hello from Scotland, and some advice saught

[dontgetoutenough]

hi
ive recently got hold of a myford ML4 i think.. it appears to be in pretty good condition
for its age as i can find little about it, ive done google and the myford page which is quite good
it does have an ID mark YC405

i would be hoping to learn on small projects and work up to something steam related

there is 'almost' no play in the slides, the main bushes are tight, it came with a variable speed gearbox and motor
at some point i will get rit of the gearbox as a sparky friend of mine has promised to sort an electronic controller for me

it is missing the toolpost, as well as the morse taper/chuck, this is where i would apreciate some advice as to which size the morse is, and what toolpost to get if any particular size is needed
and which basic essential first must have's do i need to machine as at the moment ive only a chuck key and some allu stock

thanks heres some pics

 

[Maryak]

dgoen,

Welcome to our forum. wEc1

Best Regards
Bob

 

[tel]

Welcome dontgetoutenough - that's a nice little example of the early Myford there. The toolpost doesn't appear to be missing anything other than the spring that goes under the clamping plate - that's how they were done.

The MT chuck? The drill chuck for the tailstock you mean? Again, that is an add on and was never supplied with the Myford. You need to get a chuck AND an arbour - the socket in your tailstock should be 2MT so an arbour with that on one end and a JT or whatever to fit the chuck on the other. Plenty of those about. RDG in Yorkshire should be able to fix you up Mucho Presto at a reasonable cost.

http://www.rdgtools.co.uk/acatalog/DRILL_CHUCKS.html

 

[rake60]

Welcome to HMEM dontgetoutenough.

Rick

 

[PaulG]

dontgetoutenough, Welcome

Paul

 

[jim216]

Is this it ? Bottom of the page,

http://www.lathes.co.uk/myford/page12.html

 

[dontgetoutenough]

thanks for the welcome
im pretty sure its that last one, ill get some more pictures up later after ive cleaned up the destruction ive made

 

[dontgetoutenough]

 

[zeeprogrammer]

Welcome to the forum dontgetoutenough.

 

[b.lindsey]

Welcome dgoe, beautiful little lathe and that looks like a vintage motor driving it as well.

Bill

 

[dontgetoutenough]

thanks again, im hoping to learn from the wealth of knowledge here

that is not the motor pictured but a variable speed gearbox, ive just had it running and all seems
well, only the feed was pretty quick making rough cuts, iv'e no change gears but assume that changing that would slow it down a tad
time to buy some supplies

ive decided my first project to make some oilers as one is original and the other a very bad fit

 

[Blogwitch]

D,

It can be a little difficult to actually trace what lathe it actually is, as so many were made up of bits and pieces to help the war effort.

The main two clues are the distance between centres and whether the main head is removeable or cast into the main body of the lathe.

The main restriction with some of these versions is usually the spindle nose thread. Most were made with a 1" main spindle, and a smaller, I think, 7/8" thread, rather than some of the models which had the later larger spindle, and the standard Myford 1 1/8" diameter by 12 tpi. You need to take off the chuck and check. If it is the smaller version, it will mean you will have to make your own backplates if you want to mount other chucks, as the backplates are like rocking horse crap, unobtainable.

I think you might find that the standard MT for the tailstock is 1MT, but again, because of so many weird breeds, it could be the later 2MT. That will need to be double checked before ordering any bits for fitting into it.

If the head is kept well lubricated, they can turn out outstanding work, but they do have a very nasty trait. The saddle feed isn't instinctive, opposite to a normal lathe, when you turn the handle backwards towards the tailstock, the saddle moves towards the chuck. That caught me out a few times, until I put an intermediate gear into the saddle feed train and made it instinctive.

With a little work, and a bit of commitment, they can be turned into a great little machine.

I got mine to easily cut left hand threads, had 12 speeds, plus resettable dials, even on the tailstock.

Bogs