Myford lead screw

Just a general question about Myford lathes.

Why does the Myford have a hand wheel on the lead screw when there is one already one on the carriage .

Hi Eric,
It will give a finer feed as it drives through a screw rather than a rack and pinion. I have considered adding one to my lathe. (Chester DB10G) As the lathe I used for most of my life (From about 10 to 60) had one.

Les.

The graduated one on the lead-screw can be used to feed the saddle much more accurately than the carriage wheel Eric (which is used to fast move the carriage when the lead-screw is dis-engaged)

For anyone with lathes that do not have a graduated handle on the lead-screw, this is a very useful facility - especially if you either do not have a top-slide fitted at the time or cannot use it for any reason.

Regards,

IanT

Edited By IanT on 18/04/2015 09:31:53

The leadscrew handwheel was an optional extra on new lathes.

You will notice that the leadscrew handwheel is graduated against a pointer on the end of the bed, enabling precise movements on the leadscrew. The apron handwheel is just for fast movement of the saddle and is usually pretty sloppy.

However there is nowadays an excellent conversion, designed by Graham Meek, for the apron handwheel which enables precise measurable movement from there.

If hand feeding I find the leadscrew handwheel gives a smoother slower travel than the apron handwheel.

Phil

Hello Eric,

I think I can answer that. The carriage handwheel works through gearing onto the rack mounted above the leadscrew and the motion is not therefore as accurate as that from the leadscrew/handwheel combination.

The leadscrew handwheel has 125 divisions marked on the perophery so you can with confidence drive the carriage by hand in 1 thou increments, or even less with judgement from the handwheel divisions.

Does that help?

Brian

Thanks, that helps a lot. I'll have to have a look if I can modify my mini lathe.

..also useful to tweak the lead screw position to make engaging the change gears in forward/reverse and/or the spindle lock easier

I have one of those hand wheels made to Graham Meeks design by Steve Tracy tooling, and have found it very useful. I wish my workman ship was in the same class, however since buying the imperial hand wheel I've changed my lathe for a metric Myford, I have thought about fitting to the lathe but would prefer a metric hand wheel. So if you know of any one with a metric version for sale or any one interesting in buying a pre owned imperial one then please contact me via a PM.John

mini lathe handwheel mod;
http://www.toolsandmods.com/lathe/mini-lathe-leadscrew-handwheel

Like John F I fitted a Steve Tracy/ Gordon Meeks graduated hand wheel to my S7 and it is by far the most useful accessory that I have ever bought. Beautifully made and pleasure to use also very easy to fit.

Hi Eric and guys

It  would be worth fitting a micrometer dial to the lead screw on you lathe as I did on my Drummond flat bed lathe
Nobby

Edited By Nobby on 18/04/2015 15:27:46

Edited By Nobby on 18/04/2015 15:28:41

Edited By Nobby on 18/04/2015 15:29:13

Hi Eric,

I've made both mods to my mini-lathe. Details of Alastair Sinclair's mini-lathe leadscrew handwheel mod, including plans, are included in an article which is being reprinted in the 25 Years of MEW special.

For comparison, my leadscrew handle is graduated in 1/1024" steps (rough 0.001" the apron handwheel dial is graduated in 0.01" steps. They have complementary uses.

Neil

Neil

Edited By Neil Wyatt on 18/04/2015 17:44:53

Hi everyone. I am new to the forum and to owning a lath .i have recently purchased a Myford ml4 . My question is how do you fit a lead screw handle there doesn't seem to be much room on the right hand end of the lead screw only enough for the nut. My history , I did a 5 year indentured apprenticeship as a press tool maker 1966-1971 two years after that I left the industry and never touched a lathe again until three days ago, so am quite rusty. Help would be appreciated

Although not constantly needed, a very useful fitting when precise positioning of the Saddle is required.

I made up a graduated handwheel for the Leadscrew on my ML7.

Mike Cox made and fitted a Leadscrew Handwheel for his Mini Lathe.

I made a slightly less sophisticated one for mine, but with an outrigger bearing similar to Alistair Sinclair's.

With 60 graduations and a 1.5mm pitch Leadscrew, each 0.025mm division is about 0.00098 Imperial thou.

As Alistair Sinclair pointed out, it is advisable to disengage the Leadscrew from the change gear train.

Otherwise, a) it takes a lot more effort to turn all the change wheels, even with the tumbler gear set to neutral. Being idle, I just remove one of the changewheels!

b) If the tumbler gears are engaged, it will take a LOT of effort to turn the leadscrew, and as soon as the chuck rotates, the setting will be lost!

Go for it!

Howard

Hi Colin

Turn a stub shaft to extend lead screw is one possibility. Drill and tap a piece of round bat to replace the nut and turn on the other end an appropriate diameter to suit the new hand wheel and thread the diameter to take a nut to retain the hand wheel possibly with a key.

David

Colin, you commented on my YouTube vid didn't you?? I did post a reply. I have a spare myford handle if it is of use to you? It isn't graduated but as explained in this thread it does help with finer feeds, and it makes the travel intuative to the handle orientation. Whereas the handle on the apron turns the wrong orientation moving the saddle towards the chuck when rotating clockwise.

Let me know if you are interested in the handle, it should as long as you have thread left after the nut lock onto the leadscrew up against the nut.

My ML4 just has a plastic handwheel mounted onto an adapter. Threaded for the lead screw one side, and the other side tapped for a retaining bolt for the handle.

Although not complete, I've tried to put together some of my experience in setting up the ML4. Click here to see the thread

Edited By Jon Cameron on 11/10/2017 01:11:31

Question for you guys with the handwheel on your ML7 leadscrew: When using the leadscrew handwheel, do you leave the fine feed change gears in place, with the tumbler gear disengaged from the spindle of course? This means that when you crank the handwheel, you feel the resistance from churning all those gears? Or do you take the gear off the left hand end of the leadscrew?

The reason i ask is because I am used to using the Mighty Drummond which has a dog clutch on the leadscrew, so you leave the change gears in place, disengage teh dog clutch and turn the leadscrew handwheel on a nice free leadscrew with no resistance. Now I am putting my more recently acquired ML7 back together and it just feels weird to turn that leadscrew handwheel with so much resistance from the change gears.

On the setup I have now with the ML4, (mine doesn't have tumble reverse fitted, some did as an optional extra). All I'd do is unscrew the stopper on the very left of the lead screw, which is held in place with a slotted grub screw, and use the lathe as so, if I found that there was too much noise from the final gear moving on the lead screw, and rubbing against the other gears, (still in mesh with the spindle), is loosen the bracket that holds the gears so this falls away from the spindle gear.

The stopper engages the gear and leadscrews with a small pin into the gear, and the grub screw locking onto a flat on the lead screw.

I've turned the handwheel with the gears on, though not connected to the spindle gear. There is a fair bit of resistance turning all those gears.

Colin,

Here's a photo of an original Myford leadscrew handle, which was available as an extra. The leadscrew normally had a pair of nuts at the end. The handle has a threaded barrel and simply replaces the outboard nut. There is no scale or graduation, as normal for the earlier ML4.

George

One of the first mods I made to my chester was fit a handwheel to the leadscrew. It is an easy job IF the screw will go thru. the mandrel. Turn bit of steel to fit a handle and drill the leadscrew to suit. Glue with araldite or similar. I used a handle from Arceuro and marked lines on the boss ,using a gear as a divider. Does not need super accuracy. I always have the gear train out of mesh except when using it.