Flycutting on the speed 10

I have been putting my myford through its paces recently with some test exercises from one of H. Halls workshop practice series.

For those interested I am making a small marking gauge out of mild steel.

I was thinking of the most practical way of milling a flat on a round shaft, so I choose using the flycutter. This was purely for simplicity sake as I am using the qc toolpost to hold the work.

However I cant fit a draw bar to the back of the Morse taper to hold it in tight, does this present any safety concerns? eg the Morse taper flying out of the spindle...

So far I am only taking light cuts of 10 thou.

Think about the forces on the cutting tool. If it has rake on the cutting edge that will exert a force that pulls the tool into the cut - out of the taper. So it will suddenly come free and take a deep cut.
Look onto other types of flycutter. There are sets of 3 sizes that come on an half inch sraight rod to hold in the chuck, or make one that holds a round toolbit and bolts onto the faceplate, or just grip a suitable tool in the 4 jaw offset from centre.

A morse taper will hold a tool securely if there is something pushing it into the taper, eg. drilling a hole or turning between centres. Vibrations can easily loosen the tool which is why you have a draw bar. A flycutter causes a lot of vibration because of its intermittent cutting action.

Does'nt a Myford have a thru hole in the spindle for a draw bar ?

Or hold the flycutter in the chuck or on a face plate as suggested.

Paul.

All I ever did on my Speed 10 was set a suitably-ground tool into the 45 degree position on an ordinary boring bar and hold that in the 3-jaw.

Flycutting in lathe

This is my WM250V doing the same thing but with power crossfeed. The vertical slide is the same one I used on the old Speed 10.

Hi Paul

The morse taper flycutter does have a tapped hole to for a draw bar to go through the spindle, however the lathe is positioned very tightly in the corner with not enough wall space to put a draw bar from the back. It may be possible to fit the draw bar first through the front.

I shall have to give this a try, the alternative of repositioning the lathe doesn't sound very appealing. I still havent got round to checking the level of the lathe or turning test bars.

Would it be necessary to move the lathe to change the gears? If so, a bullet worth biting.

Hi Ega

The change wheels can be accessed ok at the mo. I have also found that I can fit the drawbar through the front of the mandril, although its a pain in the arse to put in and take out.

I made a slide hammer to extract the flycutter using a similar setup to how you would remove diesel injectors. However I am not sure I would want to use the slide hammer on a hard centre.

I use this on my ML10 without any problems.

Edited By Engine Builder on 02/09/2020 13:22:37

Another option.... for my Myford ML10 (when I had it), I drilled a hole in the end of the drive peg used on a standard drive plate, fitted a grub screw through the side and inserted a short length of round HSS for the tool bit. It worked really well for all sorts of jobs like cylinders and aluminium blocks etc.

Phil H

Also, my current draw bar for my Myford Super 7 consists of a simple length of M10 screwed rod. As you suggest yourself, that can be fed through from the headstock end with the washers and nuts fitted at the changewheel end.

Phil H

Hi Jon, I suggest you google mandrill and mandrel. You will understand why your post sounds like animal cruelty

Martin C

Hi Jon,

If you are making Harold Hall's small marking out gauge from his "lathework a complete course" book I hope you have better luck with the adjustment mechanism. I just could not get the 6mm threads to match.

i think i would move the lathe so i could use it to its full potential

Do not flycut without securing the mandrel, it will work loose with disater. Take heed of all the suggestions and act accordingly.

Make a mandrel, it is easy and saves a lot of problems at other times and jobs, Move the lathe to suit the gap you need.