Member postings for Swarf, Mostly!

I believe that Proops operated from a shop in Kingston-upon-Thames before they obtained the Tottenham Court Road premises. I remember that there was a spiral (helical? ) staircase at the rear of the Tottenham Court Road shop - I always wondered where it went.

When I lived in Essex, my neighbour had a relative who was a van driver for Buck and Ryan (not to be confused with Buck & Hickman ). He gave me a copy of the last hard-back edition of the Buck and Ryan catalogue. It was so comprehensive that it was out-of-date the moment it was published but it was/is a most educational tome.

Another London tool dealer was Parrys whose premises were in the Old Street area. In 1970 I bought a Coronet 'Minorette' wood-working machine from them. Its bed was a length of mild steel bar. I bought a longer length bar through my then employers' staff sales system to convert the 'Minorette', effectively, to a 'Minor'.

My bookcase also still holds copies of catalogues from G.A.Dunball of Victoria Road, Romford, and Acbars. The Acbars sales representative used to regularly visit my employers Ilford premises and they ran a 'tool club' system. I bought a Pratt-Burnerd 4" self-centering chuck from them, also in 1970 - it is still my 'Sunday' chuck for my ML7 and lives in its original cardboard box when not in use.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 28/04/2021 14:23:25

Hi there, all,

Here is my contribution:

Note the date.

Here's the page showing lathes:

I'm sorry it's on its side - I did try to rotate it in my album.

The item pages give Bond's Part Numbers. Those Part Numbers are translated into prices in the last pages of the catalogue, in the 'old money', i.e. pounds, shillings & pence. The prices were dated December 1964 and there's a caveat stating that prices charged would be those ruling at the date of despatch.

A Myford ML7 was priced at £70 15s 0d while the Super 7 was £102 7s 6d.

For Neil's benefit, the Adept was £9 2s 6d.

If anyone has an historical interest in the prices of any particular accessories (Adept or Myford) PM me and I'll look them up but there are rather too many to list in this post.

I did shop at Bonds a few times back in the 1960s to 1970s, it was just round the corner from Buck & Ryans. The counter staff at B&R each had a roll of brown paper in a dispenser under the counter and they used to build all one's purchases into the most elegant and neatly-tied parcel. Sometime after I moved to Hampshire in 2000 I ventured across the border into West Sussex and discovered that Bonds had moved to Midhurst. I believe that the proprietor got ill and the business closed.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 28/04/2021 10:38:13

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 28/04/2021 10:39:42

I came across this this morning:

Willis

It's worth a read.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, all,

I took an interest in this subject some (many) years ago. I borrowed a book entitled just 'Photogrammetry' from my local library. I don't remember the author's name or the publisher, sorry.

I do remember one example from the book - a single photograph of a North Sea oil rig, taken from a helicopter on a sunny day. With just that photograph and knowing the time (and date? ) it was taken, photogrammetric techniques enabled the orientation of the rig to be determined with impressive accuracy.

My interest in the subject did not last - the mathematics made my head hurt!!!!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Yes, but the transaction needs to be based on a comprehensive specification that includes the quality requirements - this needs to be formally accepted by the supplier.

There then needs to be an on-site inspector who truly acts on the buyer's behalf to ensure that the quality requirements are met.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 31/03/2021 19:52:16

Hi there, again, all,

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to try 'Windows Reset' to get over a very, very slow Windows 10 boot-up and also a very slow shut-down as well as a few other niggles.

Windows Reset proceeded steadily until the progress bar reached 68% when it stalled. I waited quite some time until deciding the process had failed. A web search (different computer) revealed that stalling at 68% was not uncommon - it always seemed to be 68%. One poor soul had waited at 68% for eight hours before giving up.

Rebuilding the machine is not yet complete and some features which worked well before the event seem not to be rebuildable! I flinch at the mention of .pst files.

My Windows 10 'sits on' an activated retail copy of Windows 7 - since Windows 7 is no longer supported, we had to persuade a high pay-grade member of the MicroSoft activation team to activate Windows 7 before we could proceed to reinstall Windows 10. I doubt whether I could persuade them to do that again.

Windows Reset was 'billed' as having the option to preserve one's personal files and applications. The 68% stall, and/or my guess-work attempts to recover from it, precluded that. I did export various files from key applications when I 'upgraded' to Windows 10 back in February 2020. Obviously, using these exports to rebuild the machine leaves me with a blank 2020 history and, in any case, has not been without problems.

