Got My First Lathe... Logan 1875 - With Restoration.

[Mr Mike]

Not looking for sympathy "crap happens".. Just giving an update on my inability to get anything done on my Restoration project..
Things are still going... just really slow. Late Sunday night somebody broke in my truck an stole all my tools, I'm an on call service tech so the tools I use for work are the same tools I use for home..

They new what they were doing and didn't open doors to trip the alarm, So yesterday and today I have been running all over replacing things, many Items had to be replaced by purchasing on-line.

Police really cant help - pawn shops wont give out any info, If you do an Insurance claim then they raise your rates.. Is what it is..

Unfortunately the snug top cover was down but not locked because the wife needed to barrow an extension cord, I forgot to put it back and lock it. they wouldn't have gotten away with so much but I had a portable dolly in the back - with every thing neatly stored in milk style crates.



On the plus side I almost have the gantry done..) That way I don't have to break my back lifting the pedestals.
It will pick up the small pedestal, but not the large one using a two wheel pulley system so I need to make or buy a four wheeled one..
All thats needed now to finish the Gantry is to add a removable Front and Rear lateral cross member at the base and 45 Deg bracing between the upper corner gussets.



The nice thing about this project Is I get to make all kinds custom ancillary support devices.

 

[mikey]

Wow, that truly sucks. I'm sorry to hear about this, Mike. Karma will take care of those bozos.

Have you spoken to your insurance agent? If they increase your premiums because of something like this then maybe they aren't the right company to be receiving you money.

 

[Mr Mike]

Wow, that truly sucks. I'm sorry to hear about this, Mike. Karma will take care of those bozos.

Have you spoken to your insurance agent? If they increase your premiums because of something like this then maybe they aren't the right company to be receiving you money.

No I haven't talked to my Insurance agent, the company I work for offered to split the bill with me thou - including a new microwave alarm system which will sound an alert if their too close, and go off if they touch the truck.

The last time one of my vehicles was broke into I called the police and had to go down to the station to fill out a report, just so I could file a claim with the insurance and by the time your done you wast an entire days pay and your deductible you'll get less then half + lost wages = not worth the aggravation..

Tonight I gutted the Large pedestal - definitely not an original motor and all the rubber support bushings and pulley bearings are shot, Glad I didn't test run the lathe at all... )

 

[mikey]

Yeah, well, it still sucks. Glad your company is helping, though.

 

[Mr Mike]

The inside of the cabinet and all the internals are in pretty good shape, I've been lucky so far - I haven't seen any metal parts thus far screaming for replacement at me. Some hardware, all belts, pillow block bearings and rubber bushing will need replacement.

An additional aluminum motor mount adapter or extension plate was added at some point, of no useful purpose that I can tell. Maybe to add to the length a half inch because of incorrect hardware on hand.

Visible rust is thin and confined to bare metal parts mostly.



I attempted to disassemble the counter shaft pulley assembly but the counter shaft pulley and four step pulley "hex set screws" are frozen...
I sprayed them with some PB and will let it soak in over night - Fingers crossed.

I have the parts breakdown book but it doesn't call out any sizes for parts, the bearings are a bit pricey on the website at 48.00 each, but the belts are very reasonable. Im sure I can find a suitable replacement bearing after I press them out and size them.

There were no rubber bushings listed on the Logan Site.. Hopefully I can make / Find some.



After soaking in PB, pulley assemblies and bearings came apart without much effort.



An Aluminum counter shaft pulley was in the mix which kinda surprised me, red arrow.
The pillow block bearings required allot less force to remove then I was expecting.

 

[Mr Mike]

In order to disassemble and press out the bearings I used PB spray, the pulleys and counter shaft pulleys are keyed and only required the use of a rubber mallet to remove from the 3/4" shafts.



It didn't take much effort to de-rust and clean the Parts, Electrolysis, purple power and fine Scotch bright pads.
I also picked up new bearings for the pillow blocks - The bearings are Deep Grove R12-ZZ at $8.18 Each.



The photo of these two 4 Step Pulleys shows off the power of Electrolytic rust removal, Not days.. just four Hrs @ 3.5 Amps is all it took.
I was going to do a test between Electrolysis and Evapo-Rust, But there would be no advantage to using Evapo-Rust with these parts.. Once you get the hang of it - electrolysis will be your favorite go to method for cleaning & rust removal - it requires no pre-cleaning, no De-greasing and little effort.



The first bearing I attempted to remove with a 12 ton press was moving with a poping noise.. as if it would release and move only when it reached a threshold that exceeded its resistance to move after a couple of press strokes. To reduce the chance of galling the pillow blocks, I soaking them with the PB spray for about 30 minutes.. then the bearings were removed with little effort.



