myford super 7 motor problem

Here is a link to a video of some my project stuf a couple of years ago, i hope you like my youtube alias (john smith) lol: http://youtu.be/raP0-q6UeGo

I had a little accident and nearly took my fingers off so i sold the lathe and all accessories and gave the projects up. This is me coming to my senses and getting back on the horse so to speak. I'm no engineer i just tinker with things! I'm learning, my son just finished his apprentiship at ryan air he does aeronautical engineering i'm really proud of him for seeing it through to a conclusion!

Hugh.

Just a thought, you say the lead screw is difficult to turn so I assume you have a hand wheel on the RH end.Is it possible that the thrust coller fitted to the lead screw ( Part G62) on the left hand side of the RH leadscrew bracket needs adjusting. It's threaded & has a locking grub screw to adjust the lead screw end float.

Ian

This has been a temendous thread ... a clear demonstration of the usefulness of the forum.

Noting the "near new" condition of Hugh's lathe; I do wonder if this motor has always been troublesome [which might explain why the lathe has apparently had so little use].

In your position, Hugh; I would remove the motor and get it fully tested.

As a parallel exercise, you can check all the mechanical aspects of the lathe "by hand".

MichaelG.

Hi Ian

I took the gears off and spun it with the handwheel (right hand side) it spins fine, i just wasnt sure how much presure was required when the leadscrew was ingaged and how much strain it put on the motor. If the belts were tight (and i think they were) plus that was tight when i was making the cut then that would have explained why the chuck slowed down in the first place. I slackened the two belts now.

As a rough guide on belt tightness, if you can rotate the belt 90 degrees with your fingers half way between the pulleys, its will not be far wrong. Many people over tighhten these belts.

Hi Michael

The gentalman who owned the lathe has passed away, he was a civel engineer, he has numerious trains, boats, tools (probably more than B&"Q ) and everything boxed or in glass display cabinits, it was like a musieum, i could have spent months opening all those boxes because it was all quality stuf purchased at a time tools didn't snap when you went to used them.

He also had a small train track running round his garden, his wife told me he used it to make 3 bushes for 1 of the trains and that was it!, i did see a few small flakes of brass on the topslide.

Someone, not sure if it was him or someone else who used it must have left the key in the chuck and turned it on because in the gap under the chuck there is a chip where it has walloped it. Mabe it was a near miss and it scared him i'm not sure but all i know is its cracking condition other than that, i mean who could have a myford lying for 30 years without using it? but it seems to be the case.

I was lucky to have got a lot of tooling with the lathe as well, i'll get pictures and post them when i get a chance, all of the stufs brand new.

One thing i'm missing i would have liked is the fixed steady but ill pick one up.

Make sure you pick up a genuine MYFORD fixed steady and not a far east copy.

I will do!

I just got a reply from the person on instructables who stripped his motor down:

My motor runs cool. I rarely do heavy cutting with it, so most of the time it is running with very light loads. I suspect something needs attention on yours, I'm sure it shouldn't run hot.

When I dismantled the motor (see the instructable - search for 'myford', there were huge amounts of crud inside - dust and wood shavings, oil, and grease, etc.

I did have smoke coming from it once - I took off its drive belt and checked that the motor ran smoothly and freely - it did. I then checked the shaft on the other end of the drive belt (ie the driven shaft) and found that there was quite a bit of resistance when I tried to turn it by hand - it was stiff.

On an ML10, this is a 'counter shaft', with a drive pulley one end (connected by a belt to the motor) and a triple-stepped pulley the other end (connected to the lathe headshaft, which has a corresponding triple-stepped pulley).

I removed the triple-stepped pulley from the counter shaft (by removing a grub screw and then hitting the pulley off) and pulled out the shaft (complete with its driven pulley) from its bearing. More crud and grease (it should never have been greased - only oiled). Cleaned the whole lot out, cleaned the oilway, put it all back together and checked that it spun round freely.

Whenever I run the lathe, I oil the two end bearings of the motor and the counter shaft pulley. I never forget! The counter shaft always runs warm to the touch - I don't know if this is acceptable - but I can't do anything more!!

Best wishes, let me know if you find your problem!

This seems a useful place to "file" this document for future reference.

Brook Crompton, Single Phase Motors

Good luck with the Lathe, Hugh ... it looks like you have found a Gem.

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 17/09/2013 10:03:02

Thanks Michael

Hugh,

Brook Crompton info clearly shows these motors ( or at least those covered) all have ball bearings. Whether or not your motor has I do not know (age etc), however no amount of externally applied "oil" is going to solve aged grease in the bearings as they all have shields ( ie 6203ZZ). So if your motor is suffering from old grease, its a strip down and new bearings job. Not a difficult job I would suggest. Previous comments about crud and debris obviously does not apply, since your photographs show an almost pristine interior.

Personal message sent

Yes m8, its really clean, the lathe stood in part of the house, not a shed so spotless it was! I took some pictures of tooling ill add to the pictures section soon

All pictures should be on now of the tooling that came with the lathe and the books as well. 99% of the things in the pictures came with it, a couple of odds were my own from a previous lathe.

Ohh the wee landrover in the picture i built a few years back for my children, i used a mobility scooter for that project, i wish i had a lathe back then it would have saved me a lot of bother with the stearing colum!

you have a fine selection of tools there and quite possibly wont need to buy anything for a very long time

you have far more than you're immediatly going to need, but given time you will use it all in some way or other

nice little land rover too

Thanks!, boy i wish i had one of those landrovers when i was a kid! i had to make do with pram wheels and chipboard

I think my first project will be a tool hight guage, i used to have one but it went to the owner of my last lathe. it was a handy little thing to set the right hight of tool bit in the tool post. I love all the home made tools, its amazing trying to figure out what they were used for

The little landrover had full working key ignition, horn, headlights, taillights, break lights, forwards and reverse gears, low speed and high speed, two support wheels to stop it tipping backwards going up steep hills and a neat little sport steering wheel with dash board and pvc leather look alike seats, oh, and fild down windscreen!

The problem was the weight the batteries didn't last long and if a child was to be knocked over by it then it would be a trip to hospital!

Hi Hugh,

Seen your photos, what a superb collection of quality tooling.

Nice Landrover.

I suspect you are from bonnie Scotland.

Regards, Bear..