Worth it?

Good Evening. Just came across this on ebay and did not know that it is still possible to buy new Myfords? 4674 pounds just for lathe without motor or any accessories! Seems like alot of money compared you can get a Warco 250 with VFD for roughly 2700 pounds. I actually have thought of saving up for one though it is alot of money for a basically mini lathe. What are your thoughts? Have Myfords always been this expensive?

I think you'll find it at least comes with the motor! But yes Myfords are expensive. I bought a new S7 many years ago and though it's a nice lathe, knowing what I do now I wouldn't buy another.

Yes, Myfords have always been expensive, but not as costly as industrial lathes. The cheapest Boxford was about 30% more than a fully equipped Myford. Myford's price point wasn't completely unaffordable though, and many were sold to hobbyists with deep pockets or on the never never.

Interesting that new Myfords are being offered for sale again - for a long time only Connoisseurs were available, about £14000 if memory serves, and refurbs. I hope Myford fanboys support the company by buying them.

Accessories are extra but I think the new machines come with motors.

Dave

If you're looking at the eBay page PipesandStuff is looking at, it doesn't, John:

"This is the stock model. It comes without tooling or a motor however we can build it to your specification."

Edited By Bill Phinn on 27/04/2023 21:31:00

I don't know much about Myfords or lathes in general but I think there are many variants of Super 7. I saw one here that has a gear box that is missing on that model. Or can be attached later maybe?

Good grief! Worse than I thought.

Gearbox can be a retro-fit but it doesn't stop there - new and different shape gear cover on the LH end, new shorter leadscrew and possibly a new banjo, but I'm not sure about that. There could be other incidentals. All in all, a very expensive 'upgrade'. I think that if I was buying that lathe, I would spend a bit more than just any old 1- ph motor and get a 3ph one + vfd, as in a Newton -Tesla. Had mine for years and wouldn't be without. It's my belief that, over the decades, Myfords have gathered a sort of cult following, reflected in the now high prices often fetched. S7 is nicest, I think. I do think that all the alterations necessary to get a gearbox running or to make it cut accurate Metric threads, seem like after thoughts to a very basic original design.

John

The 7 series lathes are very basic as you say, being designed I think in the 1940s or early 50s with a lot of DNA that dates back decades from then. Even the latest S7 has a plain bearing on the business end of the headstock. The bed design is not very good, there's a reason why nearly all industrial lathes have a prismatic bed. The drive system is stupidly complex with modern motors. They are nicely finished and have cult status. Myford never adapted to modern standards and paid the price. I have a S7 and a VMB mill, both I bought new. I chose the latter as it had/has more daylight under the quill than any other small machine at the time and I was looking at making a launch engine. Myford fitted a rather agricultural UK made motor but otherwise the machine was made in the Far East. When it was time to tram the head I discovered one of the hold-down bolts was held in the casting by paint! But having said that I have had good service from both machines but wouldn't choose to buy another.

The 'real' Myford in Beeston always sold their lathes in the most basic and un-equipped format but this was the way British companies sold their products and probably one of the main reasons foreign competition wiped them out. I bought an ML7R in 1978 for £550 and when it arrived it was totally useless. They sold it to me as a screw-cutting lathe but it didn't even come with a thread dial indicator let alone a motor and switchgear. It cost me almost as much again to get the lathe operational. Warco et.al., on the other hand, began selling lathes that came with almost everything you needed to 'plug and play' so no wonder they succeeded.

I shouldn't have been so surprised because about 1971 I was going to buy the cheapest version of a new Mini which in those days was supposed to be £525 on the road. As I was discussing the specification with the BMC dealer, colour, trim etc., I can recall being absolutely astounded when he asked if I would like it to come with a heater! At extra cost, of course, and this was at a time when the Japanese were hitting the market with Datsun cars that came with heaters and radios as standard. It had never entered my head that, especially in the British climate, new cars did not come with a heater, you had to specify one. Strangely enough, there are no British mass car producers or lathe manufacturers around these days.

