Member postings for Russ B

Just my 2 pence, I think they're very good machines, I much prefer the reliability and pure power of the belt drive system to that of an electronic drive.

They're substantial enough to make good quality cuts on small parts, and certainly have the power, 2 points which can't be said for a lot of other similar sized machines.

Sure the round column means you lose x/y ordinates if/when you have to lower the head, but it's not hard to pick them up for the occasional times it has to happen, and with carefully selected tooling (mainly a set of stub drills) it's rarely an issue.

I can't think of a better machine for the price and sq footage, but thats all very personal, I don't need atom splitting accuracy, I like the power and reliability and heavy duty'ness of it.

* I should point out, there are 2 different sizes of this machine, they both look the same but next each, completely different, both capable, both solid. Some have plain tables with keep plates, some (most) have dovetail with tapered gibs. some have 8 speeds, some 10, some 12 etc. The older ones seem to have a better fit and finish than the newer ones I've had my hands on although I've owned 3 or 4 of the old ones, I've never owned a newer one so hard to pickout exactly why, could just need tweaking and setting up these days.

Edited By Russ B on 28/07/2020 13:04:19

Well the house has gone some £30k plus over my budget, certainly no regrets losing to a bid that high.

It has highlight the need to slim down the lathe collection somewhat and I think an extra few grand in savings will help us!

I'm going to see about putting the Myford on an advert here circa £2000 which after having looked on ebay, I think that might be considered cheap. This puts me in a strange position as it's stupid money if you ask me, but if thats what they go for, I need the money!

Bob, I'm in the UK

The house we wanted goes tomorrow, closed bids, I already know a friend is offering more than I have to offer, and more than I can comfortably afford, so I'll make my offer but I don't expect to get anything.

The more I've thought about this house, the less I think I like it, great house, very wealthy location, which is what makes it so expensive on the one hand, but also makes it so I could potentially invest a lot of money in to modifications, renovations etc and more than likely, gain money in equity!

Anyway, I think it'll go for a lot more than I can afford, it will be interesting to see who offers what, I think it could even be over 1/4 million mark which is just a crazy amount to say out aloud, but who knows!

Thanks to everyone for their input, I have used ebay before but in my mind, selling a lathe or machine tool is a bit like selling car, I wouldn't be comfortable at all bidding on a car I hadn't seen and thus I'm not comfortable with people bidding on a lathe they haven't seen, I just don't want any trouble, people coming to collect and it's not what they expected etc. - for that reason, shipping is certainly out the question I'm afraid.

I digress but only slightly and on track with Howards post above..... I sold a phone recently on ebay, I thought it would be worth good money, it went for £80ish, not bad. The buyer who received it then sent me photos of a slightly bent phone, so much so the LCD glass had popped out the front, it wasn't like that when I sent it, and there is no way the box had sustained any damage without it first braking (hard plastic box, it could take my whole weight with ease) - despite me having clear and accurate photo's of the item before sending it (ie. the ones on the auction!) I still got bloody fleeced for extra money off, with a buyer refusing to return the phone over and over, instead demanding a partial refund, he even accepted the return postage label, that I paid for, and then didn't return it, claiming that due to covid his post office was shut and he didn't want to walk the extra 5-10 minutes to the next closest. Anyway, I did nothing wrong, I still got fleeced, I could've left it and let ebay take up the case but ultimately it was a lot of hassle for one d**k head, I just gave him the extra £15 he so desperately wanted put it behind me, I have more than enough to worry about, and clearly, £15 means a lot more to this guy and than it does to me with the time and effort he put in, for me it was more the principal of it all.

Anyway, I'll consider my options carefully, I like the sound of these ebay classified adverts, I haven't heard of them before, I will look in to it.

