Myford S7 Newall DRO Installation

While trying to navigate this forum and figuring out how to post in order to ask a question today, I realized that I owe Barry Harrison aka ‘KWIL’, I believe, a long overdue thank you for his article in MEW December 2002/ January 2003 and his posts here on installing a Newall DRO on a Myford S7 lathe.

What was unique about his installation concept is the ability to retain full use of the rear bed mounted taper attachment. I have actually completed this on two different S7 lathes I have owned over the years. Long story, sold the first one due to a cross country move. Big mistake. Just made more work in the end. Recently completed the second one. Here are some photos. Happy to answer any questions.

Edit: Thanks Barry Harrison for the concept in his MEW article and thanks to Ken Wilson (KWIL) for the photos in his album of a very similar installation and for answering my questions during my first installation, especially for pointing me to the article on the front mounted ‘MYFORD SADDLE LOCK’ by Don Ainley. Not sure what issue, but think it was in ME. Thanks Chris Tice for setting me straight.

Myford S7 Serial #SK164898 (1994?)

Rear view of the encoder mounting and installed taper attachment.

Back of lathe view showing chip guards, DRO cable protection and display/light mounting.

Required extensions for taper attachment. Z axis scale and taper attachment are mounted to a steel plate which is attached via the original T/A mounting tapped holes. T/A is installed lower than original mounting necessitating the distance be made up with new extensions.

Installation requires moving the carriage lock to the front of the lathe. Sorry for the rotated photos. Can’t seem to fix this.

Edited By Michael O'Connor on 08/02/2019 23:59:55

I think Ken Willson might be surprised at that.

Incidentally Ken can show you a very good top slide DRO installation worth incorporating.

Hi Chris,

I looked up the article in MEW before I posted and the author was Barry Harrison. KWIL has answered some questions for me in the past, and I thought he had photos of this very installation in his album. If I have made a mistake, I sincerely apologize. Just want to thank everyone involved.

Sorry for the double post. I will wait longer next time. I am new at this forum stuff. Please bear with me.

Thanks!

Regards, Mike

Hi Mike,

You said that you are "Happy to answer any questions", so I have one. How do you keep your workshop in such pristine condition. I am very envious.

Cheers, Paul.

Hi Paul,

I have two big dogs, a Rottweiler and a Labrador Retreiver who spend a lot of time with me. The Rotty, Gretyl is my constant companion. I try to clean up as I go. It isn’t easy, but it is much easier than pulling chips out of their paws. I just finished cleaning up my shop before I took the photos. It isn’t always this clean. You can see boxes that are still not unpacked two years after our last move behind my lathe. Keeping after it is necessary as we live in Florida so when the wife gets home from work, the first thing she loses is her shoes. I fully intend to someday build some model engines, but I have a weakness for old machinery and have spent the past 30 years restoring, making replacement parts and accessories for them as a pastime. Started with a South Bend 10K (which is similar to a Boxford), in bushel baskets, rebuilt it and sold it for much more than I bought it for. Did that a few dozen times and I have the shop now I always dreamed of. Lot of work, but sure did learn a bunch on the journey.

Model engines soon. Have a few more tooling projects first. To me, it doesn’t matter what I am working on as long as I am building something in the shop.

The Myford S7 is not the most efficient lathe I have in my shop in terms of metal removal, but it holds a special place for me. When I was young and broke, I read ME and through inter-library loan was able to read articles by George Thomas, J.A. Radford and many others who inspired me from the back issues I requested from the Detroit Public Library who has an extensive collection of ME. I lived in Western NY State and they would actually copy and mail me any articles I requested, Over the years, I worked as a machinist, toolmaker and finally a vocational instructor. Always wanted a Myford S7 and to equip it with GHT tooling. Saved for years. Bought one new from our US importer Blue Ridge Machinery in 1994. When it arrived, opened the crate only to find that Customs officials had opened the crate and removed the wood from across the lathe’s ways that secured it in the crate. However, when they put it back together they didn’t place the rust preventative paper under the piece of hardwood securing the lathe in the crate. The sea air and wood sitting directly on the ways for several years in a warehouse in West Virginia were not kind to this Myford lathe’s ways. When I removed the two pieces of wood, the area under the hardwood looked like the road salt rotten frame rails of my 1966 Ford F-250 pickup after two decades of NY winters. No kidding, the ways were pitted so badly that even if I reground the bed, it would’ve completely removed the induction hardened surface. I worked as a toolmaker for a coordinate measuring machine builder at the time and had access to a very large, perfect Okamoto grinder that would’ve easily handled the bed regrinding. Blueridge had me send it back and couldn’t offer a replacement because it was the last of their stock bought a few years prior. A replacement would be another 6 month wait and another $1500. Instead, they offered me an Emco Super 11 lathe with the same accessories I ordered for the Myford for the $6800 I paid. Took the deal as it was a great deal. Love the Super 11. Took another ten years, but finally did find a S7. I enjoy using it for small parts. It makes great parts and is a pleasure to use.

The S7 I have now is actually the fourth one I have owned and by coincidence, the same year as the first Myford that I ‘almost’ owned, well did own for about a week. Each one an improvement. The current one and my last was purchased a few years ago from a retiring clockmaker. It was hardly used and had many original accessories with it, most unused in the original boxes. Even has the original paperwork. Truly, the find of a lifetime for me. I think the clockmaker got the last good one from Blueridge Machinery in 1994. It just took a while to find its way home. We were in the process of moving from Nashville to Florida at the time, had just sold the Myford I had and my wife thought I was nuts. Don’t these deals always come along at the worst possible time?

I suppose this works for an introduction. I really like this forum. Many knowledgeable people here. Will try to post progress on projects. As I have mentioned, am new to this. Going to give it a try. No clubs or groups nearby. We live in a college town in Northern Florida. No industry nearby. Strange for me here. In Western NY where I grew up, if I needed a piece of metal, I had several suppliers within a ten minute drive. You could go to the scrap yard and sift through drops and machine shop bar ends to find what you may need and pay scrap prices or bring a dozen doughnuts for the crew. Need a cutting tool? Same thing, several sources minutes away. Different world here.

Working on a tailstock way wiper for this Myford which will also have a stop to protect the x-axis scale from the tailstock base running into it. Will start taking work in progress photos and post progress on some of my projects.

Regards, Mike