Dealing with Logan Actuator

[Jon In Tucson]

Wobbles,
Glad to hear you got it squared away. Patience is a virtue. I knew of a fellow who fitted a barrel to a Mauser action without a lathe or mill. Check headspace, remove barrel, remove a little metal on the breech with a file, reassemble and check headspace. Much more patience than I would/could muster, but he made a fine shooting rifle. God bless.
Jon In Tucson

 

[RandyM]

Excellent Wobbles, that is good news. Can we see it?

 

[geckocycles]

I bought my 10" in 1981. It was a cobbled together machine with several models put together to work. I never ran a lathe before but had a big job for it. Scott spent a ton of time figuring out exactly what every component was so I could get parts. I machined the whole bed, had a 93 yr old old timer scrape it in. I replaced every gear and shaft in the QC as well as many other gears, bushings and head bearings. All from Logan. This was before internet and my ignorance to it at least. I bought a collet closer in 98 from Scott for $1000. He has been stellar to me and has sent me many emails and forum replies.
I realize now that I could of got so much for so much less. I am happy to help support Logan as much as possible and GRATEFUL they are still around!

Sadly I had to sell this baby with all the years of tooling as I needed a larger lathe and didn't have the funds for one. I miss it dearly. It was dead on accurate. http://geckopc.com/Logan Lathe.htm
I now got a HF 7x12 that I am going through as doing small things on my 15x56 LeBlond is not practical.

To those interested the carriage was shimmed up using Garlok. This old timer was a joy to work with. He fully talked me out of buying a new machine. A real lost art of shaping and machine restoration. RIP.

 

[joebiplane]

Ahhh.... resolution at last. )

I wanted to finish out this thread by telling everyone it came to a positive resolution and that I'm finally happy. But it didn't play out the way you'd think.

The tailstock base casting finally arrived from Logan. That night I tore the 11" tailstock apart and substituted the new base. It was a good, tight fit on the upper, and fit the ways very well. But the live center seemed to point to a place slightly below the center of the spindle. No problem, I understood there could be minor fitting. So over the next week I bought home various sizes of Aloma C & D shims.

The following evenings (in the week leading up to Thanksgiving) I spent minutes here and there adding and subtracting shims between the base and upper to bring the tailstock spindle into height alignment with the headstock. Curiously, nothing seemed to work. More curious, with a .020" shim in the left end of the tailstock and the cinch bolt tensioned, a .020" shim on the right (aft)
end was still free to move. Hmmm.

Finally I got several hours to separate the upper and lower castings and inspect. While the mating surfaces of the tailstock base were well machined, in stark contrast the raised portions that guide tailstock offset were in as-cast condition. Scratches in the paint left evidence that the raised portion of the "guide" was bottoming out, causing the upper casting to teeter-totter on what should have been a no-touch zone.

So about .035" material had to be removed in this area across the full width of the new base. This took some time because I have no mill and had to invent a way to take off very small swaths so as not to over do it. When this was completed, the upper and lower castings fit together without interference from the offset guide area. Better yet, the tailstock now points directly at the headsock axis with no added shims.

So although it took a little advanced "head scratching" and some added time to complete, the results are better than expected. My new tailstock is tight, the correct height, and looks correct on the lathe.

Color me happy.

and you are nnw a "learned" lathe operator....to Boot !

I am of the camp that thinks logan and southbend are "equal, but different" each has tributes that somewhat outshine the other...but both are Solid, accurate very capable machines

joebiplane Oldetimemachines.com

 

[chips forever]

I mean no offense or to imply anything to anybody but myself.

Have you ever tried to ask dumb questions from a very intelligent person who knows more than anyone about a given subject?

Scott to me is that way. What is obvious to him is not to me and it is difficult to communicate with him.

With that said I have bought from him and will in the future. From two phone camera pictures he knew what the problem was and found several others besides.

As for the communication issue I have been told I am difficult to deal with, mostly from friends and family, so I will not critize him. I am just glad there is support out there for these lathes.