This morning I managed to make a couple of gear studs for the Myford ML7 I have just refurbished. If you want to see more then visit my Myford specific site. I managed to turn a couple of gear studs which have replaced the old style that came with the lathe. With the newly made studs I do not have to dismantle as much when gear changing.

My next project will be to resume the camshaft for the Seal engine and make inline boring bar and a tool setting device for the boring bar so watch thiis space. I will be producing drawings for both the inline boring bar and the tool adjustment fixture as part of my learning to use 3D cad software.

Well I am pleased to say the Myford ML7 lathe refurbishment and rebuild has been completed! My first piece of metal bar has been turned (see photo) successfully if nervously.

My first piece of metal turned following its refurbishment and rebuild

There are a few items still to be done but other than bolting the lathe down, they are just adjustments. Such as the main motor belt guard is catching the large pulley somewhere and the gear guard won’t go on because of the top filling/storage cabinet doesn’t give enough clearance when the gears are fitted.

I also have decided to make a new steel tool post and holder system as I have on my other lathe and two new gear studs as fitted to my ML10 and later ML7 lathes. Then there are the drawers and front door for the bench below and that should be about it. None of which stops me from using the lathe however the next job will be to bolt the lathe down and use the test procedure to make sure the lathe turns true before any serious work is started or done. However I must admit to a little smile at the smooth cutting of the aluminum……….

Today started with the fitting of the parts recently arrived from Myford (although some will have to go back as they are not correct). Starting with the fitting of the saddle and using the clever shims that cost around £5 each! Malcolm, from Myford told me when I ordered the parts that the shims come apart at around 0.015” a layer. They are separated by flicking the edge of the shim and then the layer pulled off. To shim the saddle you start at the back right hand side and using a dial indicator measure how much movement you get if trying to lift the saddle. The aim is to get under 0.0015” movement all around. The first attempt saw the saddle fit within the tolerance level set, however when trying to move the saddle the length of the available lathe bed, it became stiff when moving toward the tailstock. My immediate thought was the bed being worn more than I thought. Before making any further adjustments I remembered that I had only adjusted the saddle gib strip approximately and after a proper adjustment the saddle moved freely across its range with only about 0.001” movement of the saddle on the right hand front side.

The Myford ML7 shim, tear off 1.5 thou a time

Using DTI to gauge the shim size to fit under the saddle

With the saddle adjustment made the next job was to adjust the top slide and cross slide and then with a little trepidation I chucked some bar and made the cuts. I have enjoyed the refurbishment although I will be glad to get back to making the Seal 4 cylinder engine but that may have to wait for a few days since I will be helping my brother, Steve, with sorting our fishing boat out after all the smoke and oil that escaped from the engine after our last trip!

If you want to know more follow this link to our Dartmouth fishing site. If you are considering refurbishing your Myford then all I would say is go for it! Malcolm and Sarah at Myfords are a great help.

For the second day running I didn’t manage to stay out in the workshop for as long as I would have liked. However I did manage to pin the leadscrew and fit it permanently to the lathe so that was a positive. Even better was the smooth and free turning nature of the leadscrew after final fitting.

I decided that to cheer myself up, I would connect up the gear train and run the lathe at various speeds to ‘run in’ the new bearings of the counter shaft and leadscrew. However I was soon to discover that the gear wheel changing on this 1953 version of the ML7 had a really frustrating gear change set up! On my much loved ML10 (and the same for the ML7 according to the later manual I have) you simply unscrewed the retaining screw on the end of the pillar on which the gears seat. Not so my lathe! The screws on the end are in fact bolts on mine. They fit into two bolts with indents that fit into the rear of the gear casting. The hollow pillar through which the bolt goes then has another keyed bush that fits inside the keyway cut gear. The length of the pillar is more than the width of two gears and the screw is the same outside diameter as the inner pillar. So if you want to change gears you have to take the whole bolt, pillar and special nut off the casting.