As people have said, I think I'll keep a few items, the Myford 280 although in need of a regrind to be perfect, is an amazing machine and worth much less than the 7, because people just seem to go nuts for Super 7's. I'll probably keep the Myford VMC, i've used probably a dozen of these machines, but only 2 of them were actual Myford branded ones, and the difference is substantial, they're rock stead, solid machines, anything and everything that moves, glides but is solid when you need it to be, the knock offs seem lumpy and noisy by comparison, especially on heavy intermittent cuts, fly cutting etc, they sound bloody hollow and some of them could vibrate across the floor if I tried doing cuts as heavy as I could on the myford!

I know people cry about the Myford fan boys, and I know they're expensive, but they did make nice machines all things considered!

Well I'm part way though multiple projects, but the missus has a found a house, a real fixer upper with land, double integrated garage, it's a dream, I can see myself there till the end of my days. We need just about every penny we can get, and with all the house work, I'm not going to be needing any of my much loved metal working equipment for the forseeable future. I don't really want to sell it, but I know I won't have time to use or maintain it properly. Just wondered what things might be worth as a job lot vs sell quick and cheap privately, has anyone dealt with any traders before, I guess they don't pay much!?

I've got the following, I may keep my 280 lathe and my mill as they're not easy to come by these days and they're not really transportable without a van

Myford Super 7 (later power cross feed version + quick change box & stand, steadies, chucks, face & drive plat QC tool post,, all the usual stuff etc)
Myford 280 Lathe (all metric, power crossfeed + gearbox, double vee and flat bed)
Myford ML7 (needs a lick of paint) with QC toolpost + spare freshly reground bed + spare headstock, tailstock and other spares)
Myford VMC + DRO (proper one, glass scales) & central lube
10" Alfred Eriksen shaper
Kennedy Hexacut hacksaw
3 coolant pump systems (one modern, 2 good old lumps)
4 axis Gecko G540 CNC controller + PC + 48v PSU + 3x 300+Nm steppers + cables + ball screws etc etc bolt on and go basically, ballscrews are off a BF20 mill, also has brackets and couplings for a sieg X1/SX1

On top of this, are 2 or 3 cupboards full of all sorts of cutters, arbour, drills, chucks, vices, angle tables, surface plate, scraping equipment, metrology kit - all sorts - I'll keep some basic stuff, but I don't use a lot of it so will make sure all the above machines are well tooled.

Any thoughts/offers?

Never made spark plugs, but doesn’t Corian start melting over 100c?

Once you seal a concrete slab, you introduce hydrostatic pressure under the slab which can lift/twist/crack the slab, as well as trapping the moisture therefor increasing its content and potentially creating heave issues.

Far better to address the cause rather than try to halt the effect, I'd try to consider any changes that could be easily made externally to mitigate the moisture, perhaps a simple french drain nearby, or check gullys and gutters aren't blocked, or leaves have rotted down in inaccessible places creating a higher than ground level sponge slowly releasing water.

Edited By Russ B on 11/06/2020 13:22:02

Steve, it's not that much bigger to be honest.its of the more modern boxy design, similar to how a Chinese 3.5" centre lathe is half the size of a Myford 3.5 centre (ML7 or Super7) it's significantly lower for some unknown reason, but in terms of floor space, it slotted in exactly where my Super 7 / Boxford was, it does end up being closer to the wall corner (tailstock end) but there's still a good foot in the corner for me stand metal and plastic stock up.

Steve, it's not that much bigger to be honest.its of the more modern boxy design, similar to how a Chinese 3.5" centre lathe is half the size of a Myford 3.5 centre (ML7 or Super7) it's significantly lower for some unknown reason, but in terms of floor space, it slotted in exactly where my Super 7 / Boxford was, it does end up being closer to the wall corner (tailstock end) but there's still a good foot in the corner for me stand metal and plastic stock up.

I sold my Super 7 when I got my Myford 280, it's an incredible bit of kit, double vee and flat bed, Gamet super precision taper roller bearings, all geared and quick change everything. The machines are entirely metric with an imperial version using imperial screws. I have the Vickers planetary metric/imperial dials too.

