tools,and they are never as sharp as a good HSS cutting tool. I only use carbide for cutting cast iron,as it is hard on HSS tools. Carbide requires more power from the lathe,and you can't run the small logan fast enough to take advantage of carbide's attributes.

When you have decently ground cutting tools,make some cuts on the lathe and see how accurately it cuts long pieces. Make a facing cut across the face plate at the lowest possible speed. Take an accurate steel machinist's rule,and check the faced surface for trueness. Don't take off MUCH. You don't want to weaken your face plate by cutting too much off. You could take a large piece of steel or brass and put it into the 4 jaw chuck and face it off instead. Use a fairly thick piece of metal for this test,or it may spring away from the cutter and not give a true reading. I'd use a steel plate 1/2" thick.
 
It sounds like you have it in your heart to restore the unit -so that is what I would do. Maybe you can repair it in stages as your skills progress.

If you have a mill and another small lathe, that would be helpful to recondition or re-produce some of the parts. When it comes to replacing leadscrews, segments of ACME screw or some gears, you're better off purchasing stock materials from a good supply house. Anything you buy on ebay in that regard is probably worn a good bit.

Good luck.

Ray
 
Logans lathes are great project lathes. The parts are readily available and a lot of them you can make yourself. I have had a lot of logans but I'm not familiar with the model 850. I'm thinking it might be a production model with a turret tailstock and possibly a collet closer. If that's the case, as long as it has the standard carriage with a compound you can either use it as oufitted or find a used tailstock for it. Like one of the previous posters said, even if the ways have wear on them you can still make parts. The Logan 10" lathes are fairly rigid and very user friendly to operate. I have spent a lot of time on the Logan users group. They can answer just about any question you have about Logans....but sometimes they are quick to label something unusable. I don't think many people are using their Logans for aerospace work, so a little wear here and there isn't going to be a deal killer. Post some pics so we can see what you have. Good Luck

Chuck
 
Restore that lathe the best you can! Your mentor left it to you for a reason, do not take that resposibility lightly. I have tools that I have inherited from many different people over the years, these tools have special meaning. The new tools I purchase, are usually of better quality, but have little or no special meaning to me.
The money is secondary (easy for me to say) , but this is not an inexpensive hobby. Down the road the real value will be: Joe left me that lathe, I really didn't know how to run it, but I learned!
Take the challenge he left you. Help is easy to come by here.
Best of luck! Larry
 
Welcome to the group!

Latheing is actually not that hard. Most of what I learned, which is not a lot but gets me by, I did by practicing on random parts I just thought of. And in the last few years have learned a ton by watching you tube videos, specially from MrPete222 (tubalcain). Anybody in this group will tell you how great his videos are, but all you have to do is watch a few and you will be hooked. He does a bunch of milling machine, but I would say the great majority are on the lathe. I think he also sells some training material on lathes.

I am also looking for a lathe (have been for about a year, and the search continues) and can tell you that I think it is best to get an used one first. If you buy new, you will pay top dollar. If you then need to sell your lathe for whatever reason (as happened to me when I moved to Texas and discovered space is like a leisure for Rockefellerian folks), you will have to let it go cheaply. For example, I purchased a Grizzly G9249 which must have cost me a little bit more than 3K when you factor in accessories and had to sell it all for $1400 not even 3 years after I acquired it. AHHHH PAIN!!! If you buy used, however, it is apparently possible to get a decent deal. You will be competing with me, though ;-)

Do be wary of the individuals in here who think it is perfectly fine to sell a lathe for 5 bucks less than what they paid 20 years ago because after all, hey!, they did the break in for you!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top