Lathes for port work advice needed.

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This is what I bought last year.
http://www.lathes.co.uk/taiwan/

Around here they pop up for sale quite often and are usually priced at $1000usd or $1200cdn. There are many different "brands" but they are basically all the same/similar and afaik made in the same factory. Usually they will come with at least 2 chucks and some tooling. I have used mine for a few different projects and it works well with no issues at all. It runs smooth and I have turned 2" diameter steel stock and it cut smoothly and didn't lack for power - it has a 1hp motor. The only wear item that I changed was the cross-slide nut which was quite worn. I found a new brass nut on ebay that had the same LH acme threads and I turned it to the proper dimensions on the lathe and it works perfectly.

If you found one of these local to you I wouldn't hesitate to go have a look at it.
 
Well I bought it. Last owner tore it all down and cleaned/lubed it when he bought. It’s in great shape. He gave me a lot of tooling and a baldor dc motor with a controller. No 4 jaw chuck though :/

Lots of learning ahead for me

The last owner was telling me his dad use to work in the Pioneer plant that was in the Portland area. Apparently he had a p60 race saw and use to be involved in timber sports around the area. He was shocked I knew who pioneer was.
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Well I bought it. Last owner tore it all down and cleaned/lubed it when he bought. It’s in great shape. He gave me a lot of tooling and a baldor dc motor with a controller. No 4 jaw chuck though :/

Lots of learning ahead for me

The last owner was telling me his dad use to work in the Pioneer plant that was in the Portland area. Apparently he had a p60 race saw and use to be involved in timber sports around the area. He was shocked I knew who pioneer was.
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Looks good! Now you will be on the hunt for a 4 jaw chuck. The DC motor and controller is a real bonus! I just did the DC motor conversion on mine and it works great.
 
Very nice, not only does it look in great shape but there is something about bringing something with some history behind it, 4 jaw will come along and any other tooling you may need, Now to set it up and level it properly. I didn't cheap out on my slugs for my for my cylinders, solid aluminum - cost me about 75$- worth it.- and before your final fit let it cool to room temperature because they will lose a thou or 2.
 
It came with a lot of old stuff I don't have a clue what they are or for. Right now it has a Harbor freight 1hp motor on it. Ill need to do some research on how to properly setup the DC motor. It's going to be at least a week until I start setting it up. Need to finish up some saws I have apart right now, and then re-arrange my garage a bit. I'll need to add some lighting for the spot the lathe will be. Which temps me do re-do all the lighting in my garage. The LED shop lights Home depot carry are very easy to install, and work great for little money.

Thanks for all the help. I'll probably update this thread from time to time as I get it setup and running. I should join one of those machinist forums now.
 
It's a pretty good haul. See if you can get yourself a toolpost grinder for it. That will make getting things to final dimensions a lot easier. If all you're cutting is aluminum, try to find Redcut steel cutters or other good steel cutters. Carbide inserts for aluminum are very expensive. A cutter profiler might be useful for some jobs.
 
I don't see a threading dial on the carriage/apron.

I think you're right. I was just watching Tubalcain's video on assembling a logan lathe. The spot for the threading dial is on the right side of the apron, you can see the spot where it bolts on in my pics. I'll have to take a look when I get home at the lathe and through all the stuff that came with it.
 
I haven’t touched it yet. I had two cylinders at the machine shop already so I’ve been getting those saws done. No threading dial. I’ll have to buy one off eBay. I need to rearrange my garage and wire up some more lights before I set it up. Maybe next week I’ll start on that and take a break from building saws
 
I managed to re-arrange my garage and hang up some more lights this weekend and get the lathe up and running.

I've ran into my first problem though, and the main reason I was leaning towards not buying a old lathe. The power cross feed doesn't work so I did some investigating. Turns out one of the gears that powers the cross feed off the lead screw was missing. I was able to find this part in one of the boxes that came with the lathe. Well after installing it I realized some of the teeth were bent and no longer meshed with the corresponding gear. Luckily you can still buy parts for Logan lathes, but for those two gears I need it's $618!!!! I'm going to take the whole assembly to my local machine shop and see if they can work some magic on it.

One way to learn about a machine is to take it apart, even just after a week of playing with this lathe I feel much more comfortable around it. I ordered some mandrel material and a number of tools today. I still need a 4-jaw chuck. Hopefully I can figure out a cheaper solution to get the power cross feed to function.

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It’s not the end of the world that’s for sure. I’m wondering if I could just grind on a few teeth and make it work until one pops up on eBay.
 
There's a fellow in Missouri that specializes in making gears for anything. His prices are a lot less than others I've talked to. If you want, I can see if I can find his particulars so you can contact him.
 
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