Since there isn’t a lot of room between the casting and the lathe body this is a fiddly (bl*&^^y frustrating!!!!) job. I now understand why many owners either bought or built gearboxes! I will have to sort the problem out, but for now I have packed the gap with two large washers to fill the gap (about 3/16”) and a smaller washer for the bolt head to seat against. This works fine but it isn’t an ‘engineered’ solution (see I am getting posh now). It may be a simple case of reducing the overall diameter of the pillars (cant see that Myford would have allowed this situation so there must be something wrong –let me know) or buying a pair of ‘modern’ replacement fittings from Myford.

It may be just a ‘bodge’ from a previous owner which I suspect is the true reason for the discrepancy. However the gears were eventually fitted after discovering my driver gear may be an accessory rather than the standard gear. After much head scratching I found a set of gears that I had and would give a fine feed. I need another gear to get the finest feed, but I just wanted to get the leadscrew to turn over for now. And turnover it did, after all the oil nipples were given a generous amount of Myford recommended oil I rand the motor on a slow speed at first, in both forward and reverse directions, before speeding up, then varying the speed. The whole gear end of the lathe (I believe the tumbler gears are known for there noise) is a lot noisier than my ML10…….

However that may change with the gear cover on. The leadscrew seemed to run as true as it should with the naked eye. So I would consider the whole exercise a success in regard to making the new shafts and leadscrew. My thanks go to members of the HMEM forum for their ideas and support during this project and in particular to Peter who told me about a supplier for the leadscrew threaded rod. Whilst it is not finished, all the large ‘engineering’ tasks have been done leaving just a few items outstanding waiting for parts from Myford. I would say it is 90% finished and less than a days work left.

Fortunately I felt well enough this morning to get back out to the workshop and would love to show you  some photo's but for some reason (perhaps its like me and worn out!) the memory card has become corrupted and will not clear, so good old eBay to the rescue and a replacement has been ordered.

Today I managed to finish turning the last shaft, which fits between the leadscrew and the gear to turn the leadscrew itself. The joining adaptor was also bored and reamed to fit the new shaft. All that now remains to do on the leadscrew assembly is to mill the long slot on the recently completed shaft, and drill a couple of holes for roller pins and glue the joints.

The last few items to be assembled showed up more items that really should be replaced. The two under saddle plates in particular. Also no shims existed and these would definitely need to be installed. I could not locate the leadscrew nut for the cross slide and am not sure it was even there when the lathe arrived. So it was a case of phoning Malcolm at Myfords and make my third and hopefully final order. which means that whilst I should definitely complete the refurbishment in the sense of making new parts, the final assembly will have to wait upon the delivery from Myford.

It seems that it was a good job I phoned Malcolm as he very kindly explained the method of shimming the saddle. There are 5 shims needed and at just under £5 a piece they are not cheap at first sight. However they are made up of various layers and they can be stripped off to get the right size. I will do a write up of the procedure on my main website with photo's (fingers crossed!) next week and it is not simply a case of putting them between the plates and the saddle (I also took the opportunity of buying two new plates as well).

I did however use the Myford lathe for the very first time today! It may only have been to clean up the end of the new shaft from burr's but it was used! When the project is complete I will list the costs incurred and an approximation of the time taken. It may make 'interesting' reading.

I managed to get out into the workshop today, and spend the morning there. The two bushes for the left hand or gear end of the leadscrew were turned, bored and parted off to size with little drama.

When looking for material to make the shaft that fits the left hand side of the leadscrew, I could only find a piece that I had set aside for my boring bar! I will have to order some more stock for the boring bar as finishing the Myford refurbishment is my highest priority at the moment.

After setting the bar to run true in the four jaw chuck, with just enough showing to allow the DTI to sit on, it was faced off then centre drilled to allow the revolving centre to be used for turning. The 4 jaw was then opened enough to take the bar far enough out to turn the outside diameter to size over its length. With the live centre in place, the 4 jaw chuck was then tightened and set to run true again with the DTI.

