Bump should move you to the top again,

Sorry don't know the answer but it may have been a tooling hole used in manufacture ? Hope you find a definitive answer John

Hi Jochen,

Probably there for it to fit both the Long and Short cross slides, in various positions along the same (because of the varying T-Slot spacing along the both slides).

Nick

Hello Jochen

Re your capstan attachment I have no idea either as to that hole. However more importantly, is the photo of YOUR purchase, or that from a Myford document? I ask because if it is of your purchase you should know that the tool hole bores have to be exactly in line with your own lathe's head stock spindle axis.

Firstly check with a piece of 5/8inch diameter ground bar (plug gauge) that the bores are a close sliding fit on this gauge. If it "wobbles" then you may have future problems such as boring oversize and press-fitting liners.

If it is OK, in this respect, then now check with the gauge bar clamped in a turret hole and then clamp the outer end centrally disposed in a pre-set headstock chuck. At this stage you need to check that (a) the unit slides evenly across the top of your cross-slide.

If it is tight – it drags with friction – then (b) you need to fit a second test bar in the headstock and measure the difference both vertically and horizontall (the latter check also from the securing bolts/slots). Somehow you need to to remove this amount from the underside of the unit body.

If it is loose then you will need to secure shim steel washers around the bolting holes unit to cross slide to .

My apprenticeship was with a firm of lathe makers and I saw turrets being bored from the headstock. As an amateur having bought this same unit for my Myford S7, I found one that had not been pre-bored and did this myself. Hopefully the guy who buys my S7 will buy the Capstan too. Watch "View Models" adverts. I have been diagnose with Parkinson's Disease – problems using tools and lifting stuff – and felt it prudent to sell up.

If you (any of you reading this) think I can help just ask.

David P

My best guess would be that someone has set the turret up to fit their lathe, ie dead on right height and then set the cross slide to dead on where the hole in the turret line ups with a suitable test bar between centres.

Then they have drilled and reamed a hole down through the turret, the cross slide table and into the cross slide dovetail are in the saddle below, so the turret can be removed then quickly put back in place so it is in exactly the right position so that drills etc will be in the correct position, dead on the lathe's main axis.

There is only one dowel pin used because there are already two round buttons on the bottom of the turret unit that stick into one of the T slots to ensure the base is held square to the T slots. The main function of the dowel pin would be to lock the cross slide in the exact right position with the base locked in as well.

Edited By Hopper on 25/05/2016 13:53:53

As it is a genuine Myfrod component and they all seem to have that hole in them, you could probably call or email Myfrod and ask them what it's for and what the procedure is for setting it up for drilling and reaming, if indeed that is what it turns out to be for.

Let us know what they say.

Edited By Hopper on 26/05/2016 13:05:04

On the lathes.co.uk site are many pics of the Myford ML 7 – one shows the bed turret attachment mounted on the cross slide and you can see the pin that goes int that hole (it has a 5/8 dia or so flat head woth knurled edge). I have the same pin and wondered what it was for. Seems it is used to located the turret laterally in teh same place each time it is mounted.

Well that is my theory anyway.