Screwcutting Clutch for Myford Lathes

Thanks Bill, perhaps someone can come up with the article ?

Chances are though that the new owner would have ripped everything off as it wasn't genuine Myford, filled all the holes in and painted it back to colour me standard.

All the while muttering about bodgers and heretics and why could he not have left it standard as Myford's MUST have known what they were doing [ if so it was a first ]

I know it's an attempt at humour but you're having a wholly unnecessary pop at Myford owners again. Not everyone who owns one is like that and I have two. And the reality is that who ever bought Martin's lathe knew exactly what they were buying. Substitute the word Bridgeport in your post and imagine I'd written it to see what it feels like. This is the sort of snobbery that drives people away and given the number of Myford users here, does nothing to endear the magazine to them. Sorry, but it needed saying.

Chris, Had two Myfords, both bought brand new so the money went to Myfords as opposed to a previous owner.

Still got one of a sorts, all in bits but given these bits.

Have owned four genuine Bridgeports, one from new [ biggest piece of $hit I have ever owned except for a British made Camarc welder ] and one CNC.

Now own a clone, Warco WM40, again bought new.

So none of this is sour grapes but even though you may not be like this there are more with a foot in the other camp.

My ML7 when sold on was reasonably highly modified.

Pressure oiling on spindle and counter shaft, long travel top slide, full bed travel taper turning, lever feed tailstock and also a powered tailstock for small hole drilling.

All this was ripped off and sold by the new owned and repainted in Myford grey even though the paintwork was decent.

My thoughts exactly when I was reading the book. Neil, in that Martin modified his lathe to produce batches of threads commercially amd could knock them out at a fair rate. Electronic leadscrews, stepper motors and the like are ok.......till they go wrong! You know where you are with gears and clutches.

Phil

I was interested to discover that Martin Cleeve's Swing Clear Tool Holder was also published in Popular Mechanics.

MichaelG.

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Edits: Corrected typos

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 27/02/2015 08:53:07

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 27/02/2015 08:54:53

So because one guy did it to your personal lathe, which obviously irritated you, all owners of Myfords have to be tarred with the same brush John? Your previous machinery ownership is completely irrelevant. It read as a smug swipe at all Myford owners. Sorry, but it did.

OK have the last word.

I was married long enough to understand that argument

Hi All... Michael Gilligan wrote on 25/02/15... "Replace outboard gearbox with 'electrickery' & stepper motors"..

Here is one I did earlier using 'electrickery' .

Bob.

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Welcome, Bob

That looks very tidy

... More details please !

MichaelG.

Hello Michael and All... Michael asks..."More details please!".

Its a bit of a story really,

I was given an old Atlas 10F lathe, the tailstock was missing, the leadscrew was worn out and there was no backgearing; it was to go for scrap, I thought it a shame since the bed ways were ok and so I used a piece of 20mm diameter stainless threaded rod for the leadscrew.

After successfully making a new clasp nut the lathe seemed to be performing rather well and gave me the impetus to have a go at making a slow motion drive for the leadscrew; at this point I must tell you I worked in the electronics industry for many years, and although it was easy enough to fit a motor to the leadscrew I had by then seen the Electronic Leadscrew Groups website and was considering making one of their designs, however the cost was rather excessive and I only wanted something which would do the screwcutting..whereas their design was bordering on full cnc.

So I designed my own using Arduino microprocessor boards, the leadscrew control can cut any thread with a reasonable degree of accuracy and will even take into consideration the inaccuracy of the threaded rod 'leadscrew'... The control box can also be used to provide slow motion of the saddle and of course can be sped up to go along faster or slower manualy.

It has taken some time to get things sorted out and I have to admit that headstock drive stepper motor is rather underpowered, however using fine cuts I have made a number of internal and external screw threads, one of which is used on the lathe itself.

It might not be pretty...but it works.

Let me know if you want any more info.. rgds....Bob.

Bob,

Thanks for the additional info.

Personally: I would be very interested to see this written-up in MEW, and I know there are others interested in using Arduino.

MichaelG.

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Open request to Neil: ... Please get this man writing !!

Bob,

Now that ticks all the boxes for ingenuity.

Lots of questions, but don't want to pre-empt publicTion of any future article.

Wish I knew more about electronics, but those Arduino boards looks interesting.

Neil,

Make Bob an offer he can't refuse!

Geoff - Still trying to get my head around video production and faIling

If you want to get in touch about an article, Bob, my email is [email protected]

Neil

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 17/03/2015 17:35:54

Thanks Geoff, ... kind words come from a kind person.

I am hoping to do an article about the 'electrickery' device... have emailed Neil... will have to wait & see, so I can't really say too much about it at the moment.

rgds ...Bob.

Alright, i'll be smug. Why can you buy 3 (three) good AUD Boxfords (that's powerfeed, g/box etc) for less than the price of a Myford S7 with QCGB? Probably 5 Raglans or little Johns. All superior, heavier duty lathes with a similar footprint. Snobbery? Pot calling the kettle black?

[.....any chance of getting this thread back on course?]

I really like the look of the Martin Cleeve's 15:1 reduction gearbox idea for my old ML7. I've read Martin's book and am convinced by the arguments against automatic gearboxes but without his gearbox it does make switching back to fine feeds a real pain.

Even though I admire the patience and skill of the full electrikery solution I can't help feeling it's a lot of work and a bit like plumbing a Japanese toilet into a privvy

What about a sewing machine motor and foot controller with a 20 tooth drive gear on the output in place of Martin's gearbox?

Does anyone know how slow these motors will go? **LINK**

Sad to say that for the price of the motor and foot control (£35) I'd be struggling to have bought the set of gears required for Martin's solution.

Jon

Hi Jon

IMO you can forget about a sewing machine motor for your application, not sufficient torque at any speed.

Emgee

Hi Emgee, Thanks for the reply - Back to the drawing board then.

Perhaps I should persevere with Martin's gear box idea.

I've been looking through the C2 lathe spares on the ArcEuro site and I think that a plastic geared version using C2 change gears and a re-purposed timing belt may be the way to go.

I have a spare 20 tooth Myford gear for the output drive to the dropped banjo.

Any thoughts on the strength of the plastic gears in this application? If I need metal gears where should they go, input train or output?

Jon

Jon,

I think it should be possible to make a very serviceable speed reducer using two sets of 4:1 ratio toothed-belt [timing] pulleys arranged like a backgear. ... Overall ratio 16:1 and it would be very compact.

Given that Martin Cleeve's original gearbox was driven by a 'spring' belt drive, I reckon that XL or similar belts, on plastic timing pulleys would be quite adequate.

MichaelG.

Hello Bob - I don't seem to have received your email yet...

Neil