Just bought an ML7, what should i do first?

Hi Shaun,

Yes it looks like the Reilang that I have. I removed the nipple at the end,mounted it on a mandrel (The thread is M5 or M6 ) and turned it to a slower taper, so that the slightly smaller nose would fit into small ball oilers more easily.

I can only recommend it. It very rarely leaks oil, but can generate enough pressure to force oil through the ball oilers on the saddle of my lathe until it appears under the wipers on the bed.

Howard

Shaun

A couple of years back I was lucky enough to inherit a couple of Valvespout oilers. These have small, on/off controllable, nozzles which will fit into the original Myford "flush ball" type oilers ball apertures and those in he grease nipple types too. The balls are then pushed off of their seats to allow oil in, I have one with H32 and the other with k68 grade oil in, they both easily deliver controlled amounts into all of the oilers on my two Myford 7s and an ML8 . Have a look at one on: www.longs.co.uk/acatalog/Longs_Shopping_Site_Oilers_83htm

Don

OK, thats helpful to know, I think I will grab one and give it a shot.

I guess i need two oil cans, since these lathes require 2 different grades of oil?

Thanks, Ill take a look at those.

As far as i can tell with my lathe, all the nipples require H32 grade, and K68 is just applied directly to the leadscrews and gears? Is that correct?

Yes, and K68 also on the slideways, as said here.

Thor

Edited By Thor on 15/09/2019 05:58:53

Shaun, for an oil gun have a look here **LINK** I have two of these and they work very well, not 100% leakproof but very close, i also have the Myford "leakproof" model and mine leaks far worse then the cheapo listed here !

Regarding the bed re-grind by an engine re-builder a pal of mind did that for the surface then sorted the sides of the ways by hand with a bit out of the box thinking and it worked very well.

See your messages Cheers John

Good luck with the rebuild

Thanks, thats what I thought. Looks straightforward enough.

Thanks for that info.

Ill take a look at that gun. Is the nozzle long enough to reach the nipple inside the gearbox?

Will check your message.

IF it is not, one can always extend the part by a simple threading or soldering operation?

Quite possible, just have no idea on its construction without looking at it, either way, it looks a decent product.

I actually just looked at the product as shown in the above link. It says it is supplied with two nozzles. That means the nozzles will simply be screwed in place? So it would seem an extension would incur a simple threading operation.

I have no idea of the quality by just looking at the pic, whether good or bad or average. Your latest post, however, seems rather ambivalent - in one part you say you have not yet looked but you then say it looks a decent product.

it looks decent, but without physically looking at it and seeing how it works/fits, i dont have much idea.

I hate having to work on photos.

.

Probably worth reading the reviews: **LINK**

https://www.pressparts.co.uk/OxSiteRating.asp?RatedAccID=105926&ProductID=14443942&FilterMode=5

MichaelG.

OK, quick update here.

I finally had my oilers, oil gun and some tooling arrive from overseas and have got the lathe working and made some cuts.

First thing ive noticed after a bit of use is the lathe is flinging oil everywhere from between the headstock bearing and the chuck.

Does this mean that the drip rate is too high? I thought i had it rather low myself. How long should a full oiler last before refilling?

I also assumed that the headstock would have had a drain plug to drain the old oil collected from the oilers, but it looks like its running out and on to the work bench and leaving oil everywhere. Is this typical?

Right now the main issue is the leadscrews for the top and cross slides.

I think Im going to need to strip these down and rebuild them.

Should I convert these to metric while im on the job? Imperial is not much use to me and im just measuring each cut with calipers as I go, and besides the dials dont work properly anyway.

Yes they are a total loss lubrication system. Oil just runs out of the bearings and down into the drip tray below.They are as messy as teh British motorcycles of the same era (1940s).

I try to set my drip lubricators to one drop a minute. Its hard to get them to run that slow though. I only ever fill the glass a quarter full, which is enough to last all day of constant use. Anything left seems to drain out over following days. I use 20/50 engine oil as I find the recommended ISO 32 hydraulic oil is too thin and runs out too quickly. Been using 20/50 on my old Drummond for 50 years or so with no damage done.

A folded newspaper page or two under the lathe headstock helps soak up the oil.

Cross slide screws: A lot of the slop can be the way the end float adjustment is set by the graduated dials and nuts and handles etc. Or by worn brass feedscrew nuts that are replaceable.

I dont know how the dials coould "not work". They have nothing to malfunction. Sounds like they and the retainiung nuts for the handles etc need setting and tightening , which will also remove excess end float.

You could spend the considerable money and fit metric screws and nuts and dials if it suits your needs better. But you will still have an imperial leadscrew, which is no big drama. You can cut metric threads with it without needing anything but the standard gear set by referring to Martin Cleeves' book Screwcutting in the Lathe. There is some small error in the resulting thread, - but so stupidly small that it is irrelevant to normal home workshop use. (Pedants will arrive at the gate with pitchforks and torches in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ...)

Ok, thats helpful thanks.

My rate is probably higher than that, will count how long it takes to drip, I thought it would be close to that but my oilers went almost empty after about an hour of use.

Interesting to know 20/50 engine oil is OK to use.

I thought it was quite cruical to have the thin machine oil like the rest of the lathe uses. I got a bottle of the stuff and i agree its quite thin.

Regards the dials, yup they dont work, when I turn the handle the dials will not often turn with the handle, either way, they are completley useless to me as imperial anyway.

The whole leadscrews are worn out from what I can tell from looking at them, I will see if I can grab a photo.

Basically there is a good half a turn of slop before the slide will move and the slide does not seem to stay still if making a cut and i cant even get a straight cut if i want to cut a part off flush, the resulting cut is almost dome or pointy rather than flat.

It looks like someone has tried tightening up the cross slide as its very hard to turn the handle when winding the slide in about 3 quarters of the way in. On the top slide, it looks like there is a big gap between the dial and the slide (see the second photo down on the first page) It appears someone has tried to pack up the slack with washers or something.

Im not doing any screwcutting anytime soon so i am not worried about converting the whole lathe to metric yet. But the only real cost is to get the extra metric dials, since the metric feedscrews and nuts are the same price as imperial ones.

If they are the standard ML7 type dials, the diecast ones with the angled face where the numbers and lines are cast on, they should not be loose. They screw on to the end of the feed screw. This is probably the source of most of your slop.

To adjust, you hold the feedscrew still and screw the dial on using a spanner on the two flats on it. When it snugs up against the slide, you back it off just a fraction so there is a thou or two clearance between dial and slide. Then holding all that still, the crank handle is screwed on against the dial to lock it all into position.

I'd suggest you get a couple of the old books on these lathes that have all this kind of lore in them. LH Sparey's The Amateurs Lathe and Ian Bradleys book on the Myford 7 Series are both still in print and an excellent source of info.

OK, ill take a look, I thought they just went round and round freely but were designed to slip when you want to set it to zero.

Shaun,

From my photo album (last entry) my design to modify the standard ML7 fixed dial to be able to reset them.

(60 year old design but works!)

K

Shaun,

To reduce/eliminate the oil fling, apart from reducing drip rate, place a suitable sized O ring on the mandrel end and touching the headstock, oil then only exits on the inside of the bearing.

K