# Myford S7 Micrometer Saddle Handwheel



## moconnor (May 1, 2012)

Hi Guys,

I had ordered a* Micrometer Saddle Handwheel * from* Hemingway Kits * a few months back and it finally came last week. They order them in small quantities and were temporarily out of stock when I placed my order. However, it was worth the wait. It is by far, the nicest accessory that I have purchased for my Myford Super 7 lathe. The workmanship is just outstanding and the fit and finish are just beautiful. This is the link to the Hemingway page: http://www.hemingwaykits.com/acatalog/Micrometer_Saddle_Handwheel_-_Myford_7_Series.html







The design is by Graham Meek and I believe that the original construction article appeared in the UK publication *Engineering In Miniature* a few years back. I saw the reprint of the article in *The Home Shop Machinist Setember/October 2011 *  issue and ever since had wanted to fit one to my lathe. It also appears in Graham Meek's new book *'Projects For Your Workshop, Vol.1'.* It is a very clever design that utilizes internal gearing to "slow down the dial in relationship to the carriage travel." It is available in Metric or Imperial versions from Hemingway and the construction article provides complete information on building either version. It is a very complete construction article that even documents how to build the tooling to hold and cut the gears. This concept could be adapted to other lathes as well and Mr. Meek provides enough background information on the design that it could be applied to another lathe.

The reason I opted to buy the kit from Hemingway instead of building one is that I have numerous projects that need completion and it would have been quite some time until I could stop to build another accessory for my lathe. The Myford Super 7 lathe has a gap bed which really limits the usefulness of a conventional bed mounted carriage stop. It just doesn't allow the use of one near the headstock where much of the work is done. On lathes without the quick change gear box, there are several tapped holes available for a length stop attachment point, as can be seen on several of Ramon's work in progress photos. With the QCGB, there is precious little room available for a stop, although after doing some research back through *Model Engineer * and *Engineering In Miniature*, there have been several very good designs published in the past.

The Micrometer Saddle Handwheel has an adjustable micrometer collar and the graduations on my Imperial version are 0.010"/division and one revolution is 1.000" of linear travel along the bed. (Please see the Hemingway link for more information on accuracy, the Metric version, etc.) The graduations are wide enough that you can easily estimate to 0.005", which works great for quickly roughing a workpiece. It may not be the complete solution to accurate length control on the Myford all alone, but coupled with the usual techniques and my future length stop, I am confident it will do everything that I require of it. This will definitely make my Myford lathe a lot more fun to use and should speed up the machining time on many jobs considerably.

I can highly recommend this kit from Hemingway. Every part is beautifully machined to very high standards. The micrometer collar is ground and the graduations are crisply engraved. When assembled, it can be 'zeroed' very smoothly and the geartrain is silky smooth as well. The installation is very straight forward and the instructions are clear. The only machining required for the S7 is to drill and tap the existing handwheel shaft M5, which the instructions tell you that you can do without disassembling the lathe. Since I regularly (once or twice a year depending on how much cast iron I have machined) remove my leadscrew, saddle and apron to clean them, I opted to disassemble the lathe and remove the shaft which can be drilled and tapped in the lathe with the tailstock. The other important detail is to spend the time fitting the new hub and its keyway to the original shaft. This is just the usual deburring and fitting of parts. However, you want these to fit without interference because the assembly does have to be removed in order to access the apron oil fill plug, which is what is used to secure the new dial backplate to the apron.

Well done Graham Meek and Kirk Burwell from Hemingway Kits! Thanks for a great design and product.

Regards,
Mike


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## pete (May 1, 2012)

I don't own a Myford, But I've ordered 3 or 4 times through Hemingway kits and have been more than satisfied every time. It's a very good company, And Kirk the owner is a great guy to deal with. Shipping to North America is expensive, But that's got nothing to do with the actual projects and items Hemingway sells.

And Graham Meeks designs and writing style remind me very much of George Thomas's writing. Since it appears Graham knew and was friends with George, I guess that makes sense. I also consider George to be the finest writer of his time for and about items that interest us, That's the highest praise I could give anyone when comparing them to George.

Pete


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## lazylathe (May 1, 2012)

That looks like it belongs there Mike!
Great addition to an already great lathe, now only better! ;D

Only heard good things about anything that comes from Hemingway.

