01-03-2012, 09:59 PM
Hi,
On eBay the Myford MF36 Precision lathe was described as in excellent condition with little wear. I was winning bidder and hired a Transit van to collect it from Wales. Inspecting it back home on the bench it was a heap of scrap. At this point I had over £600 in it and it had been badly abused. The three jaw chuck showed hammer marks; the saddle whilst slack at the chuck tightened up quickly along the bed until it abruptly stopped traversing mid way although the hand wheel rotated; the rack had gums instead of teeth.
The leadscrew engaging lever had broken off damaging its mounting and was missing; all the carriage slide ways were worn out and would not adjust. The tail stock was sloppy and didn’t align on center. One of the cast iron gears had been broken completely in half and had been welded. Other gears suffered gum disease; least of all the paintwork was terrible; all in all it was fit for melting down.
Over £600 worth of scrap.
I set it up on the bench and got it running. I was at the time restoring my AVO Wave Winder and was using the lathe to cut a full 45 set of cast iron change gears for the winder. The lathe played up from the start; sometimes it would take a deep roughing cut other times it made a mess of light cuts. Eventually I found the main headstock bearing housing to be completely broken as these lathes are prone to. I made a temporary clamp to secure the bearing cap and successfully completed the gears much to my relief. I’ll cover the headstock restoration as the story unfolds because I’m now into restoring two of these very rare Myford’s. I was exchanged the second Myford for a TV cabinet veneering job I still have to do. This second lathe is incomplete but the main items are present so hopefully I’ll eventually end up with two restored lathes.
A lot of work to do.
I’ve just sold 15 radios from the workshop and machines from the garage to free up some space. The lathes are in the garage and over the last few days I’ve completely stripped them both to their bare beds. My initial intention was to hand scrape all slides until I found out that a cast iron “Master” had a starting price of £280 on eBay. These masters are special cast iron straight edges of very high accuracy and are used with engineers blue to show high points which require scraping. The lathe bed ways are covered in blue and the straightedge gently rubbed onto the blue whereupon it removes blue from the high points showing where to scrape. These straight edges are either called straight or Camel Backed and it was a 48” Camel back type I saw on eBay and it was also a very old one so I didn’t even consider bidding on it at the extortionate price as it could have been way out of accuracy rendering it useless.
The incomplete lathe.
My chum Big Al (Alan Beckett) came to the rescue by suggesting a number of firms and I contacted one in Halifax not too far from where live. Slideway Grinding Services is the company and a price was agreed over the phone. The guy who bought my radios last week was to collect the beds in his van early this week and transport them to Halifax. As the weather has been excellent for a rare change I made the most of it and over last weekend started to remove all the paint from both beds using engineer’s scrapers; it was very hard going but I detest chemical strippers. At last the paint was removed but still no sign of the van man so I decided to spray one of the beds in etching primer. The following day there was still no sign of van man so I sprayed the second bed in etching primer. Now the beds looked much better.
Both beds stripped with one in etching primer.
This morning I decided I had waited long enough for van man and measured the inside of our Toyota Aygo. The beds are 53” long and heavy and I didn’t want to hire a van for two days to deliver and collect the beds costing around £80 in total with insurance. It was a glorious morning; warm and very sunny so the machines were soon earning their keep in the garage. Using off cuts of sheet material and wood I knocked together a platform to fit inside the car to spread the weight of the beds. By 11 o’clock the beds were loaded; a quick phone call confirmed the company was open so off I slowly went. Every road hump; pot hole; traffic light together with lots of traffic calming did little to calm my nerves during the journey. As I reached the outskirts of Halifax I stopped and entered the post code into the sat nav and the sat nav was brilliant taking my directly to the company. The beds were unloaded and on the way home I could stop plane spotting.
Both beds loaded into Toyota Aygo.
As I type there is still no sign of van man; I can’t remember the last time I asked anyone for help and I won’t be asking anyone else because these days it is common for people to break their word or promise; I was brought up the old fashioned way and my word remains my bond. Whilst I now wait for the beds I’ll begin restoring other bits and there are plenty of them. I must be a real sucker for punishment as I feel yet another saga coming on. I’ll try to add updates as work progresses but I thought I would add these notes as a starter.
Kind regards, Col.
