Things are worth what people are prepared to pay. An alternative to watching eBay to find out is just to put the lathe direct on eBay yourself with lots of nice photos and a good writeup. Don't use buy it now, either you overprice it and it doesn't sell or feel you did sell but left money on the table. eBay has a huge reach and an auction system designed to maximise the price. If you use eBay just to see the price you might get, how else would you get anything like the audience?

I sold a Speed 10 (later variant of ML10) on the Bay in 2015 for about £700. It was nicely adjusted, on a sturdy wooden stand, clean and well photographed. It went with decent 3-jaw and good 4-jaw chucks, a comprehensive set of change wheels and fixed steady. It had been in more-or-less daily use, and cost me £1000 15 years earlier, so I was happy with that, and I later heard the buyer was very happy too.

Hello,

i'm new to here and am slowly building up my workshop,

i'm after my first lathe, would you recommend a ML10?

Thank you

If you're going to build model engines, you might find it too small. I did. For example, many of the medium and larger Stuart kits have a 7" flywheel, which an ML10/Speed 10/Diamond 10 can't machine without serious mods, whereas the 7 Series can. If you want to do milling on it, the 10 Series cross slide is narrow, as is the bed dovetail, and that's very limiting.

I had a Speed 10 for 15 years. I'm not going to get into a brand names debate, but I'd seriously consider something a bit larger unless you're interested mostly in smaller work.

Yup.

And time.

And motivation…

Yes, No, and Maybe!

It's a decent small machine but it was Myford's cheapest lathe.

Negatives:

• Basic
• Being second-hand and elderly means condition matters far more than the Brand and Model.
• If the bed is worn, there isn't much room for a regrind. It could be scrap.
• On the small side – think about what you want to make with it! (Best bit of lathe advice: buy the biggest machine you can afford.)
• Myford name tends to push prices up compared with the alternatives. The ML10 was immune to the effect for many years, but people today are paying over the odds for them as well.
• Fewer accessories than the other Myfords

Sensible buy if you intend doing smallish work and find a good one at a reasonable price that comes with lots of bits. Not a good idea if you will be doing moderately sized turning and end up paying top-price for a badly worn example with no accessories.

Dave