new to the hobby - first lathe

Hello,
As a new member I would have jumped straight in and bought a generic Myford if only I could view the ads.... (well-trodden topic, I see). Anyway, I need a lathe and hence some posting activity is reqd. My initial need is for a lathe to assist in restoring a variety of pre-1950 English motorcycles and in particular to produce a wide range of fasteners, spindles, spacers etc. My guess is that for these purposes I could make do with almost any reasonably unworn Myford with screw-cutting via change-wheels or die-holder activity. Am I right in thinking that the quick-change gearbox is simply a nicety? Power cross-feed seems to be more of an essential in my view for easy facing operations - any agreement on that?

In terms of Myford (on cabinet) the footprint seems to be around the same as sthg like a Boxford STS 10-20 or Myford 254 and I wonder if this would actually be a better purchase given that a nice one can be had for green Super7 money? The only downside that I see is that those machines tend to come without all of the accessories that often accompany a Super7 retiree and that a hoist/van is required to transport them. A Raglan would appear to be another contender btw.

When retirement beckons I may get into model engineering too and hence i have one eye to the future as regards my purchase.

I would much appreciate any suggestions

Thank you

Nigel

Asked the same question recently about a new Myford.

Decided against it in view of the advice from members.

Some very helpful comments in the thread so you may find it worthwhile reading.

At the moment Warco is top of the list,

BB

Welcome to the forum Nigel, as you can see from Billy's reply, there has been some discussion on this subject recently.

The Myford is a good quality lathe although a somewhat old design nowdays as is the one I have, a Boxford AUD (model A UnderDrive).

Myfords also tend to be overpriced because that's the make that most people have heard of.

Brian

I wouldn't be put off by transport - for less than £100 a time I've had two old machines delivered. The last lorry had a 30t capacity crane which popped the mill right on the workshop doorstep.

Personally I'm more in favour of a good old machine that a new one - you'll get more for your money if you're prepared to spend some time doing it up. Agreed, if it doesn't have the accessories that's a downside.

As for the QC gearbox, I started with a Sieg minilathe. Allen keys required every time you wanted to change feed rate or thread pitch, and no cross slide power feed. The old M300 I have now is luxury by comparison - just twiddle the knobs for feed change & metric/imperial threads. The power feeds give a better more repeatable finish too than I ever got by hand.

Rob

Hello Nigel,

... A Raglan would appear to be another contender btw, ...

I like Raglans. Far better value than a myford, IMO.

I guess one downside is their weight. A Raglan weighs in at 3 1/2 cwt, according to the manual - that is about 175kg. But taking off the easily-removed heavy bits reduces that weight somewhat. I load and unload a Raglan, by myself, to and from a citroen saxo (the stand is not included in this) in spite of my age and health. Removing the motor, tailstock, apron, saddle, end cover and chuck does not take that long. Lifting onto a stand can present a few problems when working on your own.

I’ve never owned a myford and don’t expect I ever will.

After using a lathe with a QCGB, I would not want to revert to change wheels, but change wheels only need more time.

So, slow down a bit and don’t just jump in for the apparently expensive, but popular, myford. There are alternatives - even buying new.

Even a Drummond,the ‘precursor’ to the myford,mmay well do all you need.

Thank you for the quick initial feedback, especially re x-feed and gearbox.

I recently took a close look at a couple of the well-known (Sieg-derivative) small lathes which included inverter drive (nice), gearbox, power cross-feed etc but was very disappointed by the apparent quality with dreadful fit, finish and feel. If they cannot be bothered to make the 'outer quality' attractive then heaven forbid what's on the inside. I haven't excluded Proxxon (essentially rebuilt Sieg from what I read) but I need to see one first hand. My feeling is that even for part-time (hobby) metal-working we need to be encouraged with decent quality tools (my wife has heard this before..) but if necessary I'd rather go old-school to have a lathe that I can be proud of rather than having evil thoughts each time I switch it on.

Yes, AUD also in my sights,

Nigel

Have a look at a surplus toolroom lathe straight from the factory and its finish and feel - covered in grease, oil and swarf, everything probably needs adjusting, may need a regrind. Though the Sieg lathes don't perhaps have the silky feel of a brand new Myford, as you will see if you read the MYFORD thread the ARC versions at least are highly rated at least in the larger size.

