Just bought an ML7, what should i do first?

Shaun,

For oiling all the oil-nipples and the two headstock lubricators use ISO32 hydraulic oil and for the bed/leadscrews, etc use ISO VG68, both hydraulic oils should be easily available at agricultural dealers and are the direct equivalents for all the recommended Esso/Shell etc oils. If you want to treat the gears (after cleaning!) you can use the VG68 sparingly or some use motorcycle chain lube as it sticks a bit better to the gears.
HTH
DaveD

forgot to add good luck !

The fortunate thing about owning a Myford is that all the parts are available, second hand or new. Secondly, the knowledge base is huge. I have never seen a manual chuck made by Kitagawa before, they specialise in top end power chucks for cnc machines.

From your photos a good strip down and clean will give you some idea of what you have got. The bed and the headstock are expensive to repair so a thorough inspection and test will give you some idea of what it’s going to cost to return the machine to your desired condition. The machine can probably be returned to as new condition if you have deep pockets. The chuck collision damage to the cross slide is unsightly but if cleaned up will not really be a problem. Knowing what wear your machine has can let you work around it’s limitations as any machine with some mileage on it is going to have some foibles. Any lathe is better than no lathe. Machine tools can usually be made useful but can sometimes be a labour of love rather than make commercial sense.

Mike

Yes, im not worried, there are not many good ML7's ive seen for sale around the country, and those that have been rebuilt attract a premium price anyway.

As I said earlier, I planned on restoring it no matter what condition. I should also point out that I actually was able to go and inspect the lathe before bidding on it as it was local.

Ive seen some go for less than I paid, but would have had to pay heaps on shipping just to get it to me and spend more than what I already have.

Ill see if i can find that article on bed wear, its worth a read, either way, it does not appear to be worn to anything significant from what I can tell so far.

A neighbour of mine is an engineer and said he can get me a bunch of free tooling from work, since they scrap alot of tooling that is still usable, but not up to their standard, some of the tools are only used once per job!

Will have a better idea after making a few cuts and making measurements with my micrometer i guess.

As far as resufracing the bed goes, I dont expect this to cost anything significant. Geoffrey on the Youtube video took it to an engine reconditioner where they plane it on the same machine used for resurfacing cylinder heads.

I have a few around the corner who can do this for me if necessary. I know it does not cost much.

Yes Myford's parts are quite steep for some of them, I think the most significant cost would be if I have to replace the white metal bushings with the newer bronze type, as I would also have to replace the drive shaft with a new one from hardened steel too.

I might be able to get my local engine reconditioner to make new white metal bushings perhaps, since they have done this for engines ive rebuilt in the past.

For now I think the best thing to do is simply use the lathe and see whats needing attention.

Should have a better idea within the next week what is at fault. So far, all i can tell is that the backgear has a broken tooth and the leadscrews on the cross slide are sloppy and dials not working properly.

Im not planning on restoration anywhere in the short term anyway, but would like to know what parts I need beforehand so im not waiting on anything that will hold up the job.

Regardless of the condition, I plan to replace all the oil lite bushings and leadscrew nuts, etc.

Some of this I should be able to machine myself to save costs anyway.

Thanks

Your correct, I was speaking to my neighbour who is an engineer and he said those are the two grades of oil they have at work, he is able to get me some to use, so thats all sorted

Thats one of the reasons I settled on a myford, ive seen a few fair boxfords around too but not sure what the parts situation is on those.

Interesting about the chuck, I dont know much about that brand, but until I find an original replacement chuck, ill use it for the time being, one advantage is its a bit bigger than those typically installed on a myford. I do see a few 4 jaw chucks too, which is something I might replace it with.

Shaun, watch Geoffrey Crokers’s most excellent youtube channel where he restored an ML-7 to what looks like almost new. Most rewarding to watch. With some effort and advice for which this forum is the best place to be your ML-7 will be fitting fit again!

1 Just skimming the top of the bed is unlikely to recover a worn item to an adequate condition, you will need to address all 4 sides of the shears.

2 The chuck is really too big for the lathe and if it has been used extensively or for a long period on that machine it will have caused accelerated wear to the front spindle bearing. There is a reason why Myford recommend you stick to a lighter 4 inch chuck on the ML7 . The other more obvious reason is that the larger chuck can rarely accommodate larger workpieces without the risk of the jaws engaging the lathe (as the damage to your machine so convincingly reveals).

3 The spindle bearings are not trivial items to deal with if worn. Yes in theory all you need to do is rip off a shim layer and check the fit to spindle , giving a scrape or two if needed (metal is very soft, grind up an old hacksaw blade for your scraping tools). In reality, front at back bearing wear at different rates and usually into an oval condition. This may give you some issues when setting them to re-establish correct spindle alignment. Expect to spend a considerable amount of time when re-setting the old bearings.

Interesting to learn about the bed wear. I thought only the top side was what wears. Mine seems to have very little wear from what i can tell so far, but will have a better idea once I use it for a bit.

Putting shims on all 4 sides will also make things more complex possibly.

Yes I agree the chuck is too big and i intend on putting an original chuck back on when one turns up.

You can get a new back gear easy enough from RDG, mine was about NZ$60 if I recall correctly. Change wheels are not a problem until you want to cut threads, so long as you have enough to give you a useful fine feed. The price sounds pretty good considering the prices sometimes asked for Myfords here in NZ, even if you do have to do a bit of work. Don't rush into doing any major work. until you have had a bit of a play with it.

