Myford mystery hole

Decided to strip and clean my ML7 carriage today. In the process I realised that one of the oil nipples is not a standard one, in fact I am not sure whether it is an oil hole at all. I have always oiled it despite it not being a standard nipple thinking that a past owner may have replaced the original at some time. The hole is on the top of the carriage and just to the right of the carriage lock, it appears to be threaded but bigger than the standard nipple thread (probably about 2BA). I can’t find any reference to the hole in any of the Myford literature so I am wondering whether the hole is original or a later mod by someone. Any opinions would be welcome, I will try to post a picture.

It's for mounting part of the Myford coolant system.

The bottom bracket on this assembly:-

Edited By Nick Hughes on 27/06/2019 19:32:37

Thanks for that Nick, That’s another mystery solved.

if it goes all the way through to the way underneath, you should put a little plug or a ball oiler etc in it to stop swarf going down there.

The hole has always had a grease / oil nipple in it, which is why I have been faithfully oiling it all this time. I will replace it with a suitable bung and save some oil ! Having had all the usual fun with the Myford oil gun I have considered replacing all these nipples with ball oilers, but the ones on the headstock pulley and back gear might be a problem, what do you think?

Malc

When I go my Myford S7 back in '77 I very quickly got fed up with the Myford oiler which seemed to put oil every where except where it was wanted. So I modified a standard pump oil can with a nipple as in the photo. The end is reduced to slightly smaller than the hole in the oil nipple and is drilled #60. I also filed a groove across the end with a knife needle file to allow the oil a passage around the sealing ball in the oil nipple. Disregard the bevel on the end of the nipple, that's just wear. I've actually replaced it a couple of times as the small end tends to get banged up. The oil now goes only into the oil nipple not all over the place but where it's not wanted.

John

Yes John, that’s the second idea along those line which I have seen. When I get the lathe back together this is something I will look into - all food for thought! Thanks to all.

The Tecalemit oil guns that Myford supplied were a bit limited when trying to seal against the oil nipples of the lathe. Search for "Wanner oil gun" to find some ones that are similar in shape (albeit a bit bigger) but about 50 years newer in design. They have the option of a concave nozzle with plastic seal for the oil nipples, a conical nozzle for the ball oilers or a hemispherical nozzle for the grease sockets on my milling machine, and some others!

Useless fact:- The oil nipples on the Myford lathes are to the original Zerk design rather than the later spherical headed design. Probably not because they're specifically for oil, just because that's what myfords used and never felt any need to change.