stuff that came with my lathe ...

This is not intended to be unkind, but it seems you know very little about lathework. Most of the kit you have listed is very useful stuff. I would suggest you defer selling anything, until you have learned to use the lathe and have some experience under your belt.

At that stage you will be able to value the items from your newly gained experience, as being useful / non useful. You can then dispose of the stuff that you know you are not going to use. You are lucky to have a fully kitted out lathe to begin with. My first Myford came with nothing but the essentials and it cost me a small fortune to equip it. If you sell the "so called surplus kit" now. You will probably regret it in the future.

Andrew.

^^^^^^ This.

Those loose gears would appear to go with this LH Sparey style dividing head that is in your album.

That is a very very useful piece of kit for everything from gear cutting to making hexagon heads on bolts to drilling holes in precision circles and much much more. It will cost a bundle of beer coupons to buy a modern replacement dividing head. But this one will not sell for much because nobody knows what this old type is anymore. That large collection of oddball gears would be used on this to create different ratios to be used in conjunction with that spring plunger on the right to index many many different graduations. That's why some of those gears have the large hole in the middle to fit the spindle shown in this pic.

Most of those loose gears in your pics are not genuine original Myford gears so probably will sell for peanuts. They may not even be the correct DP ("tooth size"  ) to mesh with Myford gears. Can't tell from the pics. They would be more useful to you for dividing purposes once you learn how to use your lathe at an intermediate level.

The vertical slide that the dividing head is bolted to in the pic is worth keeping too. Very useful for doing small milling jobs in the lathe. I use mine all the time. In fact I have two of them, this type and the swivel type.

Edited By Hopper on 21/03/2022 11:09:58

+1 to Andrew's advice. Slow down. At this stage of the game BASS has a bunch of mysterious accessories and no idea whether they're useful to him or not!

My advice is benefit from the experience of other Model Engineers. We know when new owners get stuck into using lathes in anger, they usually discover, step by step, a long list of needs beyond the obvious. Then they have to acquire the necessary accessories, and it's often painfully slow and expensive.

BASS has the opposite problem - a complete outfit put together over the years by someone else. Tempting to sell the unwanted bits and pieces, but no-one knows what's unwanted yet. And if stuff is sold on willy-nilly, it's likely to be a while before the mistake is understood. One of the worst things to happen in a workshop is finding hard to find gear should never have been disposed of. The realisation is remarkably unpleasant!

The best person to decide what to keep is BASS, but not today. Next year's BASS will have a much better idea of what should be kept. Experience using the lathe will change his opinions!

There's another game. If BASS has no intention of using the lathe and just wants to make a profit, then the best way of maximising the take is to separate everything out and sell it part by part on an auction site (like ebay). I advise BASS not to tell the forum if he's doing that : profiteering is very unpopular in the Model Engineering community!

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 21/03/2022 11:04:34

guys i'm very grateful for all the advice from yourselves because obviously you know far more than i will ever know but i bought my lathe for certain tasks that i know i will need to do regarding motorcycles .... my massive passion is motorbikes and iv been working at them for 40 years .. i used to just build engines but as the years go by iv been doing everything ie restoring and remodeling ..

the lathe is for when like someone buys a new set of aftermarket wheels and i need to make the correct size of spacers and the simple stuff i know i can do and already have done in the last couple of weeks ....

i can't see myself getting that far with the lathe that i use it for what you guys do and if i'm wrong then i'm wrong but i have needed a lathe so many times and iv paid my local engineer a small fortune for parts i can make with my eyes closed it's madness ..

so again thanks for all the advice but i just know in my head the lathe will be used for simple tasks regarding motorbikes .... Gary ...

That makes sense then. Although, I use mine for bike stuff too (old Harleys and Nortons) but sounds like a bit more advanced than your needs.

So if you do sell all those gears, your best shot would be to sell that Sparey dividing head in the pic I posted, with all those gears as a set. They go together and would be useful to someone that way. I think that is why the old boy who owned the lathe painted the vertical slide, the dividing head and all those gears a nice pale blue so they are clearly a matching set. Some model engineer would find the whole set very useful. The individual bits, not so much at all.

If you Google Sparey Dividing Head you will find a little bit more info on it, but not a lot. The orignal drawings were published in his book The Amateur's Lathe which is still commonly available. It was a DIY project, not a commercially made unit. Hemingway Kits sell kits to make it still, and Sarik Hobbies still sell the drawings.

As already said, DON'T dispose of anything.

You may not know what the various items are now, but as you learn you will (I hope not! ) think "I could do with that thing now" when it bis too late.

You have a high quality 4 jaw chuck, the four way toolpost (and ratchet wheel (DON'T lose the pawl and spring in the base of the toolpost! ) and the changegears will be necessary when you come to use the G H Thomas Dividing device.

You may not imagine for what, now; but one day you will!

You have LOT of good kit there. Keep it and learn how to use it.

Buy some books from which to learn what the items are, their use, and most importantly HOW to use them.

You may be into motorcycles, but find and join a Model Engineering Club. You will learn a lot from other members.

Whereabouts are you located? There may be others on here who are near and would be prepared to help you.

When you bought your first bike, you needed to learn clutch control and how to change gear.

With the lathe, you are at the same point. Gather experience.before doing anything that cannot be undone.

Howard

And - if you sell, you will need to know exactly what you have got, and what if fits. A box of assorted gears is almost worthless - bought (if ever) in the hope that something in the box might be useful. But a box of change gears for a Myford lathe, complete with metric conversion gears, for example, is going to appeal to several of us.

Secondly - put pictures up here by all means, but if you want us to identify things, put a letter or a number with each item, and we will know what we are describing, and so will you.

Cheers, Tim

Too many pics lumped in together to easily identify each one for you. But thing at the top is a Coventry die head for cutting threads on repetition production work but handy for home use for making threads.

Next is a hand held knurling tool, very handy for making grips and footpegs and things with a knurled pattern on them.

The a pair of brass oilers for the lathes headstock bearings. Very nice old ones they are too.

Next is a Myford 4 way toolpost with ratchet mechanism. I would buy that from you if shipping to Australia was not so extrotionate and slow right now.

Next is two unrelated items. Left is a hand tool steady rest used for wood turning, steel graving or to support the handheld knurling tool above. Right is Myford angle plate for use on the faceplate (like a chuck only big slots in it).

Next is a live centre and a drill chuck. Now here is why you should not be selling all this stuff just yet. You will need these for making motorcycle spacers that need any kind of hole drilled up the middle of them or for axles and engine bolts etc that are long and thin and need supporting while being machined.

Then there is some stuff I cant identify from the pics.

Starting from the bottom, first is a box of centre drills you will definitely need is you drill a hole up the middle of a spacer.

Next up is a Myford "clog" type of toolpost clamp in black, with a bunch of junk above it.

Random spanners then a Morse taper adaptor that you will most likely need to hold small chuck or centre in the tailstock.

You should put it all for sale individually in the classified ads on this forum, at the right of the page. None of it is worth very much. But it might find a good home with a model engineer here if you are open to offers.

I would buy that Sparey dividing head and gears just as a curiosity but again shipping is prohibitive. There might be some other old Luddite closer to you who might be interested in it.

I think you must keep everything , Why because the first thing you get rid off you will need it next . Time has told me that because everytime i sell someting I always requre same within a few days .

Best Regards Bee>M