# My Myford Lathe



## Nicolas (Oct 24, 2013)

I hope I am doing this in the right section of the forum 

This is my Myford ML7 lathe, I purchased this off Trade Me a few months back for a very good price.
It was made around 1972 and is still in quite good condition.
It came with a large number of accessories with the rarest of those being the Rodney Milling attachment. There was one of these on ebay recently which sold for 561GBP.
The lathe is pictured here with the Rodney attached.



I hope to learn much more about turning and milling here 
Thanks for looking.


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## portlandron (Oct 24, 2013)

Looks like a nice setup, should give you many years of service.


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## skyline1 (Oct 25, 2013)

Hi Nicolas

You lucky chap

Your ML7 is in lovely condition 

I have one too but mine is a very old one, 1953 actually, She is older than me and called Millie (the Myford) 

they are fine lathes and will give you many years of service.

The only problem is that since Myford folded up a couple of years ago the price of spares for them is astronomical. A new company has bought all the Myford spares, most of the factory in fact, and they are charging ridiculous prices.

Regards Mark


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## goldstar31 (Oct 25, 2013)

Congratulations on getting your lathe. The first thing that jumped to mind was whether it came with a tailstock. Again, it would help if we knew what 'goodies' were included in the purchase.

As with Mark, I have one but it is a Super7 with the gearbox. However, I've had several ML7's and overhauled the earlier ML's.

As a beginner- I assume this- you should arm yourself with some books on your lathe. Not books written for any old machine but the Myford. The old boys who did so much for model engineering used Myfords almost exclusively and consequently you can safely follow the advice and the dimensions on some of the tooling suggested.
As Mark rightly mentions, Myford ran into financial problems and was bought out by RDG Tools. However, many of the missing tools which I assume you should get can be made from stock metal sections.
Whilst I have got Myford Myford bits now, I made a lot from the books of George Thomas, articles and book of Martin Cleeve, Sparey and Tubal Cain. Again, the ML7 manual is 'on the net' or as.

So you have made a wise choice. Perhaps you will drop me a note of your e-mail address and, if I am OK, drop you a specific reply to your questions.

Meantime enjoy- as many of us have done

Norman Atkinson


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## Nicolas (Oct 25, 2013)

goldstar31 said:


> Congratulations on getting your lathe. The first thing that jumped to mind was whether it came with a tailstock. Again, it would help if we knew what 'goodies' were included in the purchase.
> 
> As with Mark, I have one but it is a Super7 with the gearbox. However, I've had several ML7's and overhauled the earlier ML's.
> 
> ...



Thanks,
I have Ian Bradley's book on Myford lathes which I find very helpful.
I'd love to own a super 7 with gearbox one day but they are so rare here in New Zealand.
EDIT: I will take photos of the rest of the goodies tomorrow if I have time.
        When I am using the mill I take the tailstock off so it's not in the way


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## Nicolas (Oct 25, 2013)

skyline1 said:


> Hi Nicolas
> 
> You lucky chap
> 
> ...



Thanks,
I was very lucky to get it, it was a buy now on Trade Me for a very good price compared to what others are selling for.
I'll have to think of a name for my lathe too


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## don-tucker (Oct 25, 2013)

Congratulations,a super lathe in super condition ,I have had one for a few years now a super 7 with gearbox and cross feed,that's a lot of super,s isn't it &#128512;.
My brother has an old myford Drummond and made some lovely steam engines on it,
Don


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## Charles Lamont (Oct 25, 2013)

Looks in excellent condition. Suggestion: to make best use of the milling
attachment, you could do with a graduated handwheel on the leadscrew so you can move the table accurately in both directions. This is a Myford accessory. (Or you could go for a Digital Readout)


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## Nicolas (Oct 25, 2013)

don-tucker said:


> Congratulations,a super lathe in super condition ,I have had one for a few years now a super 7 with gearbox and cross feed,that's a lot of super,s isn't it &#128512;.
> My brother has an old myford Drummond and made some lovely steam engines on it,
> Don



WOW  
Would you mind showing a photo of it?


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## don-tucker (Oct 25, 2013)

I'll see what I can do Nicolas ,he lives a few miles from me and I would have to photograph it as he is not up with IT,he is 87 ,I put a lot of his engines in a post called "my brothers engines" if you are interested.
Don
Ps sorry to hijack the post


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