Myford VM Milling Machine

I have been offered a Myford VMB mill at a reasonable price but see I could buy almost the same machine from Warco for not much more. Were the Myford ones worked on to make them better, or was i/t the name that pushed the price up ??? David

What warrenty is on the Myford compared to the Warco ?

All the Myford range were sourced in Taiwan.

I've got a genuine Myford one and spoke to Myford about it at their last Sandown show before they ceased trading because I was looking for a manual. The Myford guy was very upfront and said they were sourced from Taiwan but Myford dismantled each one and fine tuned them before reassembling. Where I work has a modern Warco one so I can give you a direct comparison and as you'd expect, the Warco version does the job but it doesn't have the same feel and things like the table locks which are sturdy cast levers on the Myford version are pressed steel on the Warco ones and feel cheap. Myford stopped doing them eventually because the amount of effort and the price they could realistically charge for them made then not worth continuing with. The Warco version has the advantage of options for additional luxuries and is still quite a capable machine.

For interest, a basic Myford version with no DRO's went on ebay a couple of weeks ago for £800.

Never stopped them doing that with the lathe though ?

i could understand some of the earlier ones needing a lot of sorting out but as taiwan came on stream quality shot up and I dare say the later ones didn't require the amount of work as the earlier ones.

I have a VMB bought from the auction, brand new but canabalised and it's nothing special as regards fit or finish.

John S.

I've got one of the earlier grey ones and it's pretty good. Maybe with the later ones, the quality became 'good enough' as bought in while not matching the early machines? It's no Bridgeport but for hobby work, seems good.

David,

No disrespect intended, but are you sure the machine is a VMB? I have a VMB and to the best of my knowledge, Warco have not, and in fact still do not offer their version of this machine. My understanding is that it was only availble from Myford. I believe you actually mean one of the other VM .... variants which they do indeed sell.

Chris,

Can supply a copy of my VMB manual if you still need one.

I bought a new VMB ten years ago and have always been delighted with it in terms of smoothness of slides etc although I have made quite a few mods along the way. At the time I bought mine Myford were saying they did a number of things to the raw Taiwanese import including extra oiling points. The ground surface finish on the table was extremely good and I suspect Myford may have been responsible for this since any other imported machines I have seen have never been as nice.

One of the problems with the machine is the vertical feed which needs one revolution of the handle to move 20 thou. To make this more convenient to use I made power drive which works very well.

Doug

I need to sort the screws out from mine and get them on Ebay.

Probably the last set of brand new screws available for this model, don't suppose the Hebden Bridge guys will cater for this model.

One of the reasons I purchased one was because the electrics were EU sourced including a tyco Brook crompton motor, far beter quality in my opinion.

The biggest disadvantage is the rise and fall, I use a battery drill with a socket attached if I need to move any distance.

Andy

Doh! Sorry for any confusion but my comments were about the VM-C rather than the VM-B. The moral of the tale being don't post late at night when you're tired.

On the suject of Myford VMB machines, has anyone fitted table stops. My machine is 15 years old and has a mysterious T slot in front of the table which looks as though it should be used for stops but it doesn't move with the table.

I have a VMC and cannot fault it. Fitted XY DRO so I don't need table stops. You really should think about extra oil feeds to the sides for convenience before intallation. If it's a good price go for it.

Being new to this I am not sure wether what I have just written has actually been posted. SO here again is my request.

My Myford VM-C has just sheared the register pin in the drive tube due to a moment of inattention.

Has anyone had experience of getting at said pin to replace it. The rudimentary service manual with this second hand machine doesn't even show it and there is also no part reference in the list.

Please help if you can.