Myford Super 7 at SRS for only £395

Might cost you more than that again in Scotchbrite pads

I'd love to take that on, keep me amused for hours, but feel it could be very bad for my health - when SWMO saw what I'd brought home!

I think if we were not planning a house move I might have been on the phone to SRS, I do enjoy a machine tool project, hoping to find a Drummond M type after the move. I did an Elliot 10" shaper years ago that had been outside under a tarp, it wasn't untill we went to move it we realised the bottom inch or so of the stand had completely rusted away as it had stood in a puddle! Never looked very shiny when done but worked very well, amazing how cast iron cleans up.

Dave

Edited By Dave Wootton on 04/01/2022 13:35:35

It's got that farmyard patina which collectors on "Salvage Hunters" will lust after in 100 years

Dave,

I would also love to have a go at that but I have a Super 7 already. I agree that a full strip and a good clean up - it would look completely different.

Phil H

Phil

Hope someone buys it soon and takes temptation away!

I really don't need it ,and if it was mint wouldn't be as tempted even at a bargain price, so what strange compulsion makes certain people want to take home lumps of rust and restore them to something approaching their former glory?

As a kid I had a perfectly nice shiny bicycle bought by parents, yet pulled old bikes out of rivers and hedges and attempted to restore them. Obviously a lifelong affliction.

I wonder what a shrink would make of it all?

Dave

Edited By Dave Wootton on 04/01/2022 16:28:13

Edited By Dave Wootton on 04/01/2022 16:32:31

Dave,

I think you are safe (your head). I think in this case, I like the idea of taking something that people have already condemned and showing them that it isn't really that difficult - just a bit of patience. Also, it sort of looks bad but rust isn't 'usually' as bad as it looks.

Phil H

Hooray its sold- and not to me! I can abandon my devious schemes for smuggling it into the workshop unseen. and pretending I found it in the canal.

Hope the new owner restores it, even better if they posted a log here.

Dave

Sad that it got into that state. Once it was the pride and joy of one of our brothers, possibly traceable from the serial number. Imagine him saving for it, placing the order and opening the box once delivered. Perhaps eh made some engines that are already with someone else, then he became ill and couldn't get into the shed to play with it, then maybe the roof leaked and neither he nor his family noticed.

I have to own up....I BOUGHT IT...!

When I looked at the original listing on SRS it confirmed br's post and said they were amazed when started up it ran quite well, inside the covers for gearing & headstock it looks quite good, the rest of it is seized up ... at present...but it won't be for long..!

I should think the rust is likely not at bad as it looks but as to whether there are any problems with the bed .. time will tell, I have been looking for something like this for quite some time as my own lathe which has served me very well and is a joy to use is an Atlas 10F, unfortunately they have had a bad press but I believe the Myfords were based on these lathes, when set up properly it does accurate work.

The work I have done on the Atlas has given me the confidence to have a go at this Myford and I have just about re-made the Atlas over the years I have had it... I bought it from an old Mill in Stockport some 30 years ago for the princely sum of £25, it had been used solely for repairing the overhead power belting pulleys and I was told the mechanic who operated it asked to buy it when the company shut down, he was refused and took the tailstock as a memento.

If there is any interest I will post a log of how I am doing with it, and will probably be asking for advice somewhere along the line.

....Bob.

Please do Bob. It should be a nice project with a good outcome.

Steve.

Well done Bob

Really nice project, I'm sure it will turn out to be a great lathe, I'll second Steve in requesting some posts on how you are getting on with it.

So glad it's not going to be broken up and has found a good home.

Dave

Bob forgot to say I have some manuals for the super 7 & the ml7 . Just shout if you need anything.

Steve.

Bob Mc:

Please tell us how you managed without a tailstock.

Good luck with the Myford!

Bob,

Yes. Please do prepare a restoration log it will be really interesting to see how it goes and how bad or good it actually is.

Dave,

That's frighteningly close to how I would have had to describe another lathes into my garage i.e., I found it.

