18-07-2011, 07:38 PM
Hi,
What sad news it is to hear about Myford. I own a very rare Myford it being an MF36. This lathe has a 36" bed and is one of only two known survivors of this model. After many; many years of abuse it was sold to me through eBay as in good condition.
When I finally got it home and assembled it proved to be a load of expensive scrap. The three jaw chuck has many hammer marks with one of the jaws a sloppy fit; all the gears are worn out in fact the 80T back gear had at one point been broken in two and welded back together; it was sporting a few gums. When I engaged the back gear the racket from the gear train was deafening. The half nut engaging lever and knob had been snapped off and were missing.
The carriage wound half way along the bed before stopping and refusing to go either way without a good push as the rack too was sporting a number of gums. the bed and cross slide is badly worn. The play in the headstock bearings was a joke and later after trying to do serious gear cutting I found under the dirt that the main headstock casting had broken across the front main bearing.
The mandrel and tailstock were not on friendly terms either as they did not align and still don't.
In spite of it's many problems I can and do turn out some very accurate work on this lathe but it is hard going. I have already turned new mandrel bearings from Tufnol and had the mandrel metal sprayed and returned to original specification. I have considered having a go at scraping the bed but to date have not had the time.
The previous people using this lathe and causing so much damage should never be allowed to touch a lathe again as they are nothing more than vandals.
I'm familiar with Tony's excellent website that Alan kindly gave the link to and have just been drooling over the following from the site;
http://www.lathes.co.uk/lorchschmidt/page2.html
It must have been absolute joy to own and use such a lathe from brand new. As an apprentice mechanical engineer with the National Coal Board I used to attend Wakefield Tech one day and two nights per week; I used to walk up Wood street and in those days there used to be an engineers shop near the bottom end of the street and I would spend ages looking at the brand new Myford's on display knowing that I could only ever dream of owning one. Myford lathes were not cheap but were toys compared to the Colchester I was trained to use at the Crigglestone NCB training centre.
A good lathe is a joy to operate and I do enjoy working on my Myford even though I call it names. I miss my Colchester Triumph though and might end up selling the Myford to replace it with another Colchester. I don't know the model of the Colchester I trained on but it was a beauty; I do remember it had a lever mounted on top and to the front rear of the headstock that gave variable speed control; the training centre had a bank of these lathes and all were in first class condition in fact they looked new.
I like machines and lathes are the daddy of all machines; once you start to use the Lorch David it will open up a whole new world for you.
Kind regards, Col.
What sad news it is to hear about Myford. I own a very rare Myford it being an MF36. This lathe has a 36" bed and is one of only two known survivors of this model. After many; many years of abuse it was sold to me through eBay as in good condition.
When I finally got it home and assembled it proved to be a load of expensive scrap. The three jaw chuck has many hammer marks with one of the jaws a sloppy fit; all the gears are worn out in fact the 80T back gear had at one point been broken in two and welded back together; it was sporting a few gums. When I engaged the back gear the racket from the gear train was deafening. The half nut engaging lever and knob had been snapped off and were missing.
The carriage wound half way along the bed before stopping and refusing to go either way without a good push as the rack too was sporting a number of gums. the bed and cross slide is badly worn. The play in the headstock bearings was a joke and later after trying to do serious gear cutting I found under the dirt that the main headstock casting had broken across the front main bearing.
The mandrel and tailstock were not on friendly terms either as they did not align and still don't.
In spite of it's many problems I can and do turn out some very accurate work on this lathe but it is hard going. I have already turned new mandrel bearings from Tufnol and had the mandrel metal sprayed and returned to original specification. I have considered having a go at scraping the bed but to date have not had the time.
The previous people using this lathe and causing so much damage should never be allowed to touch a lathe again as they are nothing more than vandals.
I'm familiar with Tony's excellent website that Alan kindly gave the link to and have just been drooling over the following from the site;
http://www.lathes.co.uk/lorchschmidt/page2.html
It must have been absolute joy to own and use such a lathe from brand new. As an apprentice mechanical engineer with the National Coal Board I used to attend Wakefield Tech one day and two nights per week; I used to walk up Wood street and in those days there used to be an engineers shop near the bottom end of the street and I would spend ages looking at the brand new Myford's on display knowing that I could only ever dream of owning one. Myford lathes were not cheap but were toys compared to the Colchester I was trained to use at the Crigglestone NCB training centre.
A good lathe is a joy to operate and I do enjoy working on my Myford even though I call it names. I miss my Colchester Triumph though and might end up selling the Myford to replace it with another Colchester. I don't know the model of the Colchester I trained on but it was a beauty; I do remember it had a lever mounted on top and to the front rear of the headstock that gave variable speed control; the training centre had a bank of these lathes and all were in first class condition in fact they looked new.
I like machines and lathes are the daddy of all machines; once you start to use the Lorch David it will open up a whole new world for you.
Kind regards, Col.