These Pillow blocks may have been the perfect parts to try Evapo-Rust on but after I soaked them with Purple Power to clean and degrease them, It took less then 5 minutes each with a Scotch Bright pad to finish them off. I did the same with the 2 Shafts and counter pulley which came out looking nice too after touching up the missing paint.



Things were moving along nice today, tomorrow Ill try and finish the remaining motor assembly portion and begin creating the mold ill need to replace the rubber motor mounts.

 

[Mr Mike]

Today I finished the remaining motor cabinet parts, the Upper & Lower Pulley mounts, Motor pulley, Tension handle and Bushing retainers.
The parts were in pretty good shape with a small amount rust. I used Purple Power to thoroughly clean, and Phosphoric Acid to remove most the rust and etch the intact paint - then a light primer coat, fallowed by 2 coats of Rustoleum Dark Gray.









There are a couple other parts that were done too but didn't get into the photos, Everything came out great.. Most all Motor cabinet parts have been completed, leaving the motor cabinet next up for paint prep, The storage cabinet is already prepped for paint,

I also started on the Negative mold creation for the rubber bushings, I have all the necessary measurements and the 2 part urethane to create the Pour Mold. I'm going to use the lathe to create the Negative from a blank of Durhams rock hard water putty, because the original bushing is deformed.



Another good days run.. I'm starting to get a good amount of finished parts sitting in the spare room to cure.. Love it.

 

[Mr Mike]

I thought someone might find this next couple photos interesting along with some info, I do allot of testing while i'm messing around with Electrolysis but not all ways sharing the boring stuff.. I've literally got hundreds of photos that don't make it on here because it would make this forum thread about this restore project many many times as longer.. But I think this tidbit of info has some value to it.

This two step pulley was pulled from the Electrolysis tank exactly 1 hour into the rust removal bath, the top was covered with rust to start with.
I haven't confirmed this yet but it looks like the rust is being attacked at the edges of the thick rust pockets, all the rust around the circumference has been removed leaving the heaver pockets . all I did was use a nylon brush to lightly brush away a thin scum layer revealing the remaining rust pockets.

Original I was thinking that bubbles were originating behind the rust and separating it from the metal, Now I'm thinking the Electrolysis is attacking and consuming the rust its self.

I am probably taking this whole electrolysis thing to seriously, But I've almost got this rust removal down to a science now, and every time I change a variable I learn something new, I really wish I could find some official literature on the subject that would go in to detail about hydrogen embitterment.. because Id hate to find out down the road that I goofed up when its too late..

Ive read some stories of springs breaking while under tension while doing electrolysis and nuts & bolts shattering on bridges after being subjected to Electrolysis, Kinda scary..!



This next photo are for people that are trying to figure out how much amperage is going into the tank using there old transformer charger.
you have seen me use my cheap amp meter to get and show an amp figure with it..

I knew Id be doing some Electrolysis this weekend so brought my AC/DC amp meter home from work, you can see in the photo that my cheap AC meter reads almost exactly half the amp value my DC amp meter is registering.

If you get a cheap $13.00 amp meter from Harbor fright, then you just need to double the value shown and you will be close. I verified this by changing variables in the electrolysis tank and in every case the value displayed on the cheap ac meter was always half of the DC amp meter.. I'm guessing that only half the AC sign-wave is being rectified leaving a pulsed AC that never reverses, that might explain why the cheap AC meter can read it. But it also makes me wonder if the DC amp meter readings are good.

Ill be doing more testing as time goes by and to try and figure out how to get an automatic charger to work without having a battery in series.

 

[mikey]

My impression of hydrogen embrittlement is that it is temporary and the effects of it are gone in a few weeks. I have nothing authoritative to back this up but my experience says it is not a real issue to be overly concerned about. I've done my 75# anvil with ERR and have hit red hot steel on it multiple times since then with no signs of cracking, chipping or breaking. I've also done reel mower blades with ERR and no issues with chipping, early dulling or breakage. Good enough for me.

 

[Mr Mike]

My impression of hydrogen embrittlement is that it is temporary and the effects of it are gone in a few weeks. I have nothing authoritative to back this up but my experience says it is not a real issue to be overly concerned about. I've done my 75# anvil with ERR and have hit red hot steel on it multiple times since then with no signs of cracking, chipping or breaking. I've also done reel mower blades with ERR and no issues with chipping, early dulling or breakage. Good enough for me.

Hi Mike.. I hope your right..!
I have read ( unofficial papers ) its a temporary effect that dissipates over time. And the effects can be mitigated by introducing heat.

lol it would be a Wile E Coyote moment for me if the lathe Bed broke in half while I was using it..) ACME LATHE CO.

Edit: Your not going to believe this, but there's a real ACME LATHE Business in India...