Once the shaft was running true I started to make the first cut but couldn’t get the speed and feed to run without chatter. So I did the same as when turning the contra shaft, and ran the lathe very slowly at 90 rpm and the leadscrew at its finest setting. The length to be cut means that this is a slow job. Fortunately there isn’t a lot to take off and I do get a good finish using this method.

Whilst the Turner lathe was doing its bit I spent some time tidying up some of the outstanding jobs on the Myford, such as replacing oil nipples and removing the belt tensioning shaft, so it can be drilled and a new roller pin fitted. I did take the opportunity to also clean the parts and then apply metal adhesive, so it won’t need to rely on the roller pin to take the strain.

The gears that came with the lathe were checked against the sizes for turning the leadscrew at its finest feed (0.0018 from memory) and sorted the gears out ready to attach when the leadscrew is complete. I seem to have some additional sizes, 2 x 80 teeth and a 127 tooth gear! I am however missing a 75 tooth gear so will have to seek one out.

The gear guide was placed into the gear cover and secured and one or two other small jobs done reducing the work left after the leadscrew shaft is completed. I am hoping to complete the complete refurbishment by the end of next week subject as always to health issues. It will be nice to get back to building the seal engine and I am looking forward to making the camshaft using Steve Huck’s method and cutting chart.  Look back and see how I am getting on.

Only managed an hour or so in the workshop over the last few days but felt well enough to go out today and finish the last task on the new leadscrew. That of cutting the threads on the end of the right hans side of the lathe. Both ends have now been machined. The brass collet I made worked well and protected the threads fine. Next time I would part off another 1/4" long piece just for the dial indicator to rest on as the overlapping slots cut on the main collet did disrupt the centreing process. However it was nice to see that when cutting the threads down, that they all disappeared at the same time. Showing the leadscrew was running true. No real drama occured and this was more than likely down to the 'fear' factor of cutting the new leadscrew. It turned very well and a clean finish was achieved without too much problem. One interesting aside was the effect that turning a thread had on me. The way the thread looked to be moving toward the cutter started to make me feel a little sick! I had to turn away until nearing the end of the cut. The effect was soon reduced though as the thread was cut down. Once the bar was turned to size (using the half method) the thread run out indentation was cut using the parting off tool, and then the threads were cut on the end using a die. The new tailstock die holder is proving valuable and I would recommend them to you if you don't have one. They should be easy enough to make but its the time I am short of and they are not dear.

The front or left hand side of the leadscrew was then turned to size and the leadscrew removed from the 4 jaw with much relief. A start has been made on the new bushes required for the gear end of the leadscrew and hopefully if I feel up to it, they should be finished tomorrow. Hope to make a start on the shaft that fits between the leadscrew and gear end tomorrow as well.

The only large scale job left is the leadscrew and I am waiting for some reamers and other tooling to arrive before I can tackle that job.

The photo below shows the current state of play.

I did waste some time cursing a previous owner for the bracket made to hold the belt guard for the motor to countershaft. When fitted, the belt was off centre to the cover, but it was a simple case of the belt tensioning shaft being off and it should have been off centre! I only saw this after making a new bracket, then a spacer to put it exactly where the original bracket positioned it! Double Doh is an understatement.

Another silly waste of time was hunting down the bracing bracket between the motor base and countershaft casting. Where was it? Secured to the countershaft casting and just hanging loose! When putting the bracket to its position there was an obvious need to a spacer so I turned up a new one only to find the original on the table of spares later on! But that’s only to be expected when I am as dopey as I am at the moment.

Today I cleaned up and assembled the cross slide thread assembly and made a sheet steel shelf to attach to the splash back of the lathe stand. I wanted to bash a bit of metal and so I did, only making me worse that I was to start with……..so a week of unenforced errors really, no great drama’s just poor concentration and the little time I spent in the workshop, squandered. So it comes as a great surprise to see how much of the lathe has been completed.

