Myford ML2 re-commissioning.

So as I’ve said in my “introduce yourself” post, I’ve recently purchased new old lathe. While advertised on ebay as an ML4 it appears to be a late ML2 (or ML1 with upgrades). Seemed to be reasonable condition and right price, £200, but you don’t know until you see it in the metal. From the photos in the listing it had a nice round end cabinet stand and tumbler reverse. I’m an Electronics / aviation engineer and have used lathes etc before. I had access to a well-equipped prototype machine shop at my previous employment and have been missing it for small home jobs. The big decision was a new “Chinese” machine or an old British one. So that’s decided then. A quick look at the sellers when picking it up showed one significant fault – the fibre headstock V pulley is badly split and warped. Getting the lathe home and having a closer look revealed the following:
Headstock pulley is unusable
Spindle bearings have been greased
Cross-slide feed has ½ turn backlash
Chuck won’t unscrew with normal technique.
Spindle has a tight spot
The cross-slide backlash is in the endplate an screw. Should just be an adjustment but the handle, nut and dial have been soft soldered together so further investigation required.
Still thinking about how best to lock the spindle to get the chuck off. I know enough not to use the back gear. Given the state of the pulley I’m thinking an expanding mandrel and L or T handle in the back of the spindle would be best, I might take the chuck off the back plate and try gentle heat (hot air gun) on the back plate first. Spindle has to come out to clean out the grease and replace the pulley.
The good news is the tight spot on the spindle disappeared when I released the step pulley. Additionally it has a 1” diameter spindle and if the faceplate that came with it is correct it has the 12TPI 11/8 nose so can be adapted for later ML7/ML10 chucks.

I’m calling this a re-commissioning as it’s the intention to get a working lathe, not a restoration or significant modification. One thing I am considering is replacing the old induction motor and layshaft with a modern motor and drive. More on that later.

Robert.

So an update on my “new” lathe. I managed to get the chuck off without further drama. Took chuck off backplate and bolted a length of angle across backplate and a rubber strap wrench around the pulley. A small amount of heat from a hot airgun on the backplate and it loosened without any impacts. Change gear came off spindle end with a small 3-leg puller. Threaded collar came undone after application of penetrating oil. Bearing pinch bolts loosened and spindle is out. I can confirm the lathe is indeed a ML2 or short bed “Superior” model with bronze bearings. That is the end of the good news. The spindle and bearings are worn and scored. Rear bearing is worse as suspected because the gap in the housing was fully closed. It’s scored down to 0.2mm undersize. The front is 0.1mm under. So I’ve limited options,
1/ New spindle and bearings – not available.
2/ Repair old spindle and possibly re-bore bearings.
3/ Clean and lightly polish the old spindle, tighten the front bearing up (taking care not to crack the housing and accept it for how it is.
I’m tending towards 3/ but have asked one of the spindle plating/spraying and grinding companies for a rough idea of the cost of refinishing the spindle. I suspect it will be more than the lathe is worth. Being a parallel design with closed bearing blocks it does not really lend itself to other repair options like sleeves.

Ther are some photos in my album.

Robert.

Edited By Robert Atkinson 2 on 09/09/2018 18:48:15

So an update on the ML2. I finally had a company come back with an estimate for repairing the damaged spindle – £350 to £500. This is dressing journals, ceramic spraying, grinding journals, line boring headstock bushes and re-assembling. The bull gear and pulley would also need boring oversize. This is not a bad quote for the work involved, but more than I want to invest in this machine. While I was considering options a complete late headstock appeared on ebay see

**LINK**

Not the best picture but there are some differences in this headstock that I want to check out before detailing in a later post. I’m guessing some scraping or shimming may be required to get this aligned to my bed. I’d already ordered a 2MT alignment bar which will be invaluable for that. The bar was from an Indian seller on ebay (most seem to be from India for some reason) and seems to be pretty good quality. It arrived in a few days by Fedex so pretty good service.