Hi Shaun,

Welcome to the forum and congratulations with your "new" lathe. I don't know if you got a manual with the lathe, if not you can download one from here. And here is an article about lubricating series 7 lathes. Good luck.

Thor

Hi Shaun. If you do decide to lift the bearing caps, it is essential that any shims beneath them are re-fitted in exactly the same positions as they were originally found – they occasionally stick to the bottom of the cap as it is lifted, so it's worth a quick check here to make sure that you have them all.

Hi Shaun,

a big project but if you go ahead, I think you will be rewarded.

If you are in this side of the world please contact me.

Fred Madsen

Canberra

Australia

Shaun

I don't know what your budget is but if you can afford it I would scrap this lathe and get something in better condition. This damage should not happen to a well looked after machine. Not all ML7s have damaged backgear, my two never did. Parts will be quite expensive and good used ML7s can be seen regularly on ebay that will come with no damage and lots of tooling. This would probably work out as beater value in the end.

Good luck

Rich

While the lathe might be a bit of a challenge, to return it to good working order, and may be uneconomical – but Rb1’s comment is premature IMO.

Gears missing the odd tooth are easily repaired by a range of methods. There is often no need to buy replacements – even when more than a single tooth is broken.

I’m not a myford fan, but if the plan is to set about restoring the lathe, by all means go ahead. But be careful with spending money if there are serious underlying problems. It may be a good idea to get an experienced view on the lathe. Repairing gears might be a good start for some restorative work while the rest is evaluated.

.

Really ?

I thought Myford used 'Shimpack' [laminated metal] which allows layers to be peeled-off for fine adjustment.

MichaelG.

.

http://www.shimpack.com/shimlammetals.html

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 08/09/2019 09:52:27

From the pictures, the unit is in very poor shape and has obviously had some serious abuse. It will need a considerable sum of money spent on it to bring it to a usable condition. If you are prepared to do that and you enjoy restoring old machinery then crack on, at the moment, oilers are the least of your problem and suggest you don't waste any money on these until you have carried out the test below…

The first thing you need to do is wind up the saddle to 2 to 4 inches from the chuck and adjust the gibs to give smooth movement with no play at this position. slowly begin winding the saddle back towards the tailstock. If you notice the movement becoming progressively tighter and needing more effort, the then the bed is to badly worn for normal use and will need regrinding (together with the saddle and probably cross and top slides). Even if you can find a commercial operator willing to do it, these days it you are already talking north of 300 quid for a full job, plus transport.

If the bed and other sliding components are good, or money is no object and you want to cost up the other components from the Myford web site for restoration, from your description I would consider you will need to replace:

All olite bushings on the leadscrew and countershaft and carriage pinion drive assembly

possibly the counter shaft, if worn

All feed screws and feed screw nuts on top and cross slide

Leadscrew nut and possibly leadscrew, although you could get by turning the leadscrew around or if you want to convert it to metric, then all leadscrews and feedscew components can be replaced with the appropriate metric equivalent if available.

carriage drive pinion and possibly rack if worn

Spindle gear pinion and by the look of it some of the basic lead screw drive train

Headstock and back gear clusters

rear spindle thrust bearing

Check also the condition of the spindle nose and fit of spindle in the white metal bearings. If there is damage here, your only recourse will be to find a second hand spindle, most of which will be as bad as your specimen. you will need to check runout and deflection under load to assess headstock bearing condition

sundry nuts bolts grubs lock nuts, oilers, oil nipples, change gears etc to suit, plus bits I have forgotten

If all that is to your liking, there is a good 8 or 9 part vid on utube by someone from NZ that takes you through a comprehensive re-build that shows you the teardown and testing sequence ( where it definitely helps to have another lathe available in order to restore the one that is the basket case).

Enjoy, as they say.

Edited By Martin of Wick on 08/09/2019 10:29:56

Edited By Martin of Wick on 08/09/2019 10:31:41

Hi Shaun,

Don't despair! It may just be that your introduction to the engineering hobby is restoring that lathe rather than making things with it. Time and effort can compensate for anything equipment and money can't fix. For example, more than one person has repaired gears like those by silver soldering in bits of steel and filing them to match the profile of the intact teeth (advice on silver soldering cast iron can be found on this forum!)

The latest MEW has an article on assessing bed wear on an ML7.

MIght be worth you reading it, we will be following up with the 'wide guide conversion' which is the best way out of the guides are worn on an old ML7.

Neil

Shaun,

For oiling all the oil-nipples and the two headstock lubricators use ISO32 hydraulic oil and for the bed/leadscrews, etc use ISO VG68, both hydraulic oils should be easily available at agricultural dealers and are the direct equivalents for all the recommended Esso/Shell etc oils. If you want to treat the gears (after cleaning!) you can use the VG68 sparingly or some use motorcycle chain lube as it sticks a bit better to the gears.
HTH
DaveD

forgot to add good luck !

From your photos a good strip down and clean will give you some idea of what you have got. The bed and the headstock are expensive to repair so a thorough inspection and test will give you some idea of what it’s going to cost to return the machine to your desired condition. The machine can probably be returned to as new condition if you have deep pockets. The chuck collision damage to the cross slide is unsightly but if cleaned up will not really be a problem. Knowing what wear your machine has can let you work around it’s limitations as any machine with some mileage on it is going to have some foibles. Any lathe is better than no lathe. Machine tools can usually be made useful but can sometimes be a labour of love rather than make commercial sense.

Mike