Older/cheaper lathes

Isn't a Myford a 3.5" centre height? Which even allowing for weird imperial measurements is noticeably smaller than a 6" machine

Page 2, and still no mention of the most important bit of the age old question of 'what lathe to buy' - you still haven't stated your budget.

Ive had and used a few, Raglan, Myford, Emco and various Chinese lathes but my current Boxford AUD wins hands down. It has all the best features of the others, the modern functionality of the chinese lathes the build quality of the raglan and the parts/accessories support of the myford and emco machines.

My first metal lathe was a myford and I wasn't impressed by it. As others have said they do have a die hard following and can be expensive for what you get. I now have a Colchester bantam which I find to be a far more capable machine. Mine was around £1600 delivered and in good condition. I did rebuild the screwcutting gearbox which cost around £90 I think just because it was very noisy. Total cost still well inside what a myford could cost you.

It depends on whether you are comparing apples with apples and not oranges with apples. Swing over the bed is not the same as centre height. You need to compare the specifications on lathesdotco, I think.

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Indeed

Atlas swings 6" diameter

Myford swings 3.5" radius

[both nominal because of the bed shape]

Myford also has a gap bed.

MichaelG.

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http://www.lathes.co.uk/atlas6inch/

http://www.lathes.co.uk/myford/

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 07/03/2019 23:47:27

Someone mentioned typos in descriptions:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/COLECHESTER-CHIPMASTER-LATHE/264224616331?_trkparms=aid%3D888007%26algo%3DDISC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140328180637%26meid%3De5c619b4137a4ace8c5551f39443be66%26pid%3D100009%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26sd%3D233153940736%26itm%3D264224616331&_trksid=p2047675.c100009.m1982

No wish to derail the thread, but what's fair-value for this?

Just be aware that chipmaster doesn’t seem to have a normal tailstock, just the capstan unit. As a chippie owner I can say that the small between centres length can be annoying even with a standard tailstock - let alone the considerably larger capstan unit.

it also doesn’t seem to have much equipment with it, I paid less that the starting bid for mine delivered by HIAB. And I got 4 burnerd chucks, 3 cam lock back plates still in the sealing plastic and stacks of Dickson tool holders etc.

However if that machine has spent its life with the capstan unit attached then the bed should be in fairly good condition if it’s been doing repetitive capstan work it’s whole life!

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https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/COLECHESTER-CHIPMASTER-LATHE/264224616331

They are great lathes, but can be very expensive to repair

Condition is 'everything'

The seller states: COLECHESTER LATHE IN GOOD WORKING ORDER CAN VISIT WORKS BEFORE BIDDING.07860 373679 FOR INFO.

I would suggest that you take-up that invitation.

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 08/03/2019 07:13:26

Quite, all American lathes are specified by diameter as opposed to the British idea of specifying centre height.

The Atlas 618 actually has a 3.5 in centre height like the Myfords. It is a rather rare model in the UK as it was only sold in the US. You are much more likely to find the 5 inch centre height model10F in the UK as many were imported for war work and they were also built by a number of UK companies during and after the war.

Russell

I happily admit to knowing next to nothing about Myfords, but assuming an imperial lathe is wanted, I am a bit curious as to why nobody has mentioned the ML10 which tends to sell for quite a bit less than the ML7 / Super 7.

Brian

I disposed of my Myford ML7 for basically two reasons.

1) The 2 MT mandrel was restrictive, (A lot of dog ends, ex chucking pieces, after cutting off short lengths)

2) Not particularly rigid when used with a Rodney milling attachment. The Myford swivelling Vertical slide, did just that! Was difficult to keep in place.

Tremendous work has been done on Myford 7 Series, by people who are better, more skilled, gentler, and possibly have larger scrap bins than me. But, to my mind, they are over rated, and so overpriced.

Having used a Raglan 5 inch, a very little, I have great respect for it. If I had bought one instead of the ML7, (Didn't know of them at the time!) it would probably still be in my workshop! If you can find one, in reasonable condition, and well equipped, go for it! It is a more versatile machine than a ML7 ! A few weeks ago I was trying to sell a friend's fully equipped Raglan.. No takers, so it has gone to his son; who will appreciate it.

A good Warco BH600,( Chester Craftsman, ETR BL12-24) or something like it would be a good machine, as long as it has not been abused. The later Chinese machines can be quite good, although sometimes can be improved by some careful adjustment / fettling. (Maybe I'm predujiced but I suspect that changing belts will be longer lived than some of the electronics.

Howard

I live in the Netherlands and Myfords often go for €1000 here. Funny, we are only seperated but a timy bit of water.

If you are interested look on www.marktplaats.nl

My dream for the last 40 years was to have a Super 7. But as we all know prices are silly, and all said and done, they are old lathes, with old lathe problems.

I decided that I would buy brand new, after looking at posts on here I decided Warco has the best service support. Chester seems to be variable depending on who picks up the phone. Others I discounted as either the lathes were too small or too expensive.

I looked at the variable speed lathes. Lots of stories about blown motor controllers on the DC motors. This has made me cautious about them. Warco now say they use an American controller, an admission of an issue? Plus there is a guy in the US who sells replacement controllers.

I think the VFD drive is more likely to be more reliable, but of course more expensive.

The price for my lathe was rising, for just a little more (£2.5K) I could get the Chester Craftsman. It seems to be a well spec'd machine traditional machine. i.e. Belts and gears, no electronics. Even has a DRO. To get this I would have to sacrifice my mill to stay in budget. So milling on the lathe, not perfect but doable, and I already have a vertical slide. Another plus point for me is it is an imperial lathe with a 127t wheel and dials graduated imperial and metric. So no problem choosing imperial or metric.

Big drawback, no T slots on the cross slide. Chester will fit their own vertical slide (£108) for free if you buy it with the lathe.

I have also looked at other lathes, and it seems to be quite common to either not have T slots or only have only two, one on each side.

I am now close to buying a second hand Warco BH600, and it does have a few T slots.

My latest problem is the size. I asked the builder to fit a 33" door to my new workshop. I just noticed it is a 30" door. Depending on if the gear knobs and top cover hinges can be removed will decide if I have to take the door frame out!

With a BH600 you should have a versatile machine.

I have had a BH600 lookalike (not a Craftsman) with a VFD, from new, 15 years ago, and am happy with it. It does not claim to be a Tool Room lathe, but is quite accurate enough for my work. (It will turn and bore mating pieces that will "pop" when pulled apart, or "bounce" if oiled and pushed together .

It is not perfect, but nothing is; and a little attention will remove some of the smaller silly annoyances.

My only complaints, on my lathe, were: A ball oiler sited where it was inaccessible, and a belt tensioning lever with too shallow a dimple in the shaft, which caused belt slip, until the cause was spotted and rectified. The Bolt for clamping the Fixed Steady needed to be made captive. A simple, but useful improvement.

DO: replace the 5 mm roll pins in the power drive shaft and the Leadscrew, with brass shear pins (5 mm OD, 2.5 mm drilled through ). It may save you having to replace the pinion shaft and damage to the Rack if you do what I did, and run the Saddle into the Headstock! (Tightening the capscrews on the worm housing behind the Apron is not impossible, but VERY awkward and time consuming ).

Part of this work, while the Apron was off, was to turn up a nylon bung to close off a hole so as to raise the oil level.

I did make up a 80T gear to replace the 40T on the input to the Norton box, but this entailed destroying the knob to resite the closure for the gear cover. This enabled the feed rate to be halved.

PM me if you want further details.

Enjoy yourself!

Howard