Steve, Your link is broken, try This One

Bill

Nice looking machine but I fail to understand why anyone would fit a VFD controller in such a position, unless they only have a right arm.

Emgee

That's where my CL750 is! No doubt it's a personal choice although in my case I put it there so that it could also drive the mill/drill which is on that side (changeover takes seconds only).

FWIW, I am perfectly happy with this setup which, eg, allows me to operate the cross slide on a surfacing cut with my left hand and modulate the spindle speed with my right.

I think the metric imperial description is probably misleading, the gearbox for screwcutting is a normal imperial gearbox so it is probably a normal imperial setup with the metric conversion gears as all Myfords could have. It is a commonly held view that Myford never produced a fully metric 7 but fitted metric top slide, cross slide and tailstock barrel but left the leadscrew at 8tpi rather than the nearest 3mm metric. If anyone wants a fully metric machine then I would give this a very close inspection first. Cutting metric screw threads is not a problem on an imperial machine, very close approximations are readily available and are more than close enough for any practical purpose. I doubt that any home workshop could measure the error. It still looks a nice lathe though.

Mike

+1 on what Mike said. I mount the on/off switch on my lathes at the right hand end as that's where I stand when operating and like to be clear of the chuck. A habit from working on larger lathes flinging coolant and hot swarf everywhere off the chuck in younger days I guess. And maybe from using the ancient Drummond with unguarded flat belt flapping around the headstock end in use.

And I can't think of a time when I ever wanted to vary the speed of the lathe while still taking a cut. Maybe if you were facing 3-foot diameter discs or something it would be nice to speed up for the reduced inner diameter area but not something I do on my Myford.

Certainly I'd rather be using the JOG switch on the linked lathe with my right hand (me being right handed) and have my less-important left hand fingers out there on the job where they might possibly get inadvertently jogged.

Edited By Hopper on 12/03/2020 01:58:22

Cult status based on 50 years of appearance in ME magazine as "THE" model engineer's lathe. Radford, GH Thomas, Duplex, Tubal Cain and two generations of others all refered to it as the model engineer's standard.

Ironically, the Myford became THE model engineeer's lathe largely because it was a (relatively) low cost machine in comparison with the better built Boxfords, Raglans etc. The Boxfords, like their Australian counterpart the Hercus, were a bigger, heavier duty lathe built more solidly with some nice extra features. But the Myford hit that sweet spot between quality and price that suited "everyman".

Now they are like the old motorbike craze. Everybody who dreamed of owning one as a lad how has retirement money and is willing to pay silly money to relive their lost (or in most cases, never found) youth. $15,000 Norton Commandos? They were a POS when new and have only grown more obsolete with time. Now the latest wave is $25,000 Kawasaki 900s as the next younger wave hits retirement age. For a bike that cost under $2,000 new and was churned out by the tens if not hundreds of thousands. Toys for old boys, just like the $10,000 Myford Connoisieurs. (Which nobody can spell anyway! Bloody cheese-eating surrender monkey terminology, to paraphrase Jonesy, whose trademark admonition "Don't panic. Don't panic" seems to be front-of-mind this week.)

As a schoolboy in the 50's I read, re-read, and read again the Sparey book from the local library which I continuously renewed again and again. I knew every diagram and machining operation without ever seeing a Myford in the flesh. I hankered after one for a long time but about 25 years ago when I was actually able to buy a lathe I ended up with a Boxford.

Nowadays I have a Harrison but if I wanted something Myford size it would not be a Myford and definitely not the one in the link. It might be very presentable but its extremely poorly equipped (unless I've missed something) and adding chucks, steadies etc will bump up the cost.

I agree with Nigel, the desirability and the pricing of old motorbikes and Myford lathes etc is partly to do with retirees trying to regain their youth or whatever. The same sort of thing applies to old vehicles but the difference is that the appeal of the classic car can only increase as they become rarer (as they are part of motoring history) whereas old lathes will only eventually become museum items.

Ian P

I dont know what was supplied as standard when the lathe was new but surely it would come with faceplate, Morse centres, some basic tools, oil gun etc. Granted this one has a proper toolpost and VFD but I would not call it well equipped.

As an aside, the mounting position of the VFD is a bit weird but I suppose its to avoid the cost of separating the controls into a 'pendant' type setup.

Ian P

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Edited By V8Eng on 13/03/2020 14:28:07