Doubtless, some folks enjoy the challenge of dealing with Windows at the 'nuts & bolts' level - I do not. I want the use of applications that work supported by an Operating System that works.

To sound such a positive note as I can, my Windows 10 boot-up and shut down are now lightning fast compared with what they were before.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 18/03/2021 16:14:05

Hi there, all,

Regarding solid state drives, I read somewhere recently a caution that Windows 10 performs drive defragmentation in the background.

It is my understanding (always prepared to be corrected) that defragmentation and the internal housekeeping of flash memory (including solid state drives) don't get on!

I know that there has been some anxious debate regarding the possible damage to flash devices resulting from the use of repetitive random string over-writing type of 'wiping' software.

By the way: we all know what we mean but the term 'solid state hard drive' is manna for the pedantic. The alternative description, 'non-volatile store' might be better.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, all,

Back in the days when I was in gainful employment, I had a colleague who was a mechanical engineer. He observed that ball races were/are intended for continuous rotaion and that if they habitually only rotate less than a full turn the races would 'brinell', damaging the bearing.

This comment interested me at the time because there was an advertiser in the Amateur Radio magazines who used to sell Morse keys with their beam pivoted on ball races - he claimed this method was superior to keys with plain pivots. (A counter opinion at that time was that the best Morse key was that made for the Royal Navy which employed flexure pivots. The RAF Pattern D Morse key employed a taper pin pivot. )

Nowadays, I occasionally dismantle the odd computer hard drive or two. These usually employ two sets of ball races, one set on the platter motor, the other on the read/write head arm. The angular excursion of the latter is only about 45°. The head arm is light but moves quite quickly so its bearings might experience relatively high stress.

I've accumulated quite a few of these ball races - do members think they are fit for 'normal' bearing duty or should I scrap them?

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 07/03/2021 16:46:03

Hi there, yet again, Tom,

Regarding rust removal, I have had good results with Evaporust. It's far from cheap but it's easy to use and works well. I recommend it for small-ish detachable items. Degrease first. Immerse the item(s) in the Evaporust for 24 hours, more if you can afford the time. Cover to keep the spiders out! Remove from the bath, rinse with fresh water and then remove the water. I use a flush of methylated spirits but WD40 is designed to do just that. WD40 would also prevent flash rust on the freshly cleaned metal but oil would do too.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, again, Tom,

I agree with Hopper that you have scored a wealth of desirable accessories for your ML7. I suggest that you trust your late grandfather's judgement regarding the non-Myford items - he almost certainly acquired/collected them because he figured they'd be useful. Time will tell.

The official Myford user's instruction book (that's not its proper title ) includes illustrated parts lists. These include what are often termed 'exploded diagrams'. Those lists and diagrams are available in down-loadable form on the Myford web-site. (Also, I believe, for the Super 7 as well as for the ML7.) Here's an example: **LINK** . (Note to moderators: I hope I am not out of order with this link in view of the latest forum rules. )

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 03/03/2021 10:03:07

P.S.: The electrical socket in one of your photos doesn't look like a UK item - what is your geographical location?

S.M!
 

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 03/03/2021 10:06:39

Hi there, Tom,

As an ML7 owner, I've been watching forum threads on ML7s for as long as there's been Broad-Band Internet. A clear conclusion from that surveillance has been that re-assembling lathes seems to be much more difficult than disassembling them! The sight of a heap of bits seems to destroy people's motivation and they give up! Don't go there.

My advice would be to clean carefully all those bits that are accessible without dismantling. Sawdust is especially objectionable but not usually difficult to remove.  A coating of oil and grease is messy to remove but may actually have been protective for those years in storage.

The ML7 lubrication system is of the 'total loss' type so flush through the headstock bearings a couple of lubricators full. Only then rotate the mandrel, initially by hand.  Start to develop your love/hate relationship with the Myford oil-gun (use oil, NOT grease!!!!).

Hold a bar in the chuck and gently press the end up and down and side to side, maybe monitoring the movement with a dial gauge (if you have one). Leave the headstock bearings alone until and unless you have clear evidence that they have problems.

Measure the ways to assess wear.  I was taught that it takes an inch of steel to make a foot of rust - work that arithmetic in reverse and see that any rust your ML7 has is almost certainly not as serious as it looks (but it is abrasive). Think very carefully and take lots of advice before taking anything abrasive to the bed. Gentle and restrained scraping is good. (Phosphoric anti-rust treatments, e.g. Jenolite, cause buildup so don't be tempted to use them.)

