Member postings for Nick Passmore

Many thanks Norman. Will pay close attention to small parts liable to escape!

Nick

Could anyone familiar with the Myford S7 help with a sanity check?

I would like to move the motor-drive belt-guard backplate a few millimetres further away from the countershaft mount (to suit a new 3-phase motor, the shaft of which is slightly short).

Have I understood correctly that the whole cone pulley and clutch assembly can be withdrawn without dismantling the clutch if I remove the grub screw from the cone pulley and the circlip next to that pulley? I could then introduce a couple of spacer washers behind the backplate.

I met him once. It would have been about 1978. I went with someone to interview him for the student paper. I was taking pictures and failed to sync the shutter to the flash so I ended up with 36 unusable narrow stripes . . .  

I remember his house being pretty grand.

I also lived next door to a man who had been his chief accountant. He told some stories about how the company was run that rather support Andrew's view!

Nick

Edited By Nick Passmore on 17/09/2021 09:23:23

Hello Paul.

Another Black Country boy here. Born in Gornal and grew up in Kingswinford. Been in exile in London since the late 70s.

Also not a model maker. I did once make an electric guitar (the best part of 50 years ago now) but I never got the neck straight enough to be able to tune it . . . .

I am indeed.

Many thanks.

Nick

Just giving this a bump in case Jacob sees it . . . .

If Jacob, who expressed interest in the Myford M-Type I am selling, is around could he PM me because I do not have his email address.

Nick Passmore

I'm old enough to have grown up using feet and inches and, although I can work in metric units, I can't really think in them. I think I was scarred for life by people using centimetres, which are neither use nor ornament.

It makes me smile when people on American websites talk about the UK having converted to the metric system. I assume they would be a bit surprised by both our pubs and our road signs . . . .

A few months ago I was talking to a highly-intelligent and well-educated young person (in their twenties) who described something as being about three metres long. I asked her how tall she was and after giving me a slightly old-fashioned look she said five foot seven. She couldn’t understand why I laughed.

And printers' points are actually a relatively recent standardisation. As Adobe PostScript became the (more or less) universal page description language from the mid-eighties on, its internal use of the ratio of 72 points to a standard inch became the norm but if you look at an old metal typescale from the days when Linotype, Monotype and many others still had their own page description languages (and when I was first working in publishing) you will see that 10 inches doesn't line up with 720 points by about 3/64".

Nick

Thanks very much for all these suggestions. I can't get at the underneath of the raising blocks but the exploded diagram is very useful.

Nick

Thanks Hopper, that does sound sensible. Does the grub screw hold the mounting plate to the pivoting bar or the bar to the lathe -- or something else entirely? I haven't been able to have a good look as there is a (home-made I think) shroud over the motor.

Nick

I have to move a Myford Super 7 off a bench (and then into a car, down a motorway and onto another bench . . . . )

It is sitting on raising blocks in a drip tray and is in quite an awkward corner. The nuts fastening the feet of the lathe to the raising blocks have come off easily enough but if the studs that pass through the feet and through the levelling screws could also be removed it would mean the lathe could be slid sideways much more easily without having to raise it another couple of inches to clear the studs.

(I plan to bolt two sturdy cross pieces to the underneath of the feet to make something to get hold of and to resist the machine’s tendency to tip towards the motor.)

My question is: should I be able to lock two nuts onto the studs and screw them up and out or is there a locking nut inside/under the raising block that is holding them firmly in place?

Thanks again for these suggestions. I did actually try moving the drill press into a corner — like Clive I find there are enough occasions when I need to drill a hole halfway along, for instance, a long wooden batten that it wasn't really workable.

Clive.

Thanks for the suggestion. There seems to be a good selection of these things on Ebay and some look as if they would be relatively easy to mount.

Nick

Larry, I reckon I would be able to move the whole thing back about 7in. I agree that’s not a huge amount but in a crowded workshop it would be welcome. Putting it at angle in my particular circumstances would take up even more room!

Dave, good point about balance. The thing does have a very solid base and is well bolted down but vibration might be another matter . . . .

John, thanks for the offer, I’d love to see the pics. I was actually wondering today about a separate idler pulley to tension the belt.

Nick

Thanks very much for these replies. The ball bearing hinges in particular seem like a possibility.

Nick

I have a Record drill press that I bought about 25 years ago. Its motor is mounted on a plate that has two steel rods that slide in holes in the back of the head casting. The motor sticks out quite a long way at the back which means the whole thing has to be positioned further from the wall than I would like and there is no lever to take the tension off the belt to change speed so I have to get a clamp and use it to pull the motor and its mounting plate towards the head casting.

I was wondering whether I could instead mount the motor to one side by bolting a fixed plate at the back of the head casting sticking out to the side of the head then attaching the motor in front of that and whether, instead of the old v belt, using stretchy round-section polyurethane belting would give enough play to change speeds without being so loose it would slip. I think 8mm round belt would fit the existing pulleys.

What are my chances?

Edited By Nick Passmore on 29/07/2018 16:49:24

Thanks Neil.

Very broad minded!

David

My M-type was chuckless when I got it so one of the first things I did was to buy a backplate, also from lathes.co.uk, and fit a four-jaw chuck. I think I got it pretty true but its jaws seem very, very tight so at the moment it's in bits getting a coat of looking over.

Nick

Hello Chris

I was Gornal born and bred so I think I can claim to be a true Yam Yam. Been down here in London nearly 40 years though so my kids dow spake proper . . .

Nick

Thanks David

I had seen some pics of your lathe a while ago and shamelessly stole the idea of the metal sheet, aluminium I assume, on top of a steel cupboard and have got hold of something similar but with two drawers on top of which my lathe now lives. I think I will copy the idea of the swarf plug next!

I see you also have some pictures from Bletchley Park. If you search the roll of honour on their website for Byrne you will find my mother's name there.

Nick