# Is This Lathe Worth Buying And Fixing?



## Sam Made (Dec 15, 2016)




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## Sam Made (Dec 15, 2016)

Owner says the lathe doesn't run due to a bad motor


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## FOMOGO (Dec 15, 2016)

Looks like a pretty basic machine, but a good one. No quick change gear box. Other than being dirty I can't see any major flaws, but one would have to take a good look at wear on the ways, carriage, spindle, etc.. Does it come with any tooling, additional chucks, face plate, steady rest, change gears for threading, etc. all of these things will affect the value. Motor could be good, but have a bad switch or some other minor issue, and motors are fairly easy to come by. What is the asking price? Welcome to the forum by the way. Mike


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## brino (Dec 15, 2016)

Hi Sam,

Welcome to the group.

Mike nailed it with:


FOMOGO said:


> take a good look at wear on the ways


That's the number one sign of wear. I think the best "on site", no-tools type of test is to slightly tighten the carriage lock with the carriage nearest the head-stock and try to wheel the carriage along the bed. Since most wear occurs near the headstock, you can get an idea of the wear with a few quick tests and without a dial indicator.

Even if it has some wear, it doesn't mean the machine is junk. I learned so much from my first (undersized, worn-out, chattery) lathe that even knowing what I now know, I would buy it over again.

Much depends on the things you want to do and the limits of precision you want to achieve.
You also do not mention price (and "extras" as Mike mentions).
So any more info you can provide would help give a better answer.

-brino


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## talvare (Dec 15, 2016)

brino said:


> I think the best "on site", no-tools type of test is to slightly tighten the carriage lock with the carriage nearest the head-stock and try to wheel the carriage along the bed. Since most wear occurs near the headstock, you can get an idea of the wear with a few quick tests and without a dial indicator.-brino



Good advice from  "brino". One little thing I would add is that considering how dirty that lathe looks, I would clean and lubricate the ways before moving the carriage or the tailstock.
Ted


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## Sam Made (Dec 15, 2016)

owner says it just comes with tray and stand. he is asking $500. thanks for giving me a way to test the machine! would be awesome if i can get tolerances of .001 to .0005. its either this or spend a little more for the grizzly g0765.


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## eeler1 (Dec 15, 2016)

Pic says it's a 9B-17, which is a quick change machine.  But none shown installed.  Maybe lots of work to get it up and running.  $500 isn't a bad price, even as a plain change machine.  But looks like you would be buying someone else's project.  Eyes open bro.


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## Sam Made (Dec 16, 2016)

i checked the model number and 9b-17-61 is the most basic model with out quick change and plain apron (whatever plain apron means) how much will it cost me to get this thing running and turning? are parts expensive?


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## Mister Ed (Dec 16, 2016)

Are the change gears there?


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## TomKro (Dec 16, 2016)

Sam:

  There are plenty of parts for the small Logan machines on e-bay and Craigslist.  Finding a small motor for cheap should be easy. 

  Aside from checking the bed as brino mentioned, you may want to see if the chuck will come off to check the end of the spindle (or at least look thru the center to make sure it wasn't drilled into), check for excessive wear in the cross feed and compound screws and the tailstock ram.  The half nuts can be expensive - so check if the carriage has much play with the half nut engaged.  Maybe try to gently rock the carriage back and forth with the hand wheel to check for excessive travel (maybe someone else has a better suggestion on how to check).  

  Having a dead motor really makes it hard to check the spindle, back gear, change gears, and carriage travel - so this one is a risky purchase. 

  All these parts can be located/purchased, but if more than a few are badly worn it could turn into a lot of time and more than a few hundred more dollars chasing parts.   Not trying to discourage you, just check it out as good as you can before handing over the cash. 

Good luck.
TomKro


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## CluelessNewB (Dec 16, 2016)

Plain apron means that the half nuts are used for both threading and general turning and it has no power crossfeed.  It a nice solid basic lathe with no bells or whistles.  It weighs more than twice what the Grizzly  G0765 does and has larger capacity.   Parts aren't cheap but are available so as Mr Ed implies having a full or nearly full set of change gears is important.


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## Mister Ed (Dec 16, 2016)

CluelessNewB said:


> Parts aren't cheap but are available so as Mr Ed implies having a full or nearly full set of change gears is important.


That's what I was trying to get at ... but couldn't type anymore. My computer has been freezing up every time I come to this site for the last couple weeks.


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## eeler1 (Dec 17, 2016)

Cool, I guess there is a plain change 9B model.  So maybe not the project lathe I had assumed.  

On that basis, it is a much more capable lathe than anything else you can get for that price.  Looks to be operational per the photos.  Comes down to condition, as others mentioned.


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## wa5cab (Dec 18, 2016)

One thing that I'll add is that bed wear on top that lowers the carriage straight down does not affect the accuracy of a machine as much as as does wear that allows the carriage to move toward the front.  I wrote a paper on the subject, although it was prompted by someone who had a tailstock that was too high and wanted to know how that affected diameter accuracy.  The figures are based on turning a bar between centers with the tailstock 0.010" higher than the headstock.  The error varies inversely as the square of the diameter and is equally applicable to bed wear that causes the carriage to get lower as it gets near the headstock.  If anyone is interested, the paper is in the Atlas lathe section of DOWNLOADS.


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