Myford 254s, Super 7 and Emco FB2 mill values

Dear sirs, Hello!

This is my first post here so hope I've got the right section...apologies if not!

Last year my Grandad passed away and apart from myself (a keen but very part time and unskilled hobbyist) he was the last of the engineers in my family. He was building scale locomotives up to the day he died, and at 92 was fitter and brighter than many a man 20 years younger!

As the only one with an iota of knowledge in this area it falls on me to help move on his beloved workshop to those who can benefit.

He’s got a Myford Super 7, Myford 254s, Emco FB2 and many accessories for all. It’s all started to gather a little surface rust due to the combination of lack of use and slightly damp environment, but still sound but I need to move it to somewhere it can thrive.

In the meantime, I need to try and establish a realistic value for these larger items (there's obviously tons of other tools, but mostly old school engineer stuff rather than new digital and sexy)

Super 7’s seem to be anywhere from £995 to £2.5k and the 254s anywhere from £2.5k to £5.5k…the mill seems to be £1500 to 2k??

I’d love to be able to look after the kit for another generation but will sadly need to see it go to a good home.

Any assistance on how to start valuing this kit would be very welcome. Anyone interested in some very well looked after kit (that’s seen 8months of pining for a new loving owner) can contact me!

Neil

I cannot really help with the values but one of my friends is definitely looking for a mill. Where in the country are you. I am assuming you are in the UK but your profile is blank.

Ian P (Cheshire)

Some pics would be nice too if you can manage it.

George.

Hi Neil

Sorry about your grandad, pretty good to be still doing model engineering into his nineties.

If you are looking to get the highest price then selling via ebay will be your best bet. Put as much info and photos as you can and do a standard auction. Each of those items is a desirable and well known machine tool and will fetch a good price if in decent condition.

if you want less hassle and want them to go to good people advertise here or on homeworkshop.org.uk - may not get as much money but more likely to go to people who know what they are talking about and will get a lot of use out of them.

if you want zero hassle and don't care about the money there are plenty of traders who will take them all and then sell them on at a profit.

A word of caution - there are likely to be many accessories and tooling that your grandad had that could also be worth a lot of money on their own. Again, if you want to maximise the value sell each item separately within reason. You could end up selling a lathe along with a couple of grands worth of accessories thrown in for free if you didn't know any better.

Andy

Thanks Andrew.

Selling separately is a good call - I was thinking a package (lathe, chucks tooling etc) would generate a higher price - so interesting to your thoughts on this.

Going to take some photos to post on here as I have a question regarding the gearbox on the Super 7...it's a '65 model according to the serial number but the gearbox is unlike any picture I can find on lathes.co.uk or google...

The selectors (two of them) hinge at the bottom, side freely left/right and pull up to engage...with a pin locking it in place. There is no ball lever mounted on a horizontal plate above the gearbox. Hard to explain so will post a pic.

Also the Emco FB2 has power feed table on the Y axis, but not the X, however the Z axis has a gear not a handle. There's then a handle with angle drive plate lying nearby and wonder if he was in the process of fitting a power feed to the Z axis too?? Thoughts?

Going to have to think of a prize for the best answers from my descriptions before i get to post the photos

And I'd ignore any calls from anyone offering to clear your Grandad's workshop of the "bit's & pieces" too.

Take your time and if you can sell everything individually - it is probably worth quite a lot and it can rapidly mount up

IanT.

Hi There

What colour is the Myford Super 7?

Some gearboxes were made from third party kits or designs in model engineers' workshop. The Myford accessories are worth selling seperately especially collets and vertical slides etc.

The 254 with accesories is probably worth £5,000. Myford sold 3 of them for about that price when I mentioned them in Model Engineers' Workshop.

I woul;d be happy to price stuff up if I see the photographs.

regard David

Hi.

Does the gearbox look like this?

**LINK**

Edited By V8Eng on 10/02/2014 15:11:53

Thanks David - good to know and very kind fo you...will try and get photos up PDQ.

The Super 7 is green with the cast in '7' on the belt cover. Seems to be well spc'ed with clutch, gearbox etc. There's a full set of change wheels next to it.

V8Eng - the box is more like this but still not exactly the same. Forgot my camera on last visit to his workshop so will pop round again and take some decent photos. Unfortunately there's a lot of stuff in his workshop...so it's a case of moving stuff to get a decent photo..

Any idea what it'd weigh?? I read on lathes.co.uk that a 254s would be about 220ish kg (bench mounted) - Super 7 lighter??

it it easy enoguh to strip a large bit (head? saddle?) off it to make it one person liftable without having to go through a huge re-alignment afterwards??

My Bantam took a lot of work movig it...at least i have a chance of moving this stuff without a forklift

Hello Neil,

The gearbox sounds like the Machin aluminium copy of the Sparey box shown in V8's link, they are available in kit form from Hemingway kits.

I agree with the others, take your time with the sales, there should be plenty of interest. Your Grandad would want the best for his equipment.

Kind regards

Brian