On eBay the Myford MF36 Precision lathe was described as in excellent condition with little wear. I was winning bidder and hired a Transit van to collect it from Wales. Inspecting it back home on the bench it was a heap of scrap. At this point I had over £600 in it and it had been badly abused. The three jaw chuck showed hammer marks; the saddle whilst slack at the chuck tightened up quickly along the bed until it abruptly stopped traversing mid way although the hand wheel rotated; the rack had gums instead of teeth.
The leadscrew engaging lever had broken off damaging its mounting and was missing; all the carriage slide ways were worn out and would not adjust. The tail stock was sloppy and didn’t align on center. One of the cast iron gears had been broken completely in half and had been welded. Other gears suffered gum disease; least of all the paintwork was terrible; all in all it was fit for melting down.
Over £600 worth of scrap.
I set it up on the bench and got it running. I was at the time restoring my AVO Wave Winder and was using the lathe to cut a full 45 set of cast iron change gears for the winder. The lathe played up from the start; sometimes it would take a deep roughing cut other times it made a mess of light cuts. Eventually I found the main headstock bearing housing to be completely broken as these lathes are prone to. I made a temporary clamp to secure the bearing cap and successfully completed the gears much to my relief. I’ll cover the headstock restoration as the story unfolds because I’m now into restoring two of these very rare Myford’s. I was exchanged the second Myford for a TV cabinet veneering job I still have to do. This second lathe is incomplete but the main items are present so hopefully I’ll eventually end up with two restored lathes.
A lot of work to do.
I’ve just sold 15 radios from the workshop and machines from the garage to free up some space. The lathes are in the garage and over the last few days I’ve completely stripped them both to their bare beds. My initial intention was to hand scrape all slides until I found out that a cast iron “Master” had a starting price of £280 on eBay. These masters are special cast iron straight edges of very high accuracy and are used with engineers blue to show high points which require scraping. The lathe bed ways are covered in blue and the straightedge gently rubbed onto the blue whereupon it removes blue from the high points showing where to scrape. These straight edges are either called straight or Camel Backed and it was a 48” Camel back type I saw on eBay and it was also a very old one so I didn’t even consider bidding on it at the extortionate price as it could have been way out of accuracy rendering it useless.
The incomplete lathe.
My chum Big Al (Alan Beckett) came to the rescue by suggesting a number of firms and I contacted one in Halifax not too far from where live. Slideway Grinding Services is the company and a price was agreed over the phone. The guy who bought my radios last week was to collect the beds in his van early this week and transport them to Halifax. As the weather has been excellent for a rare change I made the most of it and over last weekend started to remove all the paint from both beds using engineer’s scrapers; it was very hard going but I detest chemical strippers. At last the paint was removed but still no sign of the van man so I decided to spray one of the beds in etching primer. The following day there was still no sign of van man so I sprayed the second bed in etching primer. Now the beds looked much better.
Both beds stripped with one in etching primer.
This morning I decided I had waited long enough for van man and measured the inside of our Toyota Aygo. The beds are 53” long and heavy and I didn’t want to hire a van for two days to deliver and collect the beds costing around £80 in total with insurance. It was a glorious morning; warm and very sunny so the machines were soon earning their keep in the garage. Using off cuts of sheet material and wood I knocked together a platform to fit inside the car to spread the weight of the beds. By 11 o’clock the beds were loaded; a quick phone call confirmed the company was open so off I slowly went. Every road hump; pot hole; traffic light together with lots of traffic calming did little to calm my nerves during the journey. As I reached the outskirts of Halifax I stopped and entered the post code into the sat nav and the sat nav was brilliant taking my directly to the company. The beds were unloaded and on the way home I could stop plane spotting.
Both beds loaded into Toyota Aygo.
As I type there is still no sign of van man; I can’t remember the last time I asked anyone for help and I won’t be asking anyone else because these days it is common for people to break their word or promise; I was brought up the old fashioned way and my word remains my bond. Whilst I now wait for the beds I’ll begin restoring other bits and there are plenty of them. I must be a real sucker for punishment as I feel yet another saga coming on. I’ll try to add updates as work progresses but I thought I would add these notes as a starter.
Kind regards, Col.
Happiness is a wreck of a cabinet to restore.
