Myford Super 7 Mounting Blocks

I have to move a Myford Super 7 off a bench (and then into a car, down a motorway and onto another bench . . . . )

It is sitting on raising blocks in a drip tray and is in quite an awkward corner. The nuts fastening the feet of the lathe to the raising blocks have come off easily enough but if the studs that pass through the feet and through the levelling screws could also be removed it would mean the lathe could be slid sideways much more easily without having to raise it another couple of inches to clear the studs.

(I plan to bolt two sturdy cross pieces to the underneath of the feet to make something to get hold of and to resist the machine’s tendency to tip towards the motor.)

My question is: should I be able to lock two nuts onto the studs and screw them up and out or is there a locking nut inside/under the raising block that is holding them firmly in place?

Not sure about the studs question. But you can make the lathe a lot easier to lift up and off those studs if you first remove: The electric motor (one grubscrew and the mounting plate complete with motor can be slipped off), the cross slide, the chuck and the tailstock, all very easily removeable. Makes an easy two-man lift that way.

Thanks Hopper, that does sound sensible. Does the grub screw hold the mounting plate to the pivoting bar or the bar to the lathe -- or something else entirely? I haven't been able to have a good look as there is a (home-made I think) shroud over the motor.

Nick

Geez, ya got me there. Can't remember exactly. The motor mounting plate has two short pivot pins that fit into sockets in the H frame unit. ISTR you undo one grub screw in the frame and it lets you slide that mounting plate sideways an inch or so until the two pivot pins come out of their holes and viola, the motor and plate are free. Plus yo got to undo the belt tensioning arm bolt.

You can just undo the four motor mounting base bolts, but the other way is quicker if you can find the tiny allen head grub screw.

Cross slide you just crank the handle till the slide comes loose and pull it off. Tailstock will slide right off.

Edited By Hopper on 09/09/2018 14:09:31

Hi there, Nick,

Go to the Myford web-site, click on Super 7, click on 'Motorising Assembly' and scroll down to where 'Exploded diagram' is mentioned. Then click on the button that expands the diagram.

This works for all the major sub-assemblies of the lathe (and for those of the ML7 on tha ML7 page) and the diagrams are down-loadable as .pdf files. Right click and follow the 'save image as' routine.

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!

In the past, on more than one occasion, two of us have moved a ML7. But it can be unwieldy, if you do not take into account the offset weight of the motor.

Positioning the Tailstock and the saddle will help to balance the lathe in one plane.

If you lift it with a sling, be careful about putting a sling behind the chuck. You are putting part of the weight onto the Headstock bearings.

My inclination would be to disturb as little as possible, even trying to move the lathe with the raising blocks still in place.

Howard

I just checked my mounting blocks, and there is a bolt head underneath, but I can`t see if it goes right true or if the studs are separate parts. Do as Hopper says, remove as much as you can, it`s still rather heavy.

Jan

Nick

Those mounting studs have 5/16" BSF threads at each end. The lower one screws through the block and goes through a hole in the cabinet and is secured by a hex nut. So if you get inside the cabinet and remove the nuts you can unscrew the stud from above. The adjustable Hex that the lathe sits on is 9/16" BSF and screws into the mounting block. The stud just passes through it, so if you remove it and the nut inside the cabinet you can use the 2 nut trick to unscrew the stud from above. When you do this to both of them then the block is also free to slide about. Because the stud has an unthreaded portion in the middle you can't do it from below.

Re the motor mount. As far as I remember there are 2 grub screws, one holds the mounting plate tight and the other fits into a groove in the mounting bar so as to allow rotation but not lateral movement. Best guess is that the one on the motor plate is tight on the bar while the one on the countershaft bracket is in the groove. You'll have to find them both anyway, so just remove them both .

Nick, I appreciate your predicament. I ended up having to move my S7 alone after big son promised to help but then didn't. The S7 was on (genuine) Myford raising blocks and the bolts do extend down as Robbo states.
I couldn't though do as he suggests to remove them and had to lift each end of the bed, bit by bit, with wooden blocks until clear of the studs.
From that near hernia-inducing experience, yes ~ strip as much from the lathe as you can.
The motor is easily removeable (providing you can first get the pulley off the shaft !).
If you are having to do the job alone, and you don't have one then do consider borrowing or hiring a wheeled and braked hydraulic lift table as the bed + headstock assembly is still very heavy (too heavy ?) for a one man lift.
I considered moving the whole thing in our SUV but then thought about potential problems & damage lifting it all in and tying it securely. So hired a small van which also took the 'lift table. Cost of such vs. possible damage to SUV and ease of loading was worth every penny.

Thanks very much for all these suggestions. I can't get at the underneath of the raising blocks but the exploded diagram is very useful.

Nick