Member postings for DMR

Andrew,

You can buy lengths of Acme threaded bar leadscrew from industrial suppliers and cut it to fit your lathe, but you will need a bigger machine than yours to form the ends.

Dennis

Brian,

Towards the tailstock. If you PM me I will send you the relevant early manual pages that you don't have. Cannot comment on your cheap bearings. I do know that whatever you try you will still have oil spreading about. I replaced my early clutch assembly years ago with the modern version and I can say it was definitely worth it. You have a PM anyway.

Dennis

Brian,

Search for 'Super 7 bearings" and you have the answers. Lots of good info. I found this one quite quick: which I quote:

"They where purchased from Simply Bearings, Leigh, Lancs tel 01942 269837 and they are a very friendly crowd. The numbers are.

major brand klnj3/4 imperial deep groove ball bearing

Torrington B1212oh full compliment needle roller bearing with lubricating oil hole."

You are aware that the countershaft only comes out one way I presume.

Dennis

Hi Nick,

I accept that you do not have the combination of bits that I had. In fact just the reverse. I fail to see how your error could be an angular thing , but then if the error is greater at one end of travel than the other, then so be it and shims will correct it. However, if you should ever try to fit a gearbox, I think your problems will compound.

Good luck,

Dennis

I had this when I decided to take advantage of a VAT free bed regrind offer that coincided with a (real) Myford open day that I intended going to anyway. This was about 12 months before Chris Moore sold out. To cut out a lot, I needed a replacement saddle and dully collected the bed with nothing specifically said to me. I soon realised as I rebuilt the machine that the saddle was ground to the newer wide bed pattern which I thought a bonus!

The lead screw and gearbox were left to last in reassembly after ensuring that all else was well. So I was not amused to find that the clasp nut did not align with the lead screw by quite some distance. A call to Myford and a chat with Malcolm eventually revealed that the stock of early saddle patterns was exhausted and history/retirements had forgotten why all regrinds were not performed to the more modern pattern.

I was asked at the time not to make this public in a very nice way by some favourable moves on my behalf, including two more 60 mile trips to Nottingham and back. A further replacement saddle was found (I didn't ask where from) and the whole job came out right in the end.

I have to say that, remembering how far my clasp nut was out of alignment by eye, Nick has an impossible task if the saddle he has is of a later pattern. This was presumably to do with the later introduction of PCFeed.

Sorry Nick

Dennis

Matty,

A few words of caution.

1) The drip feed headstock is superior to the wick system and you can swop it onto the newer bed, but...........

2) Dependant on the actual age of your latest aquisition (bed) then your early saddle may not fit the newer bed and in particular the leadscrew will not line up. Early machines used the front shear only for alignment. Later ones utilised the outer shear edges.

3) Definitely keep the newer clutch, but you will need to modify the early machine belt cover if you keep the early mandrel.

PM me and I tell you what I did. Sell the collet chuck, it was quite an industrial production item.

Dennis

You have one of the first 9000+ S7 lathes and one of the first 2500 gearboxes ever made from 1954 onwards. An ML7 is the same as the S7 for leadscrew/gearbox purposes, but the vast majority of gearboxes on the ML7s are not like the one you have. You have my e-mail.

Dennis

For a start, is your gearbox as old as the lathe? Does it have an aluminium cover with 3 cogs under it at the right hand end, or are there just the ends of shafts visible at that end? Along the same lines, does your leadscrew only fit into the gearbox by about 50mm and not pass all the way through?

All gearboxes have their serial number stamped at the right hand end. The early gearbox has its serial number under the aluminium cover at the same end. What serial number do you have? It make a big difference to the answers you seek.

Edit:

I have the answers to above from your last picture. You have the early box prior to serial number QC2501. I have sent you a personal message.

Dennis

Edited By DMR on 14/12/2016 13:57:24

Kevin,

What you need to do is look up some thread information. Forget e-bay. Suggest you google "thread pitch charts" and identify the distance between thread crests. Like Matthew, my first thought was that it was a modern self tapping screw.

