New To Me Lathe, Need Some Gears

Thanks
The lathe is setup now except for the motor (it did come with the lathe, I just didn't get that far last night)
Rex has given me an exceptional deal/trade for his set of gears. Maybe down the road I will retrofit a quick-change and swap out the apron, but for now I'm content.
 
You are a very fortunate person. This thing looks immaculate! and $460 is a real steal. Then someone comes up to fill in the extra gears, how much good luck can anyone have?
Enjoy your great fortune and be sure to show us what you can do with it.

Keep on swarfing
Chuck the grumpy old guy
 
I mentioned this to Jester966 offline, but thought it might be valuable to others stumbling across this thread:

My Wards/Logan 10" has a quick-change gearbox which is a great convenience for threading, but it does have a downside: you lose some carriage travel to the left because it interferes with the handwheel. I use 3C collets a lot with my lathe and the loss of travel is annoying. I sometimes have to stick the tool and compound out further than I'd like when cutting close to the face of the collet.

If you use collets it can be an issue, but a chuck will move your work a few inches to the right anyway, which is enough to eliminate any interference most of the time (unless you're angling back for a left hand cut for some reason).

On the other hand, without a QCGB the power feed on Logan is a lot less useful. If you have to manually swap out gears to change feed rates, 99% of the time you'll leave the gears on that give you a very slow feed. This means you'll only adjust speeds and not feeds when trying to eliminate chatter or get a decent finish. It's a lot easier when you have two variables at your disposal.

One of the best things anyone ever pointed out to me was that doubling the feed and halving the speed (or vice versa) removes the same amount of material — keeping this in mind can make it a lot easier to get a decent finish.

I agree 1000% with Eeler1's advice, regardless though. Get it working, then think about upgrades!
--
Rex
 
Depends on which side of the border you're on, doesn't it??

Another Idea. I don't know how much a quick change gear box costs, but how about thinking of a variable speed drive, like a VFD or a treadmill motor/ speed control unit?? I love my VFD. But also agree on the get it cutting and then think of upgrades as you need them.

Chuck the grumpy old guy


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+1 on what Chuck said.

Once it's running, you have the ability to make parts for it on itself. You may loose some initiative to add the doodads you want on it. Either way, you will end up with a working lathe, just maybe without the features you want on it. And for the price you got it for, plus getting the change gears, I'd say get it running nicely, and have at it. Enjoy making swarf while making the doodads and widgets you want for it. Believe me, you'll spend most of your time making tools and tooling vs making projects. :) A tool to make a tool to make a part.... The story of hobby machinists, where we can't go to the supervisor and say, "I need this [whatever] to do this job."
 
You guys are right. I already have an Atlas TH54 lathe and a mill (home made) - people ask what I make with them and my response is always "parts for the lathe and the mill!" Now that I have the Logan the Atlas will see very little use and likely be sold, although I do wonder if I will ever miss the between centers capacity.
One day, eventually... theoretically... I will have the machines the way I want them and will have to figure out something else to make on them! For now, I enjoy working on the machines themselves.
 
I just purchased the automatic apron which I had linked to in a previous post. I am not familiar with the operation of these aprons yet - can anyone tell me about the lower lever?

Most other pictures I have seen just have a knob. The few pictures of a lever that I have found look like the lever would turn the knob, but this one appears as though it would push /pull it in and out - does this make sense? Was this particular lever a factory option, or does it appear to be a custom job?

Thanks

LoganApron1.jpg
 
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I'd say not OEM, but fashioned after clutch levers on some other makes like south bend. If it works, you might like it, just another method to engage the power feed.
 
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