Member postings for Shaun Belcher

Thanks. That worked.

I've been reading several threads, but none make any sense to me. Every motor is different and I have no idea what each terminal goes where without the wiring diagram.

I also forgot add that there is no capacitor on this motor like is sometimes seen on these.

I've got a bandsaw that had a dead motor and have a spare vickers motor here to swap it with but it turns In the opposite direction.

Any ideas on how to wire these in reverse?

I'm pretty sure it's possible but the original cover is missing which would have had the wiring instructions.

I only really went with stainless because it was harder wearing and keeps a good shine, aluminium would have been far easier to machine.

Your right about the overhang, I have no idea how far is too far, but I did end up using the tailstock when I could, especially with the stainless.

Main problem I found was I didnt want to cut it down smaller as I feared I would have less material to work with in the chuck, since you loose alot just with the bit you have to waste in the chuck itself. Perhaps there are other ways around this, but the biggest issue i found (particularly with smaller parts) was that the tailstock gets in the way of the saddle/crossslide when you try and make a cut.

Yes you definitely need to be careful of the swarf, stainless seems to be the worst metal ive ever dealt with, it helps if you stop cutting periodically to reduce the length of the swarf that comes off, I was being a bit careless here, but had been cleaning it up at times, there was a huge pile on the floor that filled a couple of bags and it was razor sharp. What actually happened on this photo was a long piece of swarf spun on the chuck and then picked up the rest of the stuff i had sitting on the bench and it flung everywhere. I got showered in the stuff.

It also came off the lathe when cut extremley hot.

I dont think i had the greatest tooling either, my HSS parting tool would not cut the stainless at all and just melted and i needed to use a hacksaw instead.

I have just been getting by with a boring bar with a CCMT tip.

Need to find out whats the best kind of tooling to use on this too.

Firstly, I should start off by saying i literally have zero experience with lathes and/or machining other than what we did at school and even then they never taught us anything about using them.

I recently purchased an ML7 that was in rather poor condition, and seen serious abuse, but for the most part still has a fairly good bed with little wear that I can tell.

The feedscrews were totally shot, and one handle had been re-attached with a pin put through rather than threaded on.

Dials were sloppy and imperial, so decided my first project on the lathe should be to make some upgrades if nothing else!

Photos are sorta self explanatory, but basically I machined some dials out of stainless which was a very difficult job, having gone through several CCMT diamonds to cut these out!

End result was well worth it however and it now runs on a roller bearing that should stop wear on the face of the casting.

I made my dials similar to other designs people have shared on here, they are yet to be engraved, but have fitted it for testing out.

I made new bronze nuts and got my neighbour to machine the rest of them out on his CNC mill.

The threaded rod is an off the shelf item that costs next to nothing and is a standard 2mm pitch trapezoid threaded rod at 10mm diameter.

Im 99% sure this is what myford solutions are making their feedscrew kits out of, all I had to do was machine the ends down to the correct size and tap the threads.

See photos below:

And just something to be careful of when machining stainless, you get heaps of steel wool that needs to be kept away from the chuck or this happens!

Edited By Shaun Belcher on 20/09/2021 06:51:37

Your right, it was essentially a grease gun that myford supplied and never designed to hold oil. I have since bought an oil gun from some german company that some recommended here. I havent had to use it yet but i believe you need to lengthen the shaft of it to reach one or two of the harder to reach nipples.

And as far as and difference between oil and grease attracting dirt, ive found this to be the same between both also.

Ive found a fine wire brush does a great job of cleaning shavings off the leadscrew. I will stick with grease, it seems to do the job and you dont need much of the stuff to work its way all over the leadscrew either.

Anyway, I just fitted both the new feedscrews to the lathe yesterday and they are working great!

All been lubed with moly grease and should last a fair few years I would say.

lol yes, i see that now. Makes alot of sense, i really need to get a good hard copy of this manual printed.

I have been doing a bit of work on this lathe, the old feedscrews were shot and I was barely able to use it and managed to machine some new feedscrews on it along with the corresponding nuts and dials.

I will be creating a new thread on the work ive done so far, im hoping it will make it a breeze to use going forward, they were sloppy as hell before and almost chopped out entirely on those alloy nuts.

Thats extremley helpful thanks, and it confirms what I had been thinking. Note how it says to use the moly grease on the starred items if available in your area. This includes the feedscrews as well as the main leadscrew.