Andrew


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## moconnor (May 1, 2012)

Thanks Andrew.

I completely agree Pete. Graham Meek is one of the very best technical writers and model engineers in our hobby. I look forward to reading his articles, as I learn something everytime. I remember having to write an essay back in high school about if you could meet any person throughout history (living or not) and spend some time with them, Whom would it be? At this point in my life, George H. Thomas would be at the top of that list. I have learned a great deal from reading his articles and books and try to follow his example, using his "look and think" program as I work, to try to understand what is actually happening with the machining process at hand. His practical solutions and crystal clear explanations helped me a great deal to try to provide understanding and clear explanations to my students during the ten years that I taught the trade.

His books are the best resources out there for model engineering and if anyone here is unfamiliar with them, please check them out. You won't be disappointed.

*'The Model Engineers Workshop Manual'*
*'Dividing and Graduating'*
*'Building The Universal Pillartool'*
*'Workshop Techniques'*

By George H. Thomas

Note:* 'Workshop Techniques'*  is the latest edition and contains both *'Dividing and Graduating' *  and* 'Building The Universal Pillartool'* as well as some new material not before included in the others.

A number of his designs are on my short list of projects to get to.

Regards,
Mike


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## n4zou (May 1, 2012)

My Import lathe came with a saddle hand wheel micrometer similar to that one. It was near worthless because the marks were off far enough off I could never trust it. Then one day I figured out the dial marks were actually metric even if the manual and the dial said it was marked for thousands of an inch. I was making a part from a blueprint that was in metric so instead of using my inch dial indicator on the carriage I used my metric dial indicator. The hand wheel dial tracked the metric indicator perfectly.


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## pete (May 1, 2012)

Hi Mike,
High school was a long time before I first found and read G.H. Thomas. However I will 100% agree with you. I had to write those essays also And would today say the exact same thing. I would have very much liked to have met and talked with him multiple times. Once wouldn't have done it. A very intelligent man who had the rare combination of knowing the subject more than well, But was also able to clearly write about it. Very, very few can do both. 

I'm more than a little opinionated about the need for people to help themselves towards self education with good referance books about this hobby. I am not knocking the forums, And especialy not this one. They are very good. But they along with the hobbiest magazines can only go so far. I recently had an email conversation with David Clark the editor of Model Engineer and Model Engineers Workshop and he completely agrees with my points about this. The magazines and the forums have failed a bit about stressing just how important those referance books really are.

Referance material is and always will be a nessisary extra expense for this hobby. Books are in fact tools, And sometimes more important than any other shop tool I own. GHT's writings should be at the top of anyones list if they don't own a copy. And I'll say that for anyone here no matter how advanced their skill level is. They are that good. I've owned copies for over 20 years and I still reffer to them. Graham Meek IMO is possibly just as good. Maybe? better than George due to advances since GHT was writeing. The colour pictures are certainly better. I probably own well over 100 books about machining and specialised topics about it. By far GHT's books are better than anything else I own right now. 

Sadly Mike, Far too many people read comments about books like these and don't follow up on it. But your points about George are to me very much appreciated. It's rare to see someone today even mention his writings.

But I'll also apologise, I've got off on a topic far different than what you started this thread about.

Pete


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## moconnor (May 1, 2012)

Hi Pete,

You are not off topic at all. GHT's writings in ME were introduced to me by Guy Lautard back in the early 1980's, when I purchased the drawings and materials of his version of GHT's small rotary table. It got me curious enough that I started getting copies of his articles through the inter-library loan program. After reading about his modifications to his Myford lathes, I tried to apply as much of it as I could to my 9" South Bend lathe at the time. All along I dreamed about having a Myford lathe and one day equipping it with his tooling and modifications for model engineering. He was, is and always will be one of my heroes for his contributions to this community.

Graham Meek has taken advantage of the modern technology and his articles and designs are the current state-of-the-art.

There is no doubt that we stand on the shoulders of giants. George Thomas, J.A. Radford, T.D. Walshaw, Professor Chaddock, L.C. Mason, E.T. Westbury and Robert Washburn, just to mention the gentlemen who I will never meet and wish that I could have, have given this community so very much knowledge and I will always be grateful for what I have learned from them.

