Myford ml3

the topslide i have linked will do then Bazyle ?

sean

The gumtree link looks pretty good but is it actually myford? The advert says the lathe was sold so was that without its saddle? Perhaps the lathe sold was a myford and this was a non-myford part that happened to be with it and was therefore assumed to be myford by association not wisdom. One thing that puzzles me about it is I don't see screw holes in the second photo for attaching the apron so was perhaps attached from the front. It would adapt if the size of the V on the saddle will match so worth a call to the seller to get a measurement. Note the first photo shows the gib strip which is needed but if the V is a little too wide you can take up an eighth with a thicker one. The second photo shows the back of a dial so if it is myford it is the 'superior model' that actually had one.

Not sure which topslide you linked to. I linked to one what would do and is the slightly better slot plus hole fixing type but there seem to be two bidders already.

The screw only that Jon Gibbs linked is nice, The later development I think but you need rather more than just that.

If I can address various points from various posts:

The parts Bazyle linked to under 'this is not what it says' are not Myford. The seller tells me that he assumed them to be Myford because they were in a box with an ML1 bed.

The '80 thou per turn' dial was an approximation by Myford to the 83.3 thou actually given by the 12 tpi thread on ML1234. Early lathes didn't have a dial at all. There was a seller on ebay making resettable dials with 83 divisions, but I haven't seen them advertised lately.

From my researches(and I am perfectly willing to be challenged) I believe that the ML3 was the 'Standard' version of the 'Superior' ML4 with the same centre height, bed length, mandrel threads and other major dimensions. The only differences I can find are that until 1938 the ML3 headstock was cast in rather than bolted on, and that it used plain bearings in the cast iron head rather than the ML4's bronze bearings. Some people favour this arrangement as it lasts longer. The ML3 was discontinued in 1941.

Accordingly I believe that any ML4 part should fit the OP's ML3. The topslide thread, handle and bracket shown in the link are attractive because they are late ones with the cast bracket bearing an engraved line to aid reading the dial. Earlier ones had a flat plate with no marking at all.

The ML1 and ML2 were smaller versions of the ML3 and ML4, and I believe that their history ran in parallel. They had a 3 1/8" centre height (compared with 3 1/2" ), measured 15" between centres (compared with 24" ) and had 3 1/2" cross slide travel (compared with 4 1/2" ). All early ML1234 lathes had a choice of a 7/8" x 9 tpi or 7/8" x 12 tpi Whitworth mandrel thread. The later ML4 (and I presume ML2) had a 1 1/8" x 12 tpi thread identical to the ML7 but the register was 1 1/8" diameter, not the 1 1/4" of the ML7. This means that ML7 fitments will thread onto the ML4 nose, but do not engage with the register. It should be possible to secure a collar to the existing register and turn it to the ML7 dimensions, making it truly interchangeable. The later ML4 was available with tumbler reverse, though I don't know when it was introduced or whether it was available on the other models.

I hope this clarifies some of the puzzles.

George

Edited By JasonB on 04/09/2016 13:43:51

Is it possible to edit a post? The forum software has decided to change my closing parentheses into stupid smily face things.

George

Hi George, you have about half an hour after you have posted to edit it, just click on the edit post in the green bar, so you would have had time to edit your previous post. After this timeout, only moderators can edit your posts.

Regards Nick.

At the end of the text in the brackets, don't put a punctuation mark before the closing bracket, different marks, and bracket give different smily faces.

Ian S C

From the other thread

Sean said What is this

Speedy Builder replied - Er , looks like a top slide clamp to lock the slide for milling ??

J

Hi Sean,

I have just added an album entitled ML4 parts. photos may help you on your lathe. My lathe is mostly original with a few additions.

Mike.

Edited By sparky mike on 04/09/2016 18:23:22

I'v sent you a PM Mike

> The '80 thou per turn' dial was an approximation by Myford to the 83.3 thou actually given by the 12 tpi thread on ML1234.

LOL! Elsewhere someone said they couldn't accept a Chinese lathe that had dials approximating 1mm to 40 thou, a much smaller error than the Myford approach!

Neil

Hello Sean,

​Can you measure the across dovetail dimension on your apron, then we can see whether or not a cross slide from a Myford ML7 might fit that?


At the moment most of us have no idea what might fit what>

Brian

He is missing the saddle.so no V to measure but Lathes.co.uk says ML7 parts aren't compatible here. The Gumtree link was the most promising but needed measurement and communication.

You can't hurry this if you are expecting to get a specific original saddle there might only be one every 6 months. It will be cheaper to buy another lathe than custom or new parts. Since almost no lathes ever get separated from their saddle when someone decides to break a lathe and sell the parts there shouldn't be much demand for this part.

As you could do with some local help and advice you need to put out feelers for other technical people near you who are not necessarily making it obvious but may have a lathe and other tools. eg aircraft modellers, car restorers, farmers, agricultural engineers, builders.

The ML7 topslide base has a spigot on the underside see last photo on this listing. and is waaay more expensive than a ML1234 one. Any small flat bottomed one would do - Chinese, hobbymat, Drummond etc but actually less common than the genuine article. The two main parts of the topslide should always be together and sold as a complete unit with screw etc. I did see one on ebay last month split in two and frankly think that is some shyster trying to screw someone for the second part after they bought the first.

I'm getting a little confused by a few of the recent posts and the names being used so lets just clarify a few things.

The big 3ft long lump is the 'bed'. The part you have still in your photo attached to the leadscrew that sits in front of the bed is the 'apron'. This attaches to the 'saddle' which sits on the bed (like horse saddle) so needs to have underneath the V to mate with the dovetail shape of the bed (Later Myfords were square not dovetail). The saddle will incorporate on top a male dovetail for the 'cross slide' that moves front to back. This cross slide has several T slots on top that are aligned down the length of the bed, not aligned along the length of the slide as with some new Chinese lathes. Any flat bottomed topslide or even a plain toolpost can be mounted using these T slots. "Topslide mounting plate" is not a standard term so I'm not quite sure if you are talking about the "topslide base" half of a topslide assembly or mixing up with the cross slide and really meaning the saddle.

Well I'm still going to say an original ML1234 because they are the cheapest and most common. I have one on my Drummond because of that.
Interestingly in my case the screw holes don't align with the Drummond T slots but it had two tapped holes in the required position indicating that a previous owner had done exactly the same thing, then taken it off and probably sold it separately.

Just checked none on ebay at the moment and the last one I linked went for a lot more than I expected. Also I see there are a lot of ML7 bases on there which is perhaps why you asked. I do see this which is too small but shows all the bits you are missing.

I keep forgetting the other bit. That photo above of the two bits of iron are probably a cross slide screw cutting stop. I've not heard of one for a myford like that but if you google "boxford screwcutting stop" images you see the equivalent with its centre screw which is why it probably isn't compatible with a myford.