Edited By Chris Crew on 28/04/2023 07:08:29

Chris, nothing strange at all about that !

I remember when the first Honda bikes appeared in England and were regarded as trash.

One of the motorcycle mags did a report on them in one issue. The tester said that while the bikes were "a bit rough around the edges", he had a feeling that they were here to stay and that English makers needed to wake up and take notice. They never did, and the rest is history.

Cars, machine tools ect, went the same way. I dont recall the last time I saw an English bike, motor or otherwise on the road and any time I see machines on building sites, none of them are Made in England.

Seems like someone got their sums wrong !

How many Hobby users could afford that kind of money ?

That is the most bizarre definition of a screw-cutting lathe that I have ever seen.

By that logic, 90% of metric lathes on the market would not classify as screwcutting.

Yes! but when you have a Myford, it turns you into a super engineer, increases your bragging rights and can now slag off all the Chinese lathe/mill owners.

Oh! joy of joy's

More money than sense, springs to mind.

Am I jealous, It doesn't show does it?

Edited By Howi on 28/04/2023 09:22:18

The very first were just pressed tin, but then came the CB160 which made BSA C15 and Triumph Tiger cub look like jokes.

Just don't look at the big yellow things or the new Triumphs and Nortons.

Larry, I know exactly what you mean. In 1983 I bought a used Nu-Tool bench pillar drill from the then local Myford dealer for £150 (you can get the same thing for half the price forty years later) because I couldn't afford a Fobco/Meddings/Start-Rite etc. at the time. Obviously Chinese, I was told it had been returned from a school because it was 'noisey', yes it was because the pulley was loose on the motor spindle making the belt vibrate which took me about two minutes to detect and fix.

When I mentioned it to some 'fellow conspirators' at the time the machine was immediately condemned out of hand as being a load of Chinese rubbish, I had wasted my money and would only regret not holding out for a British machine. Well, as it happens that machine is still in my workshop, it runs quietly, it's square and drills true. I must have drilled a 'million' holes on it and it still has the original belt which I really should have renewed by now. BTW, where are Fobco and Start-Rite these days? I believe Meddings still make a very basic and expensive pillar drill in this country but all their other machines are imported from Spain, it seems. You can still occasionally detect people talking about Chinese 'crap' in this forum but I have never had a problem with it which is probably why it is sold all over the world.

JCB diggers etc, a British multinational that has half the worlds market. Seen on building sites the world over.

We shouldn't forget that for most of the 60's Mini was sold at a loss, so they needed to claw back cash somewhere plus the 500 odd strikes in the 70's. The Americans started bone basic cars we just followed as they must have known better .

We don't see Datsuns anymore as the last ones rusted so badly the engines fell out whilst still moving and even the Austin 1100 rust bucket didn't do that. Never saw a Datsun in the scrapyard though. A quick rebrand to Nissan and better steel and paint followed.

Ying and Yang and all that.

Getting this thread back on track.

I wonder if these come from the same place the Warco-myford copy did with the Myford name added.

As a lot of these are destined for sheds and electronics don't like damp I get the belt speed change remaining as is. But, why keep the 1930's bed design? Are prismatic ways so much more expensive?

Probably because the original bed design will accept used or after market parts such as fixed steadies.

Martin C

Can't be a proppa muddle injineer if you don't own a miffod.

Regards Ian.

Yes but they completely missed the huge market for smaller machines being locked into a big and expensive mindset.

Although £5k seems a bucket of money to spend on a hobby lathe don't forget millions yes millions of people spend £30k on a car with no more seats than a £25k car so the people with the cheaper car have the spare money to spend on their hobby. Or they get a £20k car and buy an expensive mill too.
Looking back at the money I have spent on hobby computers that became half the price a couple of years later then broke I would have been far better off buying a new Myford.
And that 'then broke' bit is a reminder that the Myford single speed motor will still be working fifty years after the fancy variable speed jobby gave up. (provided you have a Lister generator to provide the electricity in 50 years)