Myford ML2 Adventure

A thread on my Myford ML2 resurrection. There is very little information about on these lathes so I will add as I go. Hopefully will be useful to someone in the. future. Here is a pic of her as I bought her,

Makes you wonder about Health & safety back then. None I guess. I have worked in some factories that had line shafts driving polishing pans. That was at Trebor Bassets ,Pontefract. You could have stuck your hand anywhere in moving pulleys. Good luck with the restoration. Keep posting.

Steve.

Steve,

This similar to my old Southbend lathe but there would have been a cover over the gears which are missing in the photo.

Paul

Good to see the old iron being used in anger still. I've a Drummond M-Type that is similar era and style and it does surprisingly good work. Good enough to make a GH Thomas dividing head that is accurate to within a thousandth of a degree.

I use a modern Poly-V drive belt (same as a car serpentine belt) running straight on the old flat pulleys and it works a treat. Looks like you have the original drip tray with cutouts for the pedal-power drive belt. Neat.

I don't think many of those old Brit lathes had gear guards until about World War 2 era and belt guards came post war with the ML7 AFAIK. Been using mine sans guards for over 50 years (it was my Dad's old lathe) and still have all my fingers and my nose.

Edited By Hopper on 03/02/2020 10:28:48

There are quite a few mentions of the early Myfords on here though often buried in a thread about something else. There are also some mentions on the Drummondlathe group at Groups.io. Probably also most specific knowledge is on the Myford Groups.io section. On Lathes.co.uk for this model there is little about the layshaft so some more photos of it would be interesting and I'm sure once cleaned up Tony would appreciate a few high resolution pictures of that part.

Lathes UK website carries a lot of info about the Myford M types (ML1,2, 3 and 4 ) The 1 and 2 were 3.125 inch centre height and the 3 and 4 were 3.5 inch, as were the ML7 Series.

The tailstock alignment locking is not of the best, but useable.

here, we are talking of machines anything up to 83 years old, that have had widely varying degrees of care and attention, or abuse ).With any old machine, you have to be prepared to spend time and effort getting them back into good tune. Once sorted, they are capable of good work, within their limitations.

Nowadays, you are likely to have to make up your own layshaft arrangements.

If you want a really fine feed, you may well need a couple of extra 20T gears, and a 60T. Thankfully, ones for the 7 Series can easily be modified by drilling a hole for a Driving Pin. You should then be able to reduce the power feed down to 0.0047"/rev.

There were two types of gear cover. The one most frequently found hinged on a horizontal bar behind the Headstock. The side hinged cover is a rarer item.

Howard

Time for a little work…..

Hi Daighi welcome to the forum. I have an M Type Myford similar age to your lathe. You should also join the https://groups.io/g/drummondlathe web group as there are owners on there with the same lathe and there may be spares about as well as information.

David

The M type Myfords have, by modern standards, a few quirks.

The Saddle handwheel, having no idler, moves the saddle in the opposite direction to what might be expected. i.e. cloclwisae rotatioon moves the Saddle towards the chuck.

The Cross and Top Slide Leadscrews are 12 tpi, and the dials have 80 divisions, so each division is not exactly 0.001" (0.001041666666" if you want be precise)

At least the main Leadscrew is 8 tpi.

All threads will be BSW or BSF

Depending upon the age, the spindle thread will be 8/8 x 9 tpii Whit form, or 7/8 x 12 tpi Whit form. Some of the very nblast had 1.125 x 12 tpi, but withoutb the 1.250" register of the later 7 Series.

If you can acquire sufficient gears, you can obtain a finenest feed, by setting up

20 : 60/20 : 65/20 :: 60. The end of the slot in the banjo may need a bit of fettlinbg to allow the stud to reach far enough to mesh correctly..

The gears are 20 DP, 14.5 PA, like the 7 SXeries, but are driven / compunded by 3/32 pins rather than keys.

7 Series geras can be used if an existing gera is drilled through and used a a template to drill into a 7 Series gear, (but keep away from the keyway! )

Ideally, don't drill right nbthrough, so that the 3/32 pin is captive.

HTH

Howard

If your spindle has the 1.125 inch x 12tpi nose you can bond a collar onto the 1.125 inch diameter register and finish machine that in situ to 1.250 inch diameter so that the lathe can accept ML7 spindle fitting chucks and other such hardware. I upgraded my Dad's old ML4 with that simple modification and it transformed the lathe in terms of finding affordable accessories.

Regards Brian