I'm not really a Myford man but think the part will be too deep for teh gap particularly the half with the timing gear case which will push it away from a faceplate. You may just get away with diameter but would need to work out what the radius is to the corner of teh cylinder flange.

Is it going in a bike? if not you could scale it down to a more manageable size or I have seen similar early bike engine crankcases done as welded fabrications.

7 in. swing over bed 9 in.  in the gap

Barely 1 1/4 in. (31mm) horizontal  in gap between faceplate and bed on a 7

Just over 1 1/2 in. on S7

Edited By Martin of Wick on 02/08/2019 17:04:28

Edited By Martin of Wick on 02/08/2019 17:06:35

Andy, do you have a milling machine as the crankcase halves could be machined on that as well as cutting the lip and recess around the joint with the aid of a rotary table. A boring head would take care of the bearing holes

Are you proposing to use castings or cut the crankcase halves from solid?

J A Radford has an elevating head for the Myford in "improvements and accessories for your lathe" TEE Publishing 1998 (from p 57)

It's not a small job, though!

Would it be more relevant to measure between spindle nose and bed? Perhaps also between spindle nose and headstock casting.

You could make an offset (towards headstock) faceplate that accommodates the 2" width required.

In a push, buy a bed off one of the spares breakers and cut some off the ways.

If you have the room a larger lathe may quite possibly be no more expensive that an ML7 and probably cheaper than a Super 7 which seem to go for a lot more money.

Unfortunately accessories and tooling follows the original price of an industrial machine, ie can be expensive.

Any used machine is an unknown quantity and need thoroughly checking over I suggest you take (another) knowledgeable person with you – no matter the level of a purchasers experience it is possible to get carried away in front of a machine you want – a calming voice is useful – I know from (bad) experience!!

The sales pages of Lathes.co.uk might be a good place to look for information as well as the lathe itself. **LINK**

Won't help as the bearing housings will touch the end of the spindle so that is the limiting factor in how close to the headstock the parts will go. It would need at least 3" infront of the spindle to be able to swing it in the gap.

Swinging that cylinder casting won't be easy either as it looks like you will need a good 4" between cross slide and lathe axis. With the riser and an extended height tool post you may have a job getting that 6"plus depth of bore parallel. It's also going to be a lot harder to work out how to hold the cylinder than the crannkcase halves which are quite easy to hold without increasing the diameter due to clamps etc.

Edited By JasonB on 02/08/2019 20:46:04

Edited By JasonB on 02/08/2019 20:50:06

Bear in mind that you can't usually get right to the maximum size since you have to be able to hold the job somehow. So it is generally better to have something with a bit to spare.

However…if it is only going to be one or two parts of a job that won't fit the machine, sometimes it is better to just find someone cooperative to help with those bits. Usually best to make a start on the bits you can do, then when people ask how you are going to do the big bits , say you are hoping that something will turn up. People are more likely to offer to help if they can see you are making a good start. This worked for me with my compound launch engine, where some of the bits were too big for my ML7. Speaking of which, by the time you have a face plate on there is not much gap left on the Myford anyway.

John

why not go for a 5 inch centre height Boxford ,theres no gap but has the advantage of 5 inch capacity all the way down the bed,takes about the same space as a myford,and has a larger spindle bore.Note ,take care a lot of Boxfords are only 4 1/2 centre height

also consider a Colchester Bantam ,the earlier ones were 5 inch centre height ,later one shave increased centre height,although a bit larger and heavier they are a lot better for engine and motor cycle work as the spindle bore is larger.

There are far eastern machines which will swing larger diameters than a Myford 7 series. They may be cheaper than a used British machine. The later ones, less than 20 years old, can have quite a good spec.and be available fairly cheaply, relative to a Myford.

Think Warco BH600, Chester Craftsman, and their successors, as possible contenders. They will swing 12" over the bed, 18" in the gap, and are heavier and more rigid machines, than the 7 Series Myfords.

Obviously, buying any used machine, you need to check for wear and damage.

Machines, ex industry are likely be 3 phase, so the cost of a motor for single phase use, may need to be factored in to the budget. Plus how much space is available for the machine?

HTH

Howard