Help with potential first lathe. ML7 content

Hello everyone. I'm looking for buy my first lathe to learn and tinker with in the garage to keep me out of trouble

I have found a Myford ML7 fairly close by and would like to pick your brains to see if it might be a good buy. It is owned by a woman who inherited it a few years ago and u believe hasn't been used in the time.

https://ibb.co/dWR5KPB

https://ibb.co/QNXPrjP

https://ibb.co/DpKh3Cz

https://ibb.co/ZdPVXFB

https://ibb.co/3znBtYZ

https://ibb.co/4YJkTsg

I know picture don't tell you much. But any ideas on a rough price that would be fair for this?

It's difficult to tell without actually looking at it and looking for excessive play in bearings and leadscrews etc but a quick trawl of one that have been sold on ebay and elsewhere shows a range of £450 to £950.

Do you knew a Myford owner that you could take with you for a look, virus restrictions notwithstanding?

Brian

Hi Matt, can I ask how did you find it? I'm also looking for a first lathe and I'm not sure where to look aside from eBay.

Thanks for the reply.

Unfortunately I don't know any Myford owners in the area. I have one friend who may be able to come and have a look who has more knowledge than me, I will see if he can come.

They are looking for around £800 to £950, so at the top of the price range.

Ebay is a good place, there are also some on Facebook marketplace.

I got luck by seeing a random message from someone who was looking to sell.

You can try Ebay, Facebook marketplace, Gumtree, used machinery dealers, lathes. UK & Myfords themselves, plenty of Myford's about but they aren't cheap.

Tony

Edited By Tony Pratt 1 on 03/02/2021 15:52:48

Your photos are hard to go through put up like that.

I would say walk away.

Reasons

Only wood tools come with it.

Wood is machined at higher speeds so it might have been used flat out a lot for it's last owner.

The oilers look too clean as do the change gears.

If the inside of the apron is all clean, then it's been stripped, cleaned and may be put back properly or may be not.

Pictures were in his album as well

Tony

Thank you both! I didn't even know Facebook marketplace was a thing before now and having looked on there briefly I've found what looks like a decent machine which is also fairly local :D

Apologies about the pictures, I put them up before noticing the album feature.

The lathe sold before I had decided what to do, but I think that is for the best as It gives me some more time to save and decide exactly what I want. I am now looking at Boxford lathes as well, they seem in a similar price point as the ML7

I’ve just picked up an ml7 1960 for £900.I think I got a bargain based on prices of lathes I’d been watching.

Judging lathe and woman only by photo carries comparable risks.

There might be a beauty outside and rot inside.

Regardless of what is being said about hardly ever used lathes etc the truth is that nearly every ML7 currently on the market is going to be a reconstruction project, particularly if it is *precision* what you are looking for.

Dedicated modellers who care about their machines don't like to part with them easy and even if sold it is often done privately in inner circles, not on ebay.

So you should assume that you are buying set of castings with some mechanisms working well and other which don't. Fortunately it can all be rectified to pristine and often better than original condition, very much like I did with my own.

Make sure that you pay attention to detail and material specification while undertaking such project. 2 screws might look identical and yet behave entirely different once fitted.

By doing refurbishment by yourself you will also learn how lathe works and this is always a great asset.

ML7 is easy to understand and averagely intelligent person can work out many things by himself and it is a great fun. Certain aspects which are more specialistic are well explained on the net.

Martin

For what its worth I bought an ML7 (1949) about 15 years ago, it was intact but quite scruffy and had only a 3 jaw chuck, I paid £450 for it. About 5 years ago I bought an S7 (1964) with a gearbox and on a Myford stand, the one with the Hexagonal ends, I paid £950 for it and I still have both it and the ML7. The ML 7 turned out to be in an overall quite good condition and after mounting it on my own scratch built replica Myford stand ,with some in-depth cleaning and a few coats of paint it still looks and performs well.

I regularly patrol the eBay "Myford" offerings and have come to conclude that ML7 prices have apparently stepped up to get quite close to S7 prices, when I bought my ML7 it was about half the equivalent S7 price, Your pictures appear to show that the one you're thinking about has a Hoover motor (so probably original, mine has too and after a bit of cleaning up internal workings and remaking the connections it still performs like it should). The pictures don't show the end, belt and gear, covers. are they still with it? My main concerns about inspecting the condition of the lathe would be the main the bearings (stick a long bar in the chuck and see how much you can deflect it side to side/up and down) and the state of the bed surfaces (visual inspection, hacksaw marks and how much movement is there in the cross slide near the chuck and how tight is it near the tailstock?).

Good luck with your purchase if you decide to go ahead.

Edited By Don Cox on 21/02/2021 09:36:46

Edited By Don Cox on 21/02/2021 09:39:45

Headstock bearings can usually be adjusted or perhaps scraped in the worst scenario. But it is bed wear that can get expensive because you can't do that at home and hand-scraping is not a realistic undertaking for most beginnners.

On a Myford, check the front bed way about six inches from the left hand end with a straight edge and a feeler gauge on the top surface and the front surface. You can also measure the width of the front way with a 1 to 2" micrometer and compare the worn spot to the far right hand end of the bed past the wear zone. Any more than about 3 thou wear is cause for concern. If the lathe is pre-1972 you can get around it by doing the Wide Guide conversion, if it hasnt been done already. Othewise you are up for a very expensive regrind.