Use a ruler and magnifying glass (if necessary) to determine if your screw is metric or imperial to start with. We need a better screw picture and you need to say if it is the head or the thread that you are considering worn. Does the thread look worn?

Robert,

I have sent you a PM (Thats Personal Message) which appears in the My Friends box towards top right.

The ZX15/Chester Champ Mk1/Axminster whatever round column was quite hefty, and since the vertical course adjust leadscrew was inside the column, cement is not the best advice.

Dennis

I have a bandsaw of each type including a Record 3 speed. The design of the driving principle is different in that the wood version works on self centring rubber rimmed wheels to guide the blade whereas the metals one works on steel wheels and is set up to just nudge a raised rim on each wheel.

I would have thought that the rubber rims on the woodworking one would give up quite quickly if I tried using a potentially hotter metal cutting blade, especially if I employed oil during metal cutting. Once the self centring principle on the woodcutting one was destroyed the blade would not stay on the wheels.

Obviously some people seem to be metal cutting on their wood saws, so some woodsaws may employ a different blade alignment principle. I would certainly not expect my woodsaw to last long cutting metal. The work holding principles are different as well so accuracy of cut would be dubious without further mods.

Regards, Dennis

Graham,

I am not Tri-leva familiar, but on the basis that you have checked for the obvious like play in the mandrel or pulley wheel shafts, are your pulley wheels in good condition? You seem to suspect a belt related fault so are the sides of each pulley forming a V with straight sides. If not then the belts are effectively gripping the worn sides. The same may apply to the motor pulleys as they would have more forces on them at higher speeds.

Another possibility coupled with any pulley misalignment might be end-to-end play in the countershaft.

Dennis

I raised the issue of Hammerite paint last year under the "Hammerite has changed" title. I received a couple of proper replies which explained it all, but they are not coming out here and there are some things to add. My problem was with painting front gates with the new formula and I have held off thanking the best answers until my job had weathered somewhat, The gates are OK after their first winter but the finish remains a very wishy-washy black.

The first question that should have been asked here is "Did the old tin (assuming you still have it) have the name AzkoNobel on it. If it does, then it is the modern stuff. Since you seem to have had the old tin for some time and it had lasted through several jobs, then I would say it is the old formula since the modern substance skins heavily. I make the following points which are not being made very clear:

A) If it says AzkoNobel on the tin, then it is the fairly useless modern stuff and no-one now produces the paint to the original formula.

B) If it says AzkoNobel on the tin, make no attempt to mix it with Hammerite that does not say AzkoNobel on the tin, and the thinners are not to be mixed up either as they are quite different.

C) If it says AzkoNobel on the tin, and you are painting something small or taking time over it then the stuff will start to skin around the edges of the tin, particularly in warm weather.

D) If it says AzkoNobel on the tin, then the paint will quickly skin heavily in a part used state and will go off entirely over time, even if unopened! The original paint kept for ever, forming no skin and could be thinned if it got a bit thick.

E) If the original tin did not say AzkoNobel on it and there is or ever was an AzkoNobel paint of the same name, then it will most likely not be anything like the same colour or finish.

F) I would guess the thinner for the modern mix is a bit useless, but have no knowledge. For reasons of skinning I would also guess that it does not mix to a different colour well and certainly would not keep at all.

So now you know what to look for and ask about

Dennis

You are not wrong Colin. Perhaps if it looks Myford, it might be off an ML10? If you put up it's top to bottom measurement someone with an ML10, or indeed any other lathe, may come up with an answer. Just for clarity, the three versions I have measure about 65.3mm to 66.2mm from the top of the oiler ball (uncompressed) to the base of pinion.

Dennis

Mick,

If anyone can make better sense of your post than I can, I will have to wait and see what they say!

1. Spindles don't stall. Motors do. If you have variable speed, then do you mean the overload cuts in? Or are you literally talking stalled motor or belt slip?