I still hear - Not another machine? How many machines do you need?

Thanks everyone for your interest in this..much appreciated.

ega asks how did I manage without a tailstock ?
At the time the only option I had was to go to a night school class and make one.

By the way I am not a mechanical engineer by trade so the school metalwork shop was invaluable for giving me a start, sadly they seem to have dissapeared now. A few years later I was lucky enough to find a tailstock but the task of making a square cut ram screw and barrel at the school was an interesting experience.

The renovation and modification of this lathe has been going on for quite some time, the bedways were worn but not damaged so I had to sort that out, the edges and underside had to be done as well, and the saddle needed similar treatment.

when all put back together I was overjoyed at the smoothness of movement with no noticeable play or sticking at any point along it, I made a new topslide as there was a chunk missing out of the T slot on the original and I fitted sewing machine balance wheel handles on the leadscrew, saddle and tailstock which give a feel of smoothness and extra control, much better than the original ones made of Mazak.

I have longed to get my hands on a Myford but the prices were getting beyond the limit of what my beloved will let me have without strangulation....!

Just one last comment about the Atlas, I was told that the lathe and many others like it were part of the 'Lease Lend' agreement with America during or after the war years but I don't know how true this is.

Thanks also to Steviegtr for offer....and with a bit of luck the lump will arrive by courier sometime this week, my first job now is to swab the decks and fit a worktop to a hydraulic motorcycle lifter so I can shift it about.

nb.. picture of my old Atlas at the moment, which, if all goes well will be retired.

Hi All...

Have been restoring the lathe over the past few months and I was thinking of writing a series of articles for MEW but have now decided to just put the log on the forum.

For those who remember the picture below shows what it was like the day I got it delivered, I asked a certain editor what he thought of it, to which he replied that it looked like a badgers bottom..! Cheeky b****r

The whole point of having a restoration project as this is to do as much as I could using the tools and methods that I have at hand and as economically as possible, otherwise I might as well go an buy a new one, so I make no apologies if some of these methods are not exactly industry standards, however I have used these same methods to restore an older lathe which has been quite remarkably accurate and is now a joy to work with.

It has certainly been interesting and educating, and most enjoyable to bring something back to life.

The saddle & cross-slide looked particularly nasty..below, totally locked up with rust.

The clutch & pulleys being covered up were not so bad ..

The main thing with this big lump is that it is quite heavy, I used a wheeled hydraulic motorcycle lifter so that I could move it around, the plan is to completely dismantle and start off cleaning the bed up.

The bedways when cleaned up showed that there was ~ 5 thou" wear at the headstock end, there were other dings and dangs but I was pleased that it was not too bad and was something I could take on as a scraping project. I have a large-ish surface plate which I used to check flatness, the main problem being that without lifting gear I would not be able to put the plate on the bedways, the only way I could tackle this problem was to lift the bed up on the hydraulic lifter to the same height as the plate and gingerly roll in on the plate.

Hope this might be of interest to some of you good folks, I have quite a lot of pictures to upload as yet and I think you will be surprised at what it looks like now.

More to come. Bob.

I personally think it would make for a great article.

Bob,

I agree with Jon, it would be a great article. I like to see it in the forum here but I think it would be great to see it in one of the magazines to show what can be done - perhaps educate a few people at the same time.

Phil H

Thanks Jon, Phil,

your posts much appreciated.

When the lathe was delivered I really did think I was losing my marbles! it took a few weeks work to see some light at the end of the tunnel and there have been some tricky problems to overcome.

I will reconsider submitting an article to Neil so I had better not spill any more beans!

thanks again...Bob.

I believe that when the bed was made from the raw casting, the bottom of the feet were surfaced and then all cutting and grinding was done referenced from there. The rear face of the rear shear was cut and again the rest of the shear widths and depths cut and ground from that setting. The bed below the headstock is at the same level as the rest of the shears.

Hope I am not teaching Grandma to **** ****