Next week the reamers and other goodies will arrive and whilst I have had the cleaned (but hard used!)3 jaw chuck moving I may get to turn some bar on it by the end of the week! We will see as they say………..

On Tuesday the 3^rd February I had something of a mixed morning in the workshop. The anticipation of work that could be finished was far in excess of what was finished!

Not feeling my best, I thought I would test out how machine able the leadscrew was and what damage, if any the leadscrew would sustain in the chuck. First action though was to test it in by putting it through the half nuts on the saddle. Whist the Myford thread is perhaps a little more square at the top than the replacement It seemed to work fine and the half nuts closed with little problem.

 Happy that it would fit I placed the threaded leadscrew in the chuck, and with very little showing, faced it off. I am pleased to say it cut very well and no impression could be seen on the screw from the chuck jaws. However, because the area tested would be turned down later it didn’t matter if any damage was sustained I will still protect the shaft by either shim stock or make a thin brass collet.

The next task was to have a cup of tea and make drawings up with dimensions, for the jobs I had to do. This involved four drawings in all. Sounds grand, but just pencil on a ring bound note pad. Nevertheless by drawing up the job to do allowed me to check if I had all the required tools and stock material. Because this is such an important part of the lathe (and I didn’t want to buy another length of leadscrew) I wanted everything in place.

Just then our post lady arrived with the bronze material for the bearings, so one step forward. Looking to see what reamers I required I found that I didn’t have two of them, and since I only need two, that was a step backwards. I also searched out for a couple of split pins to suit and again I had none. So it started to look like it would not be full steam ahead quite yet. Not deterred too much I looked to see what I could actually make and the only item I found was the joining piece between the leadscrew and the gear change end of the lathe.

This was a relatively easy task, and after getting the nearest size stock I could, turned and parted off to dimensions. I didn’t bore out either of the two holes as I had not yet changed the 3 jaw for the 4 jaw chuck and those pesky reamers needed to be sourced. So after measuring the angle of the chamfer on the existing part I cut the chamfer on the new joining piece and since I wasn’t at my best, decided to call it a day and go in and order all the parts required and chase up the revolving live centre still outstanding from RDG Tools.

Wednesday wasn’t much better for me health wise and since parts were outstanding and I couldn’t do any more on the MGA wing mirrors, I had a day of rest.

As soon as I feel up to it and hopefully this corresponds with a couple of deliveries, I will concentrate on the leadscrew. This is the only outstanding issue for the Myford ML7 rebuild ass all other parts are to complete the build. The digital readouts will be delayed for a little while as funds need to be restored…..Luckily the chess set I made as a retirement present for my brother Stephen, has been accepted for an article to be published in the next couple of Model Engineer magazines starting with the issue on sale from the 13^th February. This will bring in some monies to go toward the DRO’s (after I have kept a bit back for the tax man!)

Whilst the rest of the country is buried under a lot of snow here in Brixham, sunny Devon we have just had a little flurry on one day but the rest of the time it has been raining. So Thursday we are attempting to go fishing for the first time in over 3 weeks (our longest spell other that holidays). If you want to follow our fishing exploits have a look at http://www.dartmouthfishing.co.uk

 Today I only managed to complete the lever that releases tension on the countershaft/headstock belt. It is surprising to me still on how much I underestimate time required for each task.

No real problems were encountered and I had a chance to use my tailstock die holder for the first time, and it was great. One problem I did encounter however was the size of the aluminum ball for the end of the shaft. My ball turning tool I built to make the chess set was too small for the size of ball I wanted to turn so a compromise size had to be made. However it will do the job and I can make a larger one if I want to later on when I make a Mk2 version.

When fitting the shaft everything fitted nicely so it was a job worth doing. The next stage will be to carry on with the rebuild.

Stop press: The leadscrew has just been delivered so tomorrow I will start on making the new leadscrew.