# Making Use Of The Space Below My Logan 850 Lathe



## intjonmiller (Apr 11, 2016)

I just got my Logan 850 on Saturday. It took a lot of rearranging and dejunking to make room for it. I'm in a 1950's excuse for a 1-car garage (I realize that's more space than some have, and I'm grateful for it), and I also have a surface/universal grinder and a more-or-less full woodshop. I need to use every cubic inch wisely. I think the area below the lathe is destined to be a tool cabinet for machining-specific tools (lathe gears, mics, calipers, scribes, tooling, toolholders, chucks, small stock, etc. etc.), but before I make something I'm hoping to see how others may have used the space. My searches, both on this site and the internet in general, have not come up with much. Having very little tooling I'm not sure what drawer size and configuration would be beneficial, long-term. I have boxes of drawer glides and I can make wood drawers to whatever size I like. 

So, anyone out there using that space well? Any specific recommendations? I'll post a photo of the empty space from my phone in a comment in a moment.


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## intjonmiller (Apr 11, 2016)




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## Bob Korves (Apr 11, 2016)

A quick but more expensive way to go is to buy a couple rolling steel tool cabinets with drawers and then put a wood or steel or whatever shelf across the top of them.  Sometimes there is room for three cabinets or shop built cabinets with shelves between them.  Don't waste the space!  Just make sure to leave room for your toes to fit with feet pointing straight ahead and standing right up against the lathe.  Think about the work height you want very carefully.  You want the knobs and controls to come easily to hand, especially the ones you will be using the most.  A lathe that forces you to bend over is just awful.


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## intjonmiller (Apr 11, 2016)

Thanks Bob. Money is always a factor. I have plenty of scrap, high quality plywood and the drawer glides as I mentioned, so it makes far more sense for me to make than to buy. I don't intend to replace the existing legs (though I've considered it), so I'm just looking at something to go under the pan and between the existing legs, rather than a full bench for this to sit on (as it was designed; the legs were an optional accessory). So the height of the machine is set (plus the amount I'll need to shim it to level it, which should be this evening).


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## CluelessNewB (Apr 11, 2016)

Here is an older thread with some ideas:  

http://www.hobby-machinist.com/threads/storage-under-a-bench-lathe-on-legs.38435/#post-329271


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## intjonmiller (Apr 11, 2016)

Of course. I searched for "cabinet" and "toolbox", but didn't think to use the more abstract "storage". And it definitely didn't occur to me to search "legs". Thanks!


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## francist (Apr 11, 2016)

Here's what I ended up doing. I built the bench first with the intention of actually making drawers. Hah! Once I got the machine all nice and tiddly the last thing I wanted to do was fool around making drawers. Then the toolbox came on sale at Home Depot so I decided to try that.

It's a Husky brand and actually pretty nicely made. A good fit for under the bench too, but I didn't like the idea of losing the use of the top tray. So I took the hinged lid off and slung the whole box between two pieces of angle with a couple heavy-duty drawer slides. 

It's a bit spooky at first but I'm used to it by now. Plus it's not like I'm in an out of the drawers every two seconds anyway. I've got a machinist box on another bench behind me for stuff like caliper a etc that I reach for all the time. 

-frank


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## wa5cab (Apr 12, 2016)

I would add a shelf across the two lower leg braces (like all of the Atlas floor stands have.  And then set a cabinet on it similar to what Frank's photos above show.  Either bought or built.


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## intjonmiller (Apr 12, 2016)

Absolutely. I could even have a suspended bottom drawer below that, while still keeping it all mounted on those leg braces. From my experience with this lathe when it was in my brother's garage, some dead weight/ballast would be a good idea. I think I'll weld up an angle iron base to drop into (and bolt onto?) those cross braces and build the cabinet around that frame.


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## wa5cab (Apr 14, 2016)

Maintain at least a 4" kick space for two reasons.  One is the actual kick space.  The other is that sooner or later (Murphy says sooner) you are going to drop something in front of the lathe  The odds that anything dropped in front of the lathe will roll or bounce underneath increases as the clearance to look for it decreases.


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## eeler1 (Apr 14, 2016)

Plus there's room above and behind the lathe.  Right now wasted on your window.  Just leave an opening so you can get to and see the protractor below the compound., for setting angles.  Otherwise you have to climb over everything to be able to view/set it.  Why the markings were put in the least access able place, I never understood.  Or make a protractor jig and cover the entire rear of the machine.   we will need pics of whatever you come up with.  Those are very nice lathes, btw


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## intjonmiller (Apr 14, 2016)

wa5cab said:


> Maintain at least a 4" kick space for two reasons.  One is the actual kick space.  The other is that sooner or later (Murphy says sooner) you are going to drop something in front of the lathe  The odds that anything dropped in front of the lathe will roll or bounce underneath increases as the clearance to look for it decreases.



Absolutely. That's exactly how I've done all of my shop cabinets (with a toe-kick board to prevent anything from going all the way under), but I may have overlooked that for this unique project if you hadn't said something. Thanks.  



eeler1 said:


> Plus there's room above and behind the lathe.  Right now wasted on your window.  Just leave an opening so you can get to and see the protractor below the compound., for setting angles.  Otherwise you have to climb over everything to be able to view/set it.  Why the markings were put in the least access able place, I never understood.  Or make a protractor jig and cover the entire rear of the machine.   we will need pics of whatever you come up with.  Those are very nice lathes, btw



The position in front of the window is theoretically temporary, but it's hard to identify anywhere better for it. Where I would most like to put it in a corner (open on the left, wall on the right) has cabinets right above it which would make a good place to mount a light, but that would make it harder to get into anything I want to store behind it, and I have plans to do some youtube videos of some of the projects I have in mind, so that would also limit camera positions. I could remove the cabinets, replacing them with something smaller and higher, but that's a tough sell when there are already perfectly good cabinets there. If I go left of the window as it is right now then it will be immediately next to the surface grinder, which is the hardest thing in my shop to move, and one of the biggest obstructions, so I keep it by the overhead door opening instead of back near the table saw and other things that have to be moved regularly as I work on different things. While I have a decent crap-catcher mounted on the surface grinder, I still don't think positioning a lathe right in its line of fire is a good idea. (It's a universal grinder so it spins counter-clockwise as you look at it, throwing to the right.) Currently there's a floor-standing, worn, early 1990s Harbor Freight drill press between the two. Seems like a good use for it.  

The opposite wall is completely out of the question, as the entire wall is custom-built shop cabinets supporting a miter saw and continuous material support, in line and planar with a radial arm saw table as well. 8' on either side of the miter saw for long pieces. No flexibility there. The wall adjoining wall (opposite the overhead door opening) is where the rolling table saw cabinet parks, so that is the only other spot where it might make sense. The upper cabinet there is a little higher and not as deep. I'll have to play with that. I wish this thing was easier to move around to try different configurations... 

Oh, and by the way, that protractor on the back of the compound is only half useful, because it only goes one way! Last night we were turning a 2MT on a temporary center (I just ordered one but it hadn't arrived yet) and that's about 1.5 degrees, but the markings are only useful if I want to cut that from the back side. I wasn't relying on those coarse marks, but they are nice for a starting point.


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## G MORSCH (Apr 14, 2016)

I have always been short of space and have used this method on a couple of lathes.  And, "Yes", I have had to fish a few parts out from under there.  I'm a slow learner...  I really like to fish!




Best Regards,  Gary


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