2. You're not a beginner, so have you done the obvious and tested the ability of the spindle to turn by hand? If it is tight , then you have made the adjustment just that bit too good. Slacken your setting off just a tad.

3. Don't understand the "quarter inch" measurement.

Sorry, but I don't understand fully. It seems like you simply have a tight spindle or a new motor fault.

Dennis

Brian,

The Myford bed has a front and back plain flat shear. There are four resulting vertical edges at front and back of each shear. The early Myford beds had control of the cross slide adjusted across front and back of the front shear only. I think about 1974 when the power cross feed models came in, there were differences made amongst which was control becoming between the front of the front shear and the back of the rear shear. Hence the term "wide bed". On your early machine you have narrow bed control. Although the shear's design did not change dimensionally in 1974, there is a reason that you cannot just go for any bed replacement. It was something to do with the leadscrew position front to back.

Put differently, the saddle on your machine will fit on a later bed but the leadscrew claspnut - via the early apron - will not line up with the leadscrew. Send me a PM and I will supply more info.

Dennis

I also say Cascamite, especially since it is totally waterproof when set and will fill gaps if you let it go off a bit before applying. Any oil would weaken any new gluing efforts. Joints must be clean of any form of dirt and clamped up. This sounds a big clamping job so do parts at a time and use a good cord as a clamp wrapped round and round tightly and tied off. wipe off any oozings with a damp cloth or let it set and use a chisel. Once you have done it all, then oil it well, but you cannot sit on it straight away!

Years ago I had an open handled tenon saw that found its way onto the floor and broke off the bit you hold. It was glued with Cascamite and is still going strong.

Dennis

Charles,

At the risk of teaching my grandmother about eggs, etc...................And as you are supposedly a beginner at this hobby...................

You need to have made your new Control Screw (its proper Myford name) in the lathe all in one go so that it is absolutely concentric. Taper, rod, thread and then knob/knurl without taking the raw material out of the chuck. If you cannot machine screwcut the thread with what you have, then you must at least use a die holder, probably with assistance from the tailstock to hold it true to the work. Otherwise your taper will never be true to the brass insert, no matter how much you polish or fiddle with it.

I am confused with your comment about the amount of screw you can see (1-2 turns above the brass part). With the top dust cover in place on my machine I have ~3.4mm between the top of the dust cover front (its a casting so is variable) and the underside of the knob on the screw. You shouldn't be able to see the brass part as the top cover hides it, even if you have not got the spring. The spring itself fits loosly inside the top cover, bearing between the top of the brass insert and the underside of the knob. It is quite a weak spring, just acting as anti vibration. If you do as I do, just letting a few drops in now and then, when I use the machine, then the tap stays shut, so you don't really need the spring anyway.

How have you turned the new part if "the clutch does not engage". It was quite normal on this clutch to lock the clutch engaged, as some found it difficult to set up and keep set up (I never had troubles there), and wound the adjusting screw in to lock it "engaged". I would have thought you had parts missing (like the screw) if you could not engage, so your machine is permanently without drive. Search this site for the early clutch problems. Note that if you take the clutch apart, the shaft must be removed towards the tailstock as pre the instructions that you say you have.

Anyway you have one of the first 9500 or so S7's there, and the drip feed oiler mandrel principle was far superior to the later ones, provided no muck got past that Control Screw!

I have sent you a PM.

Dennis.

Kai, You didn't say where you were! I have sent you a personal mail. Open it via the My Friends box at top right

Dennis

You should be OK but.................

K6642 would be a very early ML7 bed no later than 1953-4 which, if you cannot inspect it, may well be worse than your existing setup. The S7 shared the same bed as the ML7 from its introduction, but there were variations later on. Why not play safe and get a bed regrind of your existing machine and hence know that you have a machine you can trust?

Would you like to put us more in the picture? Can you inspect the other bed or are you buying blind? Is your present bed truly defunct as in bent or badly bashed about? What is the state of the rest of the machine?

Dennis