Member postings for Chris Bill

@Hopper It appears I have the ML7cross-slide then, but as it came with the machine I do not know from where it was sourced. Based on wear on original feedscrew nut and alignment issue I am experiencing I THINK the issue remains that the mounting bracket holes are incorrectly positioned (roughly 3/32" off center at all travel positions) with respect to the feedscrew nut center. I've hogged out the bracket a bit which has improved cross slide movement.

I left some ebay feedback for the feedscrew seller - postage is quite steep from the UK to Italy so unless the seller will cover 100%, I will probably move on to sourcing this somewhere else or making my own without BSF threads on the end. The BSF threads of the original feedscrew are making it hard for me to make improvements - again, expensive postage makes it annoying to buy a BSF tap and die set.

Chris

Hi folks,

I bought myself a nice bottle of tap and die cutting oil figuring this would work for me on the lathe. VERY sticky stuff and tool performance DOES improve when used. However, it is so sticky that it seems to retain chips on the tool that I'd rather see fall off and not get gummed into the work piece. Any advice from this august forum (short of coolant spray - not ready to embark on that mess).

Thanks!

Chris

Does this get you down to the headstock pulley nipple? That's the one place that has me throwing my hands in the air and accepting that I might need an oil gun.

So I think it came down to a fit-finish of the feed screw. Looking closer, I see what I believe to be some chatter on the major diameter of the screw. Also, the edge between major diameter and where the pitch descends is quite sharp. Any 'rocking' of the feedscrew within the nut immediately causes it to bind. I ran the screw through the lathe with a file riding on the sharp edge and got some improvement in cross-slide movement.

The cross-slide gib was set without the feedscrew engaged, so I'm pretty confident it's not gib adjustment related.

@A Smith, unsure if this is the ML7 orS7 long cross slide. It was on the lathe when I bought it, though the original owner had never added the long feedscrew to match.

@John P part bought from myford_ltd on Ebay. I will say I was quite upset with how it shipped - a long, narrow tight-tolerance screw was put in a bubble-wrap lined bag. No box, so high probability of getting bent in transit.

I ended up filing down the bracket - things got better but only near full insertion of the lead screw. 'Lead's me to believe I've sorted out the alignment issue - remaining stiffness when lead screw is sticking way out (where alignment should be less of an issue) may be due to poor manufacturing tolerances (aren't all the new Myford parts getting made in India?). I backed off the gib strip screws to control for this, no change.

I don't have thread wires for micrometer measurement of minor diameter, but I may try to get a caliper on the threads tomorrow to see if I can get a repeatable result on the minor and major diameters at each end tomorrow and see if this shows anything.

@Hopper good advice. Based on the old nut also showing signs of wearing in to a misaligned status I'm willing to bet that any out-of-squareness starts with the bracket, but will get out the square and have a go.

As an add-on, I was surprised at the amount of wear on the bottom of the saddle from eating chips the way wiper didn't catch. I may be in the market for a new saddle before this is all done.

*Saddle - not apron. I had to drill out the saddle for the long feedscrew. Anxiety-inducing for sure.

Hi all,

I just replaced my imperial, standard length feed screw on my ML7 for the long cross slide metric one.

Immediately I noticed the cross slide has become EXTREMELY tight. Stepping backward in the assembly I noticed that tightening down the knob holding bracket (not sure of real name) caused deflection in the feed screw, which spun quite freely before being assembled.

I went back to the old feedscrew and examined it - the wear pattern in it seemed to support this as the screw 'rocked' within the nut even if the end-play was not significant.

Has anyone had any issues where the Myford feedscrew bracket was not correctly alligned? Shimming it out doesn't seem an option as the hole in the bracket is quite tightly toleranced against the feedscrew and would cause binding.

I'm hoping for some advice before I go back and oval out the holes on the mounting bracket - I'd hate to go modify original parts (beyond having to drill out the apron for the long feedscrew :/

Thanks!

Thank you all for the abundant responses. I'll post some photos when I finally overcome indecision and blue something.

I guess substitute 'make it look nice'. I'd heard that gun blue helps create a surface that better retains oil thereby fighting corrosion when properly cared for but I'm newer to this hobby than pretty much anyone else here, so open to suggestions.

Hi all,

Looking to purchase some blueing solution (gun blue) to start preserving some of the steel I've been turning. Does anyone recommend a particular brand?

Thanks!

Thanks Dave and Clivel. I see that the PP1081 (same website) states it's meant for oil whereas the PP632 is for grease. You've obviously had good experiences with the PP632. Has the 1081 been tried?

Times like this I wish I lived in the UK - postage to Italy from UK is a fairly flat rate but not cheap. I'm trying to lump up a number of purchases from a single vendor so I'm not spending 50% of the bill on postage. On a few occasions this will likely influence my make/buy decision towards the former.

Any experience with just pulling the oil nipples to add oil then replacing?

@clogs Neat idea just giving up on oil fittings and covering with magnets. Do you have any swarf entry issues?

@Emgee/Howard - thanks for the oil gun advice. It's a shame that shipping from UK to Italy usually costs around 20-30 euro. That's stopped me from picking up a number of cheap add-ons to my ML7.

@Noel This is probably in my future if I don't go the oil cup route.

Hi all,

Proud new owner of a Myford ML7 Tri-Leva. Or maybe it owns me?

I've read what I could find on how to keep this thing oiled up. I still have the stock oil nipples on the machine and drip oilers on the head-stock. Head stock oilers seem to work as evidenced by the puddle under my lathe in the morning. Question I have is regarding the oil nipples. I am stuck between the following options:

1) Fork over 100 for the Wanner oiler

2) Change out oil nipples to oil cups

3) Upgrade the 2BA nipples AND get the Wanner oiler

4) Something I haven't considered....

Any advice welcome.

Hi from Napes, Itay!

Just purchased a Myford ML7 and am having fun getting it up and running.

Probably most urgent question for the group: opinions on changing out 2BA oil nipples for oil cups on the ML7? It's that or drop some cash on a Wanner oiler from what I can tell.

Regards

Chris