Ml2 lathe

This topic has 8 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 9 August 2017 at 20:38 by Nige.

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7 August 2017 at 10:00 #310818
James Littlehales
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@jameslittlehales
I hav an ml2 which I have started to restore It is in good condition apart from the bed which has a large chip out of one of the ways and is very worn.Is it better to have reground or just look for another bed .Is there a limit where it is too worn to be reground
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7 August 2017 at 10:00 #8826
James Littlehales
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@jameslittlehales
8 August 2017 at 06:24 #310937
Hopper
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@hopper
Depends on how large the chip is and how big it is. Often a chip does not matter. Round the edges and the carriage will pass on over it.

How worn is the bed? Ignore scratch marks etc. Have you measured up the front shear wear on the vertical and horizontal planes in the high wear area vs the far end? You may be able to get away without regrinding it. The cost of a regrind, and to do the job properly a regrind on the matching carriage and crosss slide, is probably more than the lathe is worth. A better used be might be a good idea. Not sure with the ML2 but if it is like a lot of other flat bed lathes of the era, you might be able to do a "wide guide" conversion on it where a piece of gauge plate is added to the rear of the carriage dovetail so it runs on the unworn rear vertical face of the rear shear, instead of the worn vertical face of the front shear.
8 August 2017 at 17:50 #311048
Nige
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@nige81730
Can somebody explain what the rear sheer is please. I can't visualise what it could be on the ML4!
8 August 2017 at 19:29 #311063
James Littlehales
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@jameslittlehales
Thanks for the reply Hopper.As a beginner too can you point me in a direction as to how I would do the wide guide conversion and attach the gauge plate . I think it must be worth a try whilst I look for another bed.
9 August 2017 at 05:04 #311098
Hopper
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@hopper
The shear is the way on the bed, the ground/scraped flat surfaces the carriage runs on. There are two of them, the front one and the rear one. The carriage sits on the wide top flat surfaces, but the turning load generated by the tool is taken by the vertical surface of the front shear. This is where wear takes place. The vertical surface of the rear shear is machined on most (but not all ) lathes but is not used as a contact surface. The trick is to attach via screws or loctite a strip of gauge plate to the surface of the carriage such that it contacts the vertical surface of the rear shear, and guides it, moving the carriage clear of the worn front shear surface.

JA Radford mentions it in his book Accessories and Improvements for your Lathe, still in print. It has been covered in ME and MEW over the years, and discussed on this site so a bit of searching should dig up details. I think there was an article in MEW recently on refurbishing a Myford that mentioned it but without a lot of detail.
9 August 2017 at 06:36 #311100
James Littlehales
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@jameslittlehales
That is most helpful thank you It looks like the way to go for the moment
9 August 2017 at 14:26 #311162
Georgineer
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@georgineer
Hopper, I think you may be confusing the ML1,2,3,4 with the ML7. The ML7 has vertical shears as you describe, whereas the ML1,2,3,4 have angled ones (are they still called shears if they are angled?). You can see this in my photo of an ML4.

George
9 August 2017 at 20:38 #311251
Nige
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@nige81730
EDITED…Deleted post. Georgeneer made my point and did it first and with a picture

Edited By Nige on 09/08/2017 20:40:50
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