Logan 850 worth buying?

gchristensen · Oct 30, 2018

Hi all. Im new to this forum and looking to get a lathe but not sure what to buy. I have been looking at a logan 850 but it has a damaged gear for "position E" and not knowing much about these lathes I would like to reach out to you all and see if this lathe is worth 1200.00dollars or would there be a better options I would like moore. Thanks for the assistance and advice. I do not own any machining equipment as of yet except a mig welder and think this could be a blast to get into metal working again. I am restoring a couple vanagon westfalias and maybe could make parts and such for these as well as other projects.

Thanks
Gregg

Larry on Lake Superior · Oct 30, 2018

Logan lathes were good hobby lathes. I'm assuming the gear you're referring to is in the quick change gear box. The bad gear may affect only 1 feed/thread. Parts may be available from Logan Actuator Co. I've been away from the forum for several years. When I was last active there was a prohibition against hobby type equipment. You may be more welcome on the Home Shop Machinist web site.
Welcome to the hobby. There is a world of info here. Don't be discouraged by the cool reception.
Thans for posting.

dalmatiangirl61 · Oct 30, 2018

I did a search to see which model machine that was, and pretty sure I found the ad for the machine you are looking at. If limited on space or you want easy moveability, price on that machine is not too bad, especially considering it is a fair amount of tooling. Broken gears does affect value, and will scare off many potential buyers, but really not difficult to fix, but gears might be pricey. Logan Actuator can supply replacement gears, or you hunt ebay. It does appear that seller refurbished machine, and without knowing their abilities, you might find some surprises. Looks like it has been for sale for a while, and there is the make-offer button.

If you have room for a bigger machine, and the ability to move one, there are better machines.

M.B. Naegle · Oct 30, 2018

Logan's kosher to discuss on here. They are often used in hobby environments, but are well built and can be used in professional applications.

I'm not familiar with the model 850, but it's probably not to different than my 820, which is a nice 10"x24" tool room lathe. They're on par with South Bends's in terms of design and dependability IMO, plus Logan Actuator is still supporting a majority of the different models they made over the years.

$1200 would be a little rich for a machine that needs work, but it depends what's available in your area.

dalmatiangirl61 · Oct 30, 2018

Here is the ad LOGAN LATHE, 1 inch #85, 43" bed. With many tools and parts “USED” | eBay

Looking at the pics there is an extra leadscrew, a bunch of extra gears, and the banjo bracket. But seller does not have a pic with sidecover open, so not sure if the banjo and gears are extra, or belong on the machine?

If those parts are extra's, and useable, you might be able to re-home them for a few extra $ back in your pocket.

M.B. Naegle · Oct 30, 2018

It looks pretty clean. The tooling coming with it I think would offset the needed gearbox repairs. If I was in the market for one, I'd get it, but I might try to talk them down at least to $1000.

For reference, I had a model 200 for awhile that i sold. It was pretty much the same as that 850, but an older generation and no QC gearbox. It did have almost a complete set of change gears though and went with spars tooling (3 jaw chuck, drill chuck, and lantern tool post set). I started at $700 and ended up trading it for a generator and $175.00.

Pete Deal · Oct 30, 2018

No way! I have posted this before. I had a 920. Bought from a buddy for my boys to use. I think I paid $800 for it. It was in real good shape but it was old so we had it apart quite a bit and did a lot of cleaning on it. I have done the same in the past with a South Bend 10k. the 920 is only about 1/2 the machine that the 10k is. Execution not that great- kind of cheap. We found a Southbend 13 and bought that. I set out to sell the Logan for about what I had in it. Posted it here, posted it on craigslist, finally posted on ebay as an auction starting low, $10 or so. This has worked well for me before. It went for $170. Never again a Logan for me.

mach2 · Oct 30, 2018

Logan 850 started as a lever turret machine without quick change gear box. If it comes with a standard tail stock and quick change gearbox then it has been changes. If the E quick change gear is broken then most likely there are at least two broken gears. Logan should have the gears in stock and listed on their web site. Broken quick change gear box gears and change gears are not deal breakers. Broken bull gears and back gears are deal breakers. If it has the standard tailstock, the bed is good, and no other broken gears then $500-800 tops plus value of accessories. Add for taper attachment and turret tailstock. Overall condition (not just cleaned up and painted) is everything regarding the price.

Be sure to check the spindle taper, some of the turret machines had WS collet spindle. You want a Morse 3 taper spindle, the most common version.

JST · Oct 30, 2018

Mach2 has it. Started life as a turret lathe. As original, it has an MT3 spindle. The advert shows a machine that has been very much changed, and if in decent shape should be a very acceptable machine. Having the QC is really more than a plus, it makes the machine useful, while a change gear machine is "sorta useful".