To summarise, my advice is to gently coax, without disassembly, your ML7 to the state where you can actually turn something. Build up some experience with using the machine, gently at first. Hopefully you will find that any dismantling eventually required is far less than you thought and having developed a feel for the machine will give you the motivation, not only to start it but to finish it.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 02/03/2021 09:13:50

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 02/03/2021 09:15:10

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 02/03/2021 09:16:50

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 02/03/2021 09:21:01

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 02/03/2021 09:24:44

Hi there, all,

This thread was prompted by my reading today's posts relating to the Antikythera Mechanism. However, rather than posting 'off-topic' there, it seemed better to start a new thread.

A few years ago, a hoard of Roman coins was discovered - I think it was on Jersey. It was a major find, lots and lots of coins.

Large as it was, this hoard must have been small by comparison with the number of coins in circulation. It seemed to me that, in order to achieve adequate production rates, the Roman mint must have had more than one set of dies to strike each denomination of coin. Each coin would have had the Emperor's head on the obverse - I don't know what they put on the reverse.

Now, even today, die-sinking is a far from easy business. How did the Romans produce multiple sets of dies that would each strike anything close to the same impression??? (I don't believe that the Romans produced their coinage by foundry methods.)

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 28/02/2021 15:06:16

Edited By Swarf, Mostly! on 28/02/2021 15:07:52

Hi there, Tim,

I seem to remember that astronomical telescopes give an inverted image.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, all,

I hope the following won't be judged too far off-topic!

Our ISP is Virgin Media. We're fairly satisfied with their service but we received an email from them yesterday that has prompted a clutch of reactions.

Their basic message was that they have doubled the speed of our wi-fi. To enable them to do this, they say they monitored our wi-fi usage over a few days and then tweaked our frequency to optimise our achieved performance (or psudo-techie words to that effect).

Now, we have 'his' and 'hers' computers and two printers. I can access either printer via ethernet. My wife has to communicate with one of our printers via wi-fi but hasn't printed anything for weeks. We do also have a lap-top equipped with wi-fi (aren't they all nowadays? ) but I haven't used the lap-top for a couple of weeks either. We do have a mobile phone, I'd say it rates as about 1½ G, definitely far from smart. So, just what wi-fi traffic they thought they were monitoring, I don't know.

Their email didn't actually say we're now connected to the turbo-encabulator, maybe that comes next?!?!?!

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

If the material didn't have to be mild steel it would sound like an application for electro-forming.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, William,

I hope that your ML7 has not suffered any irreparable damage.

It sounds as though you need to install a motor starter that incorporates no-volt-release.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, Clay, welcome.

I'm the other end of Hampshire.

Regarding metalwork vs. woodwork: metal work is usually more neighbour-friendly than woodwork because the cutting speeds are slower. The grain structure of wood also contributes to the noise. My ML7 doesn't make anywhere near the noise level of my 1300 watt Bosch router!!

Mind you, hacksawing sheet metal can get a bit screechy.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, Stephen,

I'm very sorry to hear of your lathe's mishap.

Do you have the Myford User Instructions booklet (that's not its proper title ) ? There are 'exploded diagrams' dealing with the major assemblies comprising the ML7 or Super 7 (it's the same gearbox for both lathes) .

If you don't have the booklet then the exploded diagrams and parts lists are available in down-loadable form on the Myford web-site.

To give would-be helpers here something to work on could you take a few photos and up-load them here?

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, all,

Some time ago I was given an assortment of (threading) taps. They were rusty so I treated them to a couple of days in an Evaporust bath.

After rinsing and drying, I was surprised to see that some of them were bright and shiny (presumably HSS) while the others had developed a blackish colour (presumably carbon steel).

In my opinion, the blackish colour would be an acceptable long-term finish for some components but I have not yet had the opportunity to test its durability.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

Hi there, all,

A couple of years ago, I sent a parcel via Hermes. The experience was stressful for a time but had an amusing component.

The parcel disappeared into 'Hermes-space' - the tracking facility froze. In this particular case, the recipient was the holder of the relevant Hermes account so he had to liaise with Hermes. After a few days of perseverence, he managed to achieve phone contact with a real Hermes Human.

The Hermes Human asked for a description of the parcel, adding 'PLEASE don't say it's in a brown cardboard box secured with brown tape'. The poor chap was obviously a bit harassed and surrounded by lots of lost parcels, all visually similar!

Before sending any more parcels I equipped myself with several rolls of luridly coloured Gaffer tape including a roll of fluorescent pink!!

The original parcel did turn up eventually, undamaged but a bit dusty. Subsequent parcels all beat their delivery forecasts.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!