Logan 11 inch conversion

JHowell · Post by **JHowell** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 12:42 am

Hello, All,

Thought I'd post links to photos of my "new" lathe. As some of you may recall, I spent the winter before last rebuilding a rust bucket Logan 200 10 inch lathe, which served me well enough. However, my machine tool mentor, Dennis Turk, pointed out that Logan used the same bed for their 10, 11, and 12 inch lathes, and that the 11 inch was a much more industrial machine with a much larger and more rigid spindle that would take a 5C collet, and larger bearings with a better preload arrangement. Heavier casting, too, a real brick.

When I won one of these 11 inch headstocks on ebay, Denny said if I'd ship it to him he'd "make sure it was all right." Well, I had a hunch that Denny would do a little more than that, having seen what he does with machines and having been the beneficiary of his compulsive generosity more than once. What showed up on my porch a few months later was a grand concours version of a Logan headstock. It had a better paint job than any Logan that ever came from the factory, as good as a Hardinge. Every bare metal surface gleamed, and the brand new bearings were as smooth as glass (knowing Denny, he probably found an ABEC 7 set to put in there). You know that cable show where they steal some guy's car and Chip Foose turns it into a showpiece? It was kind of like that.

It took me a while to assemble the rest of the parts for the conversion. I needed a tail stock, a top cover, an end door, a couple of other little things, but Logan never made two parts when one part would do so it wasn't a long list. It took longer to assemble the courage to take the lathe apart again. It was one thing to take a rusty, useless hulk down to every last nut and bolt, and another thing entirely to mess with a lathe that I used just about every day, sometimes 8 hours a day. Sometimes you get halfway through a job like this and realize that you've forgotten something important.

But, this past week Denny came through on a trip around the midwest and east, seeing friends, picking up machines here, dropping off machines there. I'd been storing a Dalton 9 inch for him, so I was lucky enough to be on his route. Knowing that he'd be here to help me if I screwed up, I got going. I didn't quite have it done by the time Denny left yesterday, but he made sure that I wasn't left with anything I couldn't handle, and today I finished it up and flipped the switch.

http://public.jwh.fastmail.fm/images/Logan11.jpg

http://public.jwh.fastmail.fm/images/Logan11hs.jpg

I love it. It's great. It will long outlast me. And if everyone, just once in their lives, could have a friend like Denny the world would be a much better place.

Post by **KurtHuhn** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 7:02 am

Holy crap, that's nice. I'll bet it's a real pleasure to use, too.

JHowell · Post by **JHowell** » Wed Jun 04, 2008 3:23 pm

I should also point out the work Denny did on my original restoration. The South Bend 10K 200-increment cross slide dial, for instance, is a very useful upgrade. Denny fixed a very knashed cross slide screw and nut, and painted the saddle, too, which is why it and the headstock look so much nicer than everything else.

kbadkar · Post by **kbadkar** » Thu Jun 05, 2008 12:34 pm

[speechless]

JBW · Post by **JBW** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 1:28 am

Jack, Sweet conversion there!
I used to have a 14" Logan chucker. Same as the regular 14", with a flat turret and no tail stock. Good machine, hated to let it go when we closed the shop, but I really didn't have the room for it at home.

sethile · Post by **sethile** » Fri Jun 06, 2008 7:53 pm

Wow, that looks beautiful, Jack. Congratulations!

Tsunami · Post by **Tsunami** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 9:47 pm

Very nice, Hope my own lathe will look as nice when I am done

hollywood · Post by **hollywood** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 12:21 am

WOW! That is awesome, Jack! Makes my dirty old 200 look like scrap! Looks better than new! Congrats!

JHowell · Post by **JHowell** » Sat Jun 14, 2008 1:01 am

Thanks, all. I've been running the lathe quite a bit since I first posted, and it's vastly improved. I don't know what grade of bearings Denny put in, or what sort of balancing he did, but the the machine is virtually vibration free. And quiet. I've run it up to 90hz on the VFD which should be around 3000 rpm, and it's still dead smooth. I don't want to fry the plain bearings on the countershaft so I keep it to around 2000 max, but I think the spindle would take whatever rpm I could throw at it. It's a sweet piece.

Also, the belt is now a Goodyear poly-V ribbed flat belt, which has much better grip than the rubberized nylon belt I had before, and I think is at least as good at dampening vibration. I would recommend this as an upgrade to anyone running a flat belt. Lots of guys reverse these belts so that the smooth side is against the pulleys, but Denny says that's a waste because the friction material is on the ribbed side. I would say he knows what he's talking about. Of course, I don't have as much belt slip to save me if I do something stupider than usual, but I'll take it.