Did Logan put shims under the headstock?

[duffman1278]

Like my title says, did Logan put shims under their headstocks? I took my lathe apart to rebuild it and noticed that there was a 0.005" shim under one corner of the headstock on the flat sides. I'm trying to figure out if someone who owned the machine before did this or if it was from factory.

 

[woodchucker]

They may have to get the machine in spec? No telling now. Let's assume someone knew what they were doing. Run a precision rod in a collet and see. Measure from front and top.

 

[benmychree]

No reputable manufacturer would use shims to correct alignments; having said that, I have personally done so to correct for taper on a couple of lathes that I have owned.

 

[Shiseiji]

FWIW. I've had two Logan's and been following Logan information for going on 6 years now. Have not once read of factory shims.

 

[Clipper]

Like my title says, did Logan put shims under their headstocks? I took my lathe apart to rebuild it and noticed that there was a 0.005" shim under one corner of the headstock on the flat sides. I'm trying to figure out if someone who owned the machine before did this or if it was from factory.

I had an 820 years ago that had been bolted to a concrete floor and it had shims under the back left corner of the headstock. I asked about it on the Logan forum and received some not so nice answers.
The machine came from a machinists estate so I can only guess the shims were for headstock alignment? Don't remember the thickness..

 

[duffman1278]

I leveled the machine with a starrett 98A, put the headstock back without the shims and I cannot for the life of me get the taper less than 0.004" over 5.5". I haven't tried putting the shims back in but I'm starting to consider it.

 

[wa5cab]

That is one of the first things that I would have tried.

 

[HiltzVW]

I have restored two Logans - a 922 and a 6560. Neither had any shims under the headstock. I vote with the others that this was definitely something the lathe acquired along the way.

 

[Oldvetteman]

Like my title says, did Logan put shims under their headstocks? I took my lathe apart to rebuild it and noticed that there was a 0.005" shim under one corner of the headstock on the flat sides. I'm trying to figure out if someone who owned the machine before did this or if it was from factory.

Have you checked to see if shims were added between the tailstock base and the upper casting? If yes, I'll give you a possible reason why.

 

[benmychree]

Have you checked to see if shims were added between the tailstock base and the upper casting? If yes, I'll give you a possible reason why.

It's called wear down. Mostly shims would be added under the vee ways at each end of the headstock on opposite sides to eliminate taper, this by lazy people who don't want to go to the trouble of scraping to alignment, count me in their numbers. I have seen lathes with over 1/8"of shims between toe top and bottom of the tailstock, and as much wear down under the saddle, not fun to get acceptable work out of.