I had a Raglan Little John lathe it gave me years of good service ex school lathe. Before I retired I decided I would need another lathe. I looked at the Chinese offerings but they didn't appeal. So on the recommendation of a friend I ended up with a Myford 254s I have been very pleased with this lathe and have done a lot of work on it. Recently my son decided to get a bigger lathe he has just bought a Warco similar size to the 254 it's a nice machine if it had been available when I was looking for a machine I would have been very tempted.

Nigel, I have sent you a message. Click the flashing envelope symbol next to 'settings' on the green line at the very top of the page.

John

+1. Wot he said. Very eloquently.

Signed,

Boxford owner.

The Myfords are not all that expensive if you can avoid the S7 models selling for 9,000 quid new and generating many hopefuls with 5k pricetags on secondhand jobs.

The much cheaper ML7 will do all you need to do. I bought mine for $400 but it needed TLC. If you are not careful, machine tool restoration can take over from other hobbies and suck up all your shed time.

No need for power cross feed. Feeding by hand is just fine on facing on the odd occasion you need it. You got it right about the QC gearbox being more of a nicety than a necessity.

If you are the kind of person who restores pre-1950 motorcycles as you say, you should probably have no trouble sorting out a secondhand lathe, and would be the sort of person who was prepared to tinker with ageing British machinery. Which opens up the field considerably as you have seen. Boxfords, Raglans and others all seem to come up at good prices. And the honorable old Drummond M-type if you can find a good one. The Boxfords being a South Bend clone should be easily moveable if you strip a few parts off them, eg motor, tailstock, cross slide, chuck etc and take them off the stand.

A lot depends too on what you can find locally that looks good. I would hesitate to buy a lathe unseen off the net. Bit like used cars that.

Edited By Hopper on 03/03/2018 09:12:54

I watched the close of an internet factory closure sale only the other day; what had attracted me was a MyfordSuper 7 on the industrial stand and fitted a collet closure chuck plus several collets.

It came with the screwcutting gearbox. The auction start price was £200 and I was curious to see what the final hammer price would come out at

In all there were 31 bids, it got very lively in the closing period as that lot went into overtime bidding and finally finished at a hammer price of £2224. When all the other costs such as VAT, buyer's premium and VAT on that are taken into account, this lathe will cost it's new owner £3064 and small change

I valued it at perhaps £1000 tops, there was no guidance on condition and research would have been needed to go and take a look at it. 1st Machinery Auctions, whose sale this was, could only tell me it was in the West Midlands, the Google map on the sale notice showed a red blob on a cross roads [with names] in a district in north Bradford

The magic of a name perhaps, but it was way over what I would have paid for a used machine in a factory sale

Brian

Edited By Brian Wood on 03/03/2018 09:49:49

I am another motorcycle restorer mainly pre war girder fork bikes. I do however work on a lot for other people including 50s/60s bikes. For me this means a spindle bore of around 1 1/2" is essential to pass things like fork stanchions through. I have never used a Myford but see people do some very good work on them, second hand they can look expensive to me but may do all you need. If you are close to the Lichfield area you are welcome to see my set up for the bikes. Chris.

Hello again Nigel,

I have sent you another message,

Best regards,

John

If you need a 1.5 inch spindle bore, you are looking for a machine with a 5MT spindle.

The Myford 7 Series, unless under 15 to 20 years old, are likely to be 2MT, which is restrictive in that nothing larger than half inch will go through the spindle. The later ones even then, will be 4MT which is 29mm bore, I think.

Far Eastern lathes with a 5MT spindle bore will be Warco BH 600/ BH900, Chester Craftsman, the fairly rare Engineers ToolRoom BL12-24 or one of their geared head successors, with a 38mm bore.

A Norton box is much quicker and easier to set up than calculating, (or checking tables) before setting up changewheels for screwcutting. At worst, with one of the above far eastern machines you will probably have three choices of input gear to the train, (32T, 36T, with 40T as the standard) with a 120/127T Idler .

This will allow a wide range Metric and Imperial threads to be cut, if required, with a large range of feed rates/rev. (40 in all) with back gear to slow things down, if you wish.

Howard