Since that its so difficult to reach the feedscrews easily, i think the moly grease would be a good option, especially since they are largely protected from swarf.

Not that I can see on my lathe.

I honestly dont know how you are supposed to oil these threads easily, you could point an oil can under the cross slide and squirt a bit from underneath if you wound it all the way out, but as far as the top slide goes, there is absolutely no way you could get to the thread that I can see to lubricate it.

Im totally confused now as to what oil goes where.

I originally thought that the thinner grade oil is used on all the nipples throughout the lathe, but if some of the nipples (especially the saddle) are meant to be used with the heavier grade oil, would that not mean i need a seperate oil gun filled with that type of oil as well?

Interestingly enough, I just found this link on another forum that points to (the old) myford website that specifies grease on the feedscrews.

https://web.archive.org/web/20101126032406/www.myford.com/ML7_spares.html

As quoted:

" 80163
Castrol moly grease - 500gm tub - ideal for changewheels, feedscrews and leadscrews
£5.93 "

Agreed.

I get it with the leadscrew (at the front of the lathe), since its exposed to all the swarf. My lathe has heaps of the stuff stuck to the leadscrew which is not the easiest to clean off and doesnt appear to have been greased, but covered in that "sticky" oil. I would imagine grease would be worse in this case.

It seems here that some are getting the leadscrew and feedscrews mixed up! The actual feedscrews on the top slide and cross slide are completley covered underneath the slide itself.

the only real way to lubricate them properly would be to pull them off and turn them upside down to apply on the whole thread as you cant even get to them while on the lathe.

My main concern was if using the wrong lube on them caused excessive wear, thats all.

Im also a bit confused with where to apply the thicker grade oil. It appears that its mostly used on the bed (do most people just brush it on?)

I thought the bed was lubricated through the oil nipple on the saddle?

This would mean I would need a pair of oil guns with the appropriate oil in each?

I know its probably been asked here before, but from what I could tell last time I checked is that you need H32 grade on the drip feed oilers and use it on all the oil nipples found around the lathe, and the more "sticky" K68 grade oil goes on the feedscrews and leadscrew shaft.

Since its quite hard to apply oil under the cross slide, is moly grease OK to use?

Im surprised that oil is actually used on the feedscrews, I thought it would run off rather easily. I think I read something about it lets swarf stick to it.

I get that with the leadscrew on the front, but on the cross slide and top slide, they are protected and it doesnt easily get under it to get in contact with the shaft.

OK, thats good to know, my rate is much higher than this i think.

It seems pretty vague regarding the drip feed rate setting for the oilers on an ML7 lathe.

I was told here that its common for them to fly oil out the bearings, but on myfords website they say its too high a feed rate if that happens.

I thought it was dripping out rather slowly, perhaps a drop or two every 10 seconds(i need to check again) but i have gone through almost 2 cups after about 6 or 7 hours of work on the lathe. Is this about right?

Its not that expensive to get stuff rechromed here if I want, I bought a used handle off ebay and by the time I pay for shipping to New Zealand, it cost me about the same as rechroming it anyway. Its cheaper if i send in a bunch of small parts to get plated in one go, but as far as originality goes, I suspect they are nickel plated anyway, which is super easy to do at home, just was wanting to check with others here.

Edited By Shaun Belcher on 25/05/2020 00:13:18

I know this is an old thread but im in the process of restoring my myford.

Can anyone confirm that these wheels are actually indeed chrome plated?

I suspect they may be nickel plated which if this is the case is easy to do at home.

If you take a good look at these handles, especially the one on the saddle, its still quite rough from the casting on the spokes. I dont think chrome would take very well to this, but the plating seems to be very thin and wears off with use, something that would not happen from hands very easily, the casting is painted, and no signs of plating on that part. I suspect they are just nickel or speculum plated.

Thats interesting to know.

Do you know if the newer models with bronze bushings can handle higher RPM than the older white metal bushings?

I wondered about that, my main concern was if there was play or wear on the bushings, i couldnt feel any movement out of it, so think thats OK, I was hoping I could have used the tailstock on this, but where I was cutting didnt allow the tailstock to reach.

I think I will definitely grab some HSS tooling soon.

I have seen that book thrown around quite a bit on here, so I may as well get a copy.

I have been recently given a couple of books titled "Newnes complete lathework" volumes one and two, they look well written, probably published in the 1950s or 1960s, dont see any date anywhere, but would be around the right period when myfords were popular.

It mentions some interesting materials for cutting tools such as stellite alloy.