Member postings for Colin Spence

Once you have made a good machine out of the two, you can use it to make some of the bits forn the cripple to make it saleable.

Sorry to here that someone started to bastardise it by adding some metric hardware.

That makes things confusing for anyone who comes after!

Some of these bodges take moore work to put right than if they had left well alone. $ hours to undo bodge and repair, then 90 minutes to repair the original faukt, if you are lucky.

Howard

Howard,

The latest ML4 thread was indeed 1⅛" x 12 TPI, Whitworth profile, as later used on the ML7. The register was 1⅛" diameter rather than the ML7's 1¼".

Quote: " I used one of the genuine ML4 gears as a drill jig, by drilling right thriugh and locating this on a stud over the 7 Series gear. Keep away from the keyway! " - Yes. it works, but I found that when using the gear with the new through-hole, the drive pin tends to escape. I ended up putting a grub screw (M3 from memory) to block the hole off again.

George

Unfortunately a lot of the bolts and screws have been changed for metric and other bodges, really hope I can revive it.

Colin

Colin,

Something odd about the serial number you quote. My Dad bought a new ML4 in 1945; the serial number on that lathe was D 2382. The spindle and 25 T gear fitted to it at the tumbler end were both stamped with the number and other castings etc were also so marked.

The motor drive unit is pure ML4.

Enjoy bringing it back to working order

Regards Brian

Welcome, Colin. If you haven't already done so, search this site for ML4, followed by ML3, ML2 and ML1. You will find a wealth of information, some of which might prove useful.

Since your lathe has a serial number, it is most likely to be a relatively late ML4. Earlier lathes weren't numbered, and the ML4 is by far the most common version

George

Hi,

As it is a long bed and appears to have a bronze bush bearing on the headstock spindle it is a ML4.

The damaged / repaired gear is part of the backgear system that provides low spindle speeds.

Robert.

Lathes.co.uk should have pics to identify which model you have. They also list a lot of serial numbers for some models.

There is also a MyfordLathes group at https://groups.io/g/myfordlathes/topics that has a lot of info on older Myfords both from members postings and in the Files section. There is also a Myford Lathes Facebook page with members with earlier Myfords who may be able to help.

The bottom pic you posted is the tumbler reverse mechanism that goes somewhere at the top of the quadrant on the headstock and engages with the gear on the end of the main headstock spindle. It's purpose is to reverse the direction of the leadscrew for cutting left hand threads or feeding left to right etc.

A good book to give you the basic layout and terminology and how to use lathes of this vintage is The Amateurs Lathe by LH Sparey. Available I think from Tee Publishing.

Hi Colin, welcome to the forum. How to add photos is a little strange, instructions here.

Dave