The machine comes with the stuff that was removed when converting to QC gearbox (old leadscrew, bearing, change gears, etc) and a follow rest, which is a little less useful than a steady rest, but is needed for some things, plus appears to have some extra chucks and a quantity of other tooling, not all of which is super, but it is "there". Having the old change gears will allow you to get nearly any thread setting you could think of.

Logan Lathe Model Number Table

The Logan machines work fine, B&S supplied tooling for the turret machines, and I have seen at least one shop still operating a dozen or so of them. Definitely NOT purely "hobby" machines, there is not a bit of pot metal on them, and they have all the basic features of any smaller lathe of the time.

Downside is that $1200 is probably high, but it is in some place in CA, which may change that. It would be high for my location.

gchristensen · Oct 31, 2018

Thanks for the advice. I am looking to do parts for a hobby as Im not a professional and want to make parts for my vanagons and other vehicles. I do like the idea of a larger lathe. So thanks to all advise

gchristensen · Oct 31, 2018

yes that is the add and thanks for the input.

gchristensen · Oct 31, 2018

dalmatiangirl61 said:
Here is the ad LOGAN LATHE, 1 inch #85, 43" bed. With many tools and parts “USED” | eBay

Looking at the pics there is an extra leadscrew, a bunch of extra gears, and the banjo bracket. But seller does not have a pic with sidecover open, so not sure if the banjo and gears are extra, or belong on the machine?

If those parts are extra's, and useable, you might be able to re-home them for a few extra $ back in your pocket.

thanks for the input

JST · Oct 31, 2018

The banjo is different for the QCB, the leadscrew is different, etc, So those parts are in fact extra, left over from the conversion.

There are a standard set of gears on the QCB banjo, no idea if they are out of the original set. There are, IIRC, 17 gears with the change gear machine, so if there are 17 in the pics, they are probably all extra. To get a few odd but sometimes needed threads, like 27 tpi (brass fitting thread) you need extra gears, which IIRC are in the original set. They get substituted in the standard QCB gear train,

mach2 · Nov 1, 2018

In looking at the photos in the ad I don’t see a Logan 850, more like a 200 series lathe with an 850 headstock. The carriage is clearly from a series 200 machine so that means the QC gearbox and gear covers are too. Tailstock is from another lathe and probably doesn’t align with the headstock. The 200 series apron is a single wall, no oil sump for lubrication, nor a clutch. Both desirable features that the 800 series lathes have. The motor isn’t reversible either .

Fact that there was a lot of effort put into making the lathe look good with new paint but still the QC gear box has been left unfixed tells me just enough was done to flip this lathe for a proffit. Who knows what else is hiding under that new paint.

There are some nice accessories and parts and that makes the lathe worth something but the lathe is really a hodgepodge of Logan parts. There are many better Logan buys out there.
This lathe will need $200-300 worth of parts for the QC box and possibly more. I would keep looking.

JST · Nov 1, 2018

A hodgepodge is not as bad with Logan as with others, since there were not that many different parts. Beds all the same for the Logan branded 10", and many things fit fine between models. Logan did mix and match for many of the models to begin with. I have 11" accessories with my 10", and they are fully functional.

The apron is indeed NOT the "automatic" apron, which means feeds are via the half nuts. Not as nice as the other one, where the feeds are via the rack. But the QCB gives instant access to the useful range of threading feeds regardless.

The QC being bad in position "E" can pretty much be ignored, since that position gives only the very finest threads and feeds. For threading, it is rare to need a 100+ tpi thread, and I would not call the Logan well suited to doing that type of thread in any case. It is generally too sloppy to be really meaningful for a thread with a pitch of 10 thou.... and it is not alone in that.

Feeds.... depends on your preference, but with feeds via half nuts, probably not an often used option anyway.

My big problem with it is not what comes with it, but that it is rather high priced. But I do not know the area it is in, and location is the biggest driver of prices. Could be a good deal for the area it is in.

morestainless · Nov 2, 2018

West Coast prices start out high. I don't see any Logan <$1000 that isn't toast in one way or another. If you aren't in a hurry, check the Bay Area auctions. I see machine tool auctions there 2-3 times a month. Or, wait for a Craigslist deal. I'm in WA (machine tool nowhere practically) and got my 840 for $400, with 2 bad qc gears. Easy fix.

gchristensen · Nov 18, 2018

Could you make recommendations. I am also interested in a clausing. would like something to turn parts and make some tooling on.

Thanks

gchristensen · Nov 18, 2018

where can I find listings for Bay Area tool sales and auctions?

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