Thanks for the very thoughtful replies. I agree that these men don't get mentioned enough these days, although they really should.

Kind regards,
Mike


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## steamer (May 1, 2012)

That looks real slick Mike!

Dave


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## Graham Meek (May 7, 2012)

Hello All,

A friend of mine in London told me about this forum, I would like to thank you all for your kind accolades and I am glad you like my work. I too like so many others mourn the passing of a great contributor to the Model Engineering hobby and a dear friend George H Thomas. On one of my last visits to George I gave him a prototype of this Dial assembly for his own use, sadly it did not get fitted to his lathe but I do have somewhere his comments on the design, in fact I was in two minds to include these in my original article, in the end I decided against it.

I do find it very scary when I get compared with George, as in my own mind I feel I was just an apprentice when in his presence. He was like many of the others mentioned one of the old school who looked at many things from first principles, many times starting from scratch with no preconceived ideas and was not afraid to admit when he had got it wrong. I know I would not be where I am today if I had not known him, read his work and adopted his standards of workmanship. 

It is perhaps by coincidence that I have just finished the prototype of the Handwheel Dial for the Sieg C3/Warco lathe, I am hoping to post some pictures of this later this week on the ME Forum, and if I can fathom how to post photographs on this site I will share them with you, should there be an interest.

Once again thank you,
My best regards
Gray,


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## steamer (May 7, 2012)

Hello Gray,

Welcome!

Thankyou very much for your comments and your efforts! I think I can say we would love to see some pictures.

Almost Any photo hosting service will do. I use <www.photobucket.com> which is a free service, but there are other free ones out there.

If it becomes a chore, please send me a personal message and I'd be glad to help any way I can.

Kind Regards,

Dave (aka steamer)


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## pete (May 7, 2012)

Hello Gray,
And a welcome from myself too. I very much enjoyed your book I recently bought. While I never knew the man, I think George would be impressed also. :bow:

Pete


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## Ned Ludd (May 8, 2012)

Hi Gray,
As the friend in London, I too would like to welcome you.
I hope joining more forums (fora?) will not keep you away from the important work in the workshop. 
Ned


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## steamer (May 8, 2012)

Hi all,

Gray sent me these pictures. He's working on getting a image hosting account, but wanted to show the minilathe version of this attachment.

Gray, please expound on them! 











Beautiful!
 :bow:
Dave


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## Graham Meek (May 9, 2012)

Hello All,

First my thanks to those who have given me a warm welcome, in particular Dave for his help in loading these photographs and his guidance for loading photo's in the future.

The dial above follows closely that of the Super 7, and is in fact the same external dimensions. The gearing inside however is different due to the differing distances moved by each model of lathe, the gearing has been greatly simplified thanks to conversations with Anthony Rhodes who suggested an easier route.

As with all things in life there is a compromise, these dials are no different, the metric dial graduated 0-25mm with 100 divisions actually moves 24.992mm or is 0.008mm short. The inch version graduated 0-1" again with 100 divisions actually moves 1.0019" an over travel of nearly 0.002", so these are the compromises. I think myself in use no-one will be aware of these defects unless there are several rotations of the handwheel when an allowance could be made either way. Both dials like the S7 can be zeroed at any point as this dial employs the same friction spring arrangement. The backplate is attached to the apron with two M4 Capscrews the counter-bored holes for these can be seen in the plate which is laid down in the photograph. The other two holes are the locations for the idler gears depending on whether it is an imperial or metric version, all gears are 40 DP and the ball race is added to hold everything square as well as improve the handwheel bearing. Two M4 grub-screws at 90 degrees to each other impinge on the existing handwheel shaft to provide the drive from the handwheel, this then completes the fitting requirement other than a couple of dimples or flats for the grub-screws to lock onto. I am currently in the process of writing this up for publication, my memory being such that I have to get the details down whilst they are fresh in my mind.

I hope you have enjoyed this little taster. To my dear London friend Ned, thanks for sharing this site, time in the workshop may actually increase in the near future and possibly my time at the computer.

My best regards
Gray,


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## steamer (May 9, 2012)

Your welcome Gray.  If you get hung up with the photo stuff, let me know.....we LOVE photo's! th_wwp th_wwp
 ;D

Dave


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## tel (May 9, 2012)

Welcome Gray


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