Myford Drummond headstock adjusting

Now I make no claims to being a "professional", my sole claim is that this works, and gives a decent level of adjustment

To make things easier you need a live centre, a pair of 8 inch molegrips for the castellated nuts and a small spanner for the oilers

Loosen the oilers a few turns

Loosen the castellated nuts

Loosen the thrust bearing collar at the back of the spindle

Loosen the bearing shells by tapping gently on the castellated nuts to make them mobile and un-jam them

With everything mobile and slightly jiggly set up your spindle like this

Don't remove anything, only loosen it

Edited By Ady1 on 28/04/2015 11:05:11

With everything loose you now put some load on the spindle by using the tailstock centre, pushing it with moderate force and locking the tailstock in position

The spindle will still turn because the thrust washer at the back of the rear bearing support allows it to revolve and the tailstock/centre is supporting it

The spindle revolves throughout the entire process, if it doesn't, something is wrong

Then retighten the thrust bearing collar at the back of the spindle to finger tightness and secure it.

Then retighten your first bearing, front or back, doesn't matter, until you can just feel some resistance appear when you revolve the spindle by hand. Stop when that first resistance appears and screw down the oiler.

The oiler has a little shim at the bottom, inside the headstock, and this forces the bearing minutely outwards, away from the spindle and jams the outside surface of the bearing against the headstock bearing support, loosening the spindle up again

Do the same thing with the second bearing and that should be you

Nothing should need to be forced or tightened to a high load, it all fits together quite beautifully and simply

Edited By Ady1 on 28/04/2015 11:30:35

I have some old photos from a total stripdown I did a couple of years ago which I will dig up and put in here

The Thrust bearing

The Shims under the oilers

Edited By Ady1 on 28/04/2015 11:18:51

You can adjust things to such a minute extent that the ambient temperature makes a difference, when you return the next day and everything is cold

you may have semi-jammed up the lathe spindle, so don't get over eager during those hot sweaty moments in a warmed up workshop with those castellated nuts

A slight resistance is all you need before screwing down an oiler

Edited By Ady1 on 28/04/2015 11:59:32

Final caveat. There are different headstocks on drummonds, Tony at lathes.co.uk has a page on them

My one is a 1924 to 1945 model, made in 1944

Edited By Ady1 on 28/04/2015 11:53:08

Helpful advice there and interesting to see pictures of the shims.

Always wondered why the early Drummonds had a swivelling headstock. Any ideas? A gentle taper on the face is almost the last thing one wants and can only think of setting it deliberately to face off a spacer concave to avoid rock but mostly it would be a nuisance.

.

1. As a wise man once said: "If you can't make it exact, make it adjustable"
2. The degree of available swing is actually much more than you would need for anti-rock facing ... it's enough to turn useful tapers.

MichaelG.

Michael,

Early Drummond lathes did not have a top slide so the only way to make short steep tapers such as those used for the bore of magneto sprockets, gear wheels etc. was to swivel the headstock round to the appropriate position.

Obviously the main problem with this system was aligning the headstock again. However this was probably no more difficult than re-aligning the head of a milling machine after it has been inclined

Long slow tapers could obviously be produced in the normal way by offsetting the tails stock and turning between centres.

Lambton,

I think we're saying the same thing.

MichaelG.

Thanks for the interesting and useful info. I'll get started at the weekend.

Cheers

Hi Ady,

That would have made a nice article for MEW, if you have anything similar up your sleeve...

Neil

wow, an Ady article, I'm a star!

More seriously though, if you want to write it up as a half or full page "quickie/filler" article then be my guest

There's still a load of Drummonds out there in the hands of people who aren't quite sure how their headstock fits together and these units still have decades of use left in them if they don't get messed up

Very timely, thanks Addy. I am planning on pulling the mandrel on my 1937 M-type fairly soon to fit a poly V belt in place of the old leather flat belt, and new thrust bearing. Handy tip on setting the thrust bearing under load from the tailstock.

Am i right in assuming no tailstock pressure was used when setting the main bearings though? Or do you leave the spindle under end load for some reason?

It stays under light/moderate load throughout the process, since this is the perfect position to hold the spindle in to start with

Without the tailstock support the spindle "flops about" and that makes things harder

A live tailstock makes the whole thing a doddle

This tailstock loading also "tests" your spindle under a true loading condition, just as any drilling or between centres job would, and there should be zero problems if your thrust bearing does the job it was intended for

Any problems with your spindle turning means something is wrong

Edited By Ady1 on 16/05/2015 07:21:07

There's actually a few simple mods in that top picture for a Drummond owner

A plastic pipe on the leadscrew

An 12 inch DRO which drops down when you need it

An extension handle for the cross slide made of a bit of flatbar, a hex bolt and a length of Delrin

I'm also including detailed pictures of the molegrips I use because there are a few different jaw types and when first confronted with these huge headstock nuts they present a bit of a problem

The lower jaw has an edge which grips into a cut of the castellated nut and avoids any chewing issues so in the picture shown that would be the position for tightening a nut, it's the lower jaw which is the "key"

Edited By Ady1 on 16/05/2015 07:50:01

Are those 8 inch molegrips or are they 10inchers? Anyone know for sure?

I'm assuming 8 inchers

Edited By Ady1 on 16/05/2015 08:08:45

Thanks mate. I think you just made my life a lot easier.

For the castellated nuts I bought a nice pivoting C spanner at the local bearing/tool shop that works a treat but was not particularly cheap. When I adjusted the nuts some time back, had to use quite a bit of force to get them tight enough, as they would loosen up considerably when nipping up the oilers. Got it right in the end but I reckon a good strip, inspect and clean and your revolving centre method should sort the old girl out.

Edited By Hopper on 17/05/2015 10:47:17

If you are going for the full stripdown watch that thrust bearing when the spindle is being removed

I had a couple of bearings drop out and had to hunt about for them

Once you get your M series sorted out you will have one of the best hobby lathes that has ever been made

The only real downside with the unit, because it's so good and can munch metal all day at a semi-industrial rate, is the spindle bore being so small

Edited By Ady1 on 17/05/2015 11:43:32

Flatbar handle mod - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH Ok I haven't got a cross slide handle at all on mine at the moment but it won't be one like that

Mole grips - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH

How about filing a bit of metal square to fit the slot in the nut but rectangular, slit it and solder it over a longish length of steel pallet banding so it wraps round the nut but part of the rectangle is on the outside for grip. then the moles grips can be kept from direct contact with the nut.

Easy way to make a C spanner. Bore a bit of plate to size, Drill 2 holes radially and opposite each other, turn a fat headed pin to fit the hole (preferably silver steel) and file off the excess head to a T shape and solder in (on the inside of course), saw in half to make 2 Cs. Fit handles as required.