So whereabouts in NZ are you? I'm in Cambridge (NZ) myself.

John

Hi John,

Yes been looking on RDG, also see a dealer on Ebay with used myford parts at reasonable prices.

Seems there are different ratios you can choose for back gears.

What one is typical for the ML7? Ive got to count the teeth on my broken one.

I see 21/56T and 20/55T available, not sure what ive got on mine yet.

Your right, myfords seem to go for a bit in NZ, i saw one go for more than I paid that looked much worse condition and had a broken back gear also.

I was able to go and look at the one i bought prior to purchase which was an advantage as I could get a better idea on the condition. Most myfords of this age are needing some attention anyway, and if i go and buy a restored one, i still have to trust that whoever rebuilt it did a good job and pay a premium price.

Im not far from you, im in Tauranga.

If there is only one tooth broken, it needs no more than 3 or 4 grub screws, a drill and tap(s), some loctite (or solder) and a little time spent with a suitable file. They are easily repaired.

That would be just one way to replace a broken tooth.

Ive just discovered its got another broken tooth on the other side after turning it around.

Pretty sure its 2 teeth broken.

Ok, just been out to check what my one has. The spindle has a 65 tooth bull wheel, that's the one with the little dog to engage and disengage it. The other one on the spindle has 30 teeth. The ones on the back gear shaft seem to be the 21 and 56 combination, assuming I counted correctly which is a bit harder with that one. It is a bit oily under there! My ML7 is early fifties vintage.

Is it the one on the spindle that is broken, or the back one? Mine has one tooth missing on the spindle one. I have the spare but have not yet got around to putting it in, and it actually works fine for the odd time I have needed back gear. NDIY is right that you can do a fix in a number of ways that will be quite satisfactory, they are not all that heavily loaded.

The usual cause of broken teeth on these gears is using the back gear to stop the spindle rotating so you can get a stuck chuck off. This is not what you should do!

The 65 tooth gear means that you cannot use a simple detent on the bullgear to do simple dividing, unless all you ever need is either 13 or 5 divisions.

John

When I said ‘one tooth’ I should, I suppose, have been far more specific for you and keyed in ‘single’ to mean teeth missing in groups of one. So no real problem at all. When the first single tooth is repaired, there will be only one single to replace!

Multiple missing teeth are likely best repaired by infill with braze or weld followed by recutting the tooth profile for those teeth. Alternatives are machining away several teeth, along with some metal below, and replacing with a fitted-in piece of metal - again loctited, soldered, brazed or mechanically secured). These are standard easy repairs but preferably using milling facilities, but could be carried out by a proficient manual tool user.

I can easily cut new gears, but I would not be replacing a whole gear with more than 100 teeth (actually far fewer) even if several teeth were damaged. Repairs are so simple to effect.

Its my backgear thats missing teeth, the one on the spindle is OK.

yes i hear the same thing about teeth being broken when people try and remove the chuck.

counted its teeth last night, and its a 21/56T backgear

Firstly Welcome!

Have not read through all the foregoing, so my comments may already have been covered.

The gears with missing teeth suggest that the machine has been misused (abused was my original word)

Lets hope that it is not to badly worn or damaged to be not worth restoring.

Don't worry about the Japanese chuck. Chucks to fit the 1 1/8 x 12 tpi thread are available from a variety of countries, certainly India and China. the important thing is not where it came from, but how well it and accurately it functions. Assuming that it is a 3 jaw if it holds work concentric within 0.005" it should not be too bad, unless it has been strained and the jaws are belmouthed. If this is the case, the solution is either to regrind, in situ, or to buy a chuck in better condition.

Replacement gears should be available from the RDG Tools who now own the Myford trade mark and supply spares. Home and Workshop Machinery of 144 Maidstone Road, Foots Cray, Sidcup, Kent, DA14 5HS U K may well have second hand gears, as well as other suppliers.

Don't waste money on buying a Myford oil gun. Scatter gun would be a better description; it oiled just about everything, including me, except the parts that I wanted oiled.

Buying a Reilang will be money well spent. They are good, and put the oil where you want it.

For oilers, take a look at the Arc EuroTrade website, for Oil Cups, (although these are Metric thread, not Imperial so may need to have adaptors made. Chicken and egg!) and Drip Feed Oilers which are 1/8 BSP.

There will be other sources to be found on the web, I am sure.

HTH

Howard

Hi howard

Im not too worried about the chuck, although its been suggested to me it might be too heavy for it and cause excessive wear on the spindle bearings.

From what I gather, the broken teeth are common to see on these as it appears many people try locking the chuck with the backgear engaged in order to remove it.

Not too worried about the backgear right now. Plenty of used ones on ebay from myford stuff.

Regarding oilers, the ones RDG and Myford sell look identical to the ones from china on ebay at a fraction of the price. Am considering getting a pair for the time being.

Is this the right Reilang oil can? Its all i can find but does not look like it has the right fitting for the oil nipples. https://www.ebay.com/c/524999975

Some of the oil nipples are damaged and will replace them, are grease nipples usable? It looks like thats all they are that myford sell.

As far as oil guns go, this seems to be more popular than myfords (swiss) one they sell, its made in germany.

Any ideas how good this type is? https://www.lathespares.co.uk/myford-oil-lubrication/oil-gun-myford-lathe-1

Other than that, im going to hopefully test everything out next week. My main concern is how worn the bed is and if any wear is observed on the spindle.