Welcome to the forum Nigel, as you can see from Billy's reply, there has been some discussion on this subject recently.

The Myford is a good quality lathe although a somewhat old design nowdays as is the one I have, a Boxford AUD (model A UnderDrive).

Myfords also tend to be overpriced because that's the make that most people have heard of.

Brian

Hello Nigel,

… A Raglan would appear to be another contender btw, …

I like Raglans. Far better value than a myford, IMO.

I guess one downside is their weight. A Raglan weighs in at 3 1/2 cwt, according to the manual – that is about 175kg. But taking off the easily-removed heavy bits reduces that weight somewhat. I load and unload a Raglan, by myself, to and from a citroen saxo (the stand is not included in this) in spite of my age and health. Removing the motor, tailstock, apron, saddle, end cover and chuck does not take that long. Lifting onto a stand can present a few problems when working on your own.

I’ve never owned a myford and don’t expect I ever will.

After using a lathe with a QCGB, I would not want to revert to change wheels, but change wheels only need more time.

So, slow down a bit and don’t just jump in for the apparently expensive, but popular, myford. There are alternatives – even buying new.

Even a Drummond,the ‘precursor’ to the myford,mmay well do all you need.

Have a look at a surplus toolroom lathe straight from the factory and its finish and feel – covered in grease, oil and swarf, everything probably needs adjusting, may need a regrind. Though the Sieg lathes don't perhaps have the silky feel of a brand new Myford, as you will see if you read the MYFORD thread the ARC versions at least are highly rated at least in the larger size.

Nigel, I have sent you a message. Click the flashing envelope symbol next to 'settings' on the green line at the very top of the page.

John

The Myfords are not all that expensive if you can avoid the S7 models selling for 9,000 quid new and generating many hopefuls with 5k pricetags on secondhand jobs.

The much cheaper ML7 will do all you need to do. I bought mine for $400 but it needed TLC. If you are not careful, machine tool restoration can take over from other hobbies and suck up all your shed time.

No need for power cross feed. Feeding by hand is just fine on facing on the odd occasion you need it. You got it right about the QC gearbox being more of a nicety than a necessity.

If you are the kind of person who restores pre-1950 motorcycles as you say, you should probably have no trouble sorting out a secondhand lathe, and would be the sort of person who was prepared to tinker with ageing British machinery. Which opens up the field considerably as you have seen. Boxfords, Raglans and others all seem to come up at good prices. And the honorable old Drummond M-type if you can find a good one. The Boxfords being a South Bend clone should be easily moveable if you strip a few parts off them, eg motor, tailstock, cross slide, chuck etc and take them off the stand.

A lot depends too on what you can find locally that looks good. I would hesitate to buy a lathe unseen off the net. Bit like used cars that.

Edited By Hopper on 03/03/2018 09:12:54

I am another motorcycle restorer mainly pre war girder fork bikes. I do however work on a lot for other people including 50s/60s bikes. For me this means a spindle bore of around 1 1/2" is essential to pass things like fork stanchions through. I have never used a Myford but see people do some very good work on them, second hand they can look expensive to me but may do all you need. If you are close to the Lichfield area you are welcome to see my set up for the bikes. Chris.

If you need a 1.5 inch spindle bore, you are looking for a machine with a 5MT spindle.

The Myford 7 Series, unless under 15 to 20 years old, are likely to be 2MT, which is restrictive in that nothing larger than half inch will go through the spindle. The later ones even then, will be 4MT which is 29mm bore, I think.

Far Eastern lathes with a 5MT spindle bore will be Warco BH 600/ BH900, Chester Craftsman, the fairly rare Engineers ToolRoom BL12-24 or one of their geared head successors, with a 38mm bore.

A Norton box is much quicker and easier to set up than calculating, (or checking tables) before setting up changewheels for screwcutting. At worst, with one of the above far eastern machines you will probably have three choices of input gear to the train, (32T, 36T, with 40T as the standard) with a 120/127T Idler .

This will allow a wide range Metric and Imperial threads to be cut, if required, with a large range of feed rates/rev. (40 in all) with back gear to slow things down, if you wish.

Howard