Bought a new toy, but it's not a bike...

[Nope.]

It's a Lathe! A Myford ML7 to be exact

Wanted one for a while for making up little bits like captive wheel spacers, crash bungs, foot pegs and the like. My neighbour happened to mention that he'd inherited one from his late father but had no time to use it so was looking to sell it. A Stanley trolley over the road and 500 of your British ponds later I had this plus a bunch of tooling in my garage:

https://c7.staticflickr.com/9/8641/28100169422_2d46686e54_z.jpg

The first thing to do was give it a once over, and it was mostly in pretty good condition as it obviously hasn't seen a lot of use. I noted that the drip oilers didn't really work and the belts definitely needed changing. Other then that I just striped, cleaned and re-lubricated most of the moving parts and polished up the handles a bit.

Then I fitted the new belts:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8752/28100167912_a823e52eb7_z.jpg

Which was a bit of a pain as you have to remove the main shaft out of the headstock which has two bearings on it. Not difficult just annoying.

Anyway, got the belts in and the covers back on:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8809/27588272264_2609228f5e_z.jpg

https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8810/28203866275_74af8de99f_z.jpg

Then I stripped and cleaned out the oilers, re-assembled them and low and behold they work a treat!

Then I wired it into a fused isolator switch and an emergency stop button and it's all set:

https://c2.staticflickr.com/9/8895/28203866265_dc88b7004d_z.jpg

Now I've got to go through the tooling and work out what it all is

I've also got to buy some round bar stock to practise on (stainless and aluminium) so if anybody has a cheap source for some other than ebay I'd appreciate it
____________________
2011 XT660Z Ténéré - 2003 YZR-R1 5PW (In Build)

[spikenipple]

That's a great price, congrats!

Cracking little bit of kit for what they are.

Put a pic of the tooling up and we can identify it for you
____________________
C50 > GN250 > XJ600 > SV650S K7 > 2001 RSV Mille R > MT-09, XR400R > 2005 Fireblade (trackbike) + 2022 MT-09 + ZXR400 race bike

[Pete.]

Tidy machine, nice to see one selling for a reasonable price instead of the outrageously inflated ones you usually see.

In your first pic, look just above the red knob at the top of the flat way. That black smear is right where the bed gets ground away by the grit getting under the saddle and creates a low spot. Keep the flat ways cleaned and oiled and never use a grinder to cut stuff off in the chuck.

Get a quick change toolpost and some holders before you commit suicide from frustration. You can get a set pretty cheap about £100 which will suit. And as Spikenipple said put up some photos of your accessories.
____________________
a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[Pete.]

https://www.gumtree.com/p/lathes/t37-dixon-type-quick-change-tool-post-for-myford-super-7-lathes/1177382453

£70 toolpost with 4 holders
____________________
a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[Nope.]

[Pete.]

Okay, here goes.

Fixed steady - handy and valuable. Seems to be missing it's fingers unless they are separate
Milling slide - handy again and valuable with the vice on it.
Long round thing looks like aplug gauge - worthless
Holder with a round rod is internal boring tool
Large bolt in a housing - -no idea
Coach bolt with whirly thread is a sleeper bolt off the railway - scrap
Metal base thing with little sliding pins is part of a surface gauge. Should be some long rods with it with a hinged joiner. One rod will have a ball end. Handy if you have the rest.
Shiny long thing with slot is a morse taper reducing sleeve - looks too big for your ML7.
Morse taper drills in a pot
Long thing with cone head is a countersink, handy for de-burring holes again looks too big for a ml7
Couple of reamers and some kind of clamp effort, pretty useless that bit
Tidy small angle plate
Large morse taper drill - scrap
Selection of lathe turning tools - look to be mostly high carbon steel old stuff.
Round pointy thing is a centre - fits in the tailstock to support the end of long work in the chuck.
Channel section thing looks like part of a small pipe bending jig or a home-made bending vee
Grey thing with two pointy fingers is a travelling steady - useful and valuable
More lathe tools, a rusty old half centre.
Outside jaws for your 3-jaw chuck. You wind out the jaws and swap them over for holding on the outside of large diameter parts.
Knurling tool, for putting a grippy surface on round bar.


HTH
____________________
a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[331X2]

Just an opinion but I'd be more inclined to fix the E-Stop button to the front of the stand so you don't have to reach over the machine to push it when the shit hits the fan.

Looks clean, well done on scoring a non-ebay priced ML-7

[B5234FT]

Very nice machine and as others have said, a steal at the price with some tooling!

You'll spend the same again in the next three months I guarantee!

[Nope.]

[Pete.]

If you do swap the chuck jaws you should notice that they are numbered 1,2,3. Some chucks have the position stamped on them, others don't matter but what always matters is that you have to engage no1 with the scroll first then no2 then no3. If you don't they won't meet in the middle and anything you grip in them will run miles out of true.
____________________
a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[colink98]

Do you have any pictures of things you have made with this ?
____________________
PCX125 (stolen) - CBF600 (current)
Ride it like you stole it.
ride sensible and not like an idiot and you wont get 6 points in one week.

[Nope.]

[Pete.]

Good stuff!

If I can make a couple of suggestions:

Looking at your swarf it's quite hard and stringy which suggests perhaps a fairly gummy material. You can improve things a lot by increasing your rake angles on the tool quite considerably. I can see that you've ground a tool designed to cut left and right but you should use two separate tools.

The flat top is causing you problems by tearing off the metal instead of cutting it off. Harder materials like steel don't mind this tearing so much but your soft ally bar isn't happy about it and I bet the lathe motor isn't either and I can see evidence of weld-up on the point of your tool.

Take your tool and grind the front relief to at least 10 degrees, even up to 15. It looks to be about 3 or 4 right now, normal is 7 but you can go way past that on soft ally. If you imagine that tool as cutting from right to left, the front relief will be on the left flank of the vee point. You need extra relief on that front face to allow the tool to cut, otherwise the face will rub under feed and that's probably the cause of your less than perfect finish.
Now do the same for the top, grind it sloping down away from the cutting edge by at least 10 degrees as well. This will present a sharper cutting edge to the work, reducing load on the motor and allowing you to increase the feed rate and rpm without getting that weld-up on the tip you've been suffering. Try it - you'll be amazed at the transformation in how the machine cuts.

And reduce your tool stick-out to the minimum you need to make the cut. That will reduce the risk of chatter, provide a better finish and make it less likely to break the compound slide if you get a jam-up.
____________________
a.k.a 'Geri'

132.9mph off and walked away. Gear is good, gear is good, gear is very very good

[ZebraDriver]

Looking at the picture you posted showing the power supply to the machine it looks like you have put the emergency stop in the feed to the machine. Does the machine start by re setting the emergency stop if you leave the rotary switch in the on position?

[Beehive Bedlam]

Make me a rack to house two decent sized panniers and a top box for my FZS 600.

£100.

[colink98]

[colink98]

[Gone but not forgotten]