Someone converted it to a Newton Tesla drive but they didn't get the right speed motor. Originally these were fitted with dual speed motors giving upto 1000 or up to 2000 rpm. I have corrected the pulleys so at 100% it now runs at the higher speed and it's all down from there - but not much below half as the gearbox relies on flinging oil about to lubricate the box and nose bearings.

As the name suggests, it swings 280mm over the bed, 174mm over the cross slide, 600 between centres and has a 26mm bore though its D1-3 camlock spindle.

It's a great piece of kit, after owning many many lathes I thought the Super 7 was a really slick productive and solid piece of kit, but this 280 is far superior, I love it!

At 10pm last night I got told to stay at home till further notice following the announcement that everyone has to stay at home.

I started thinking about all the little projects I could be getting on with in the garage, I could finish off my little IC engine, give my shaper a once over, rebuild that reground ML7 - heck, I might even be able to tidy up!!

I was back in work at 7.05am this morning.......

These come with a 5 year warranty. If I'm going to buy a Chinese lathe, I'd rather buy a one without the speed controller board for a discount and fit one of these.

kbmm-225-dc-motor-speed-controller

Well I've got enough bar stock in the scrap bin to keep me going for quite a considerable amount of time in the workshop. Plus a newly ground ML7 to rebuild, a set of Jacobs gear hobber castings to machine and a 10 inch shaper to check/rebuild to do it on!!!

Bring on the apocalypse, just don't open my garage door, you'll let all my heat out.

I'm no expert but I know powder coating isn't a term used to describe one process, there are many different types of powder coat and like any paint job, the right powder, and the right surface prep, and proper curing are key to a proper job.

It's not paint, its ground plastic thats melted into a shell or a chemical mixture that cures into a shell - thus it can hold moisture against the surface, even spread it.

Epoxy types of powder coat aren't UV stable, like most plastics, excellent chemical resistance, but the sun kills it in a relatively short space of time.

I'd say the cons outweigh the pro's but perhaps the right power/prep/curing would improve its reputation??

Well worth keeping an eye out for it just make sures it's 400nm and not the 300 or less, it's motor is 4x the size!! I had to take a big 32mm nut off my dad's van that hasn't moved since 98' and has andbeen well soaked in road salt, it blitzed it straight off, me and him were getting ready for a fight. It hit it so hard it damaged the flanks of the nut even with a good 6 sided impact socket (which wasn't welcome but we know to dial it down a bit next time, it has a digital torque selector on the grip, a button cycles through them)

My dad has this grinder, thin spanner required, I would guess you might find one on eBay for a quid or 2 delivered

Mitch, I'm not going to be of any use sorry. What's the spindle lock for?

Assuming it's for tightening or loosening the drawbar..... I bought one of these at work and use it daily, I only ever nip the drawbar and never get any movement when slotting 17mm or fly cutting 2 inch, I just hold the pulley and give the spanner a hit and it tightens/loosens. Just wondering if your taper and tooling is in good condition, sorry if this is unhelpful!

Edit, I see below people are tightening ER collets, fair enough! (I've not used my ER sets for donkeys years as I'm only doing basic stuff) I use an autolock chuck both at home and at work so I only ever hand tighten them, and inertia alone is enough to untighten them as has been mentioned. 

Edited By Russ B on 20/02/2020 17:20:06

Edited By Russ B on 20/02/2020 17:20:45

Mitch, I'm not going to be of any use sorry. What's the spindle lock for?

Assuming it's for tightening or loosening the drawbar..... I bought one of these at work and use it daily, I only ever nip the drawbar and never get any movement when slotting 17mm or fly cutting 2 inch, I just hold the pulley and give the spanner a hit and it tightens/loosens. Just wondering if your taper and tooling is in good condition, sorry if this is unhelpful!

Ady, I'm cuffed to bits with my 20v impact gun (the biggest of 3 or 4 models they did) it's extremely powerful and top quality, mag alloy casing etc. I've got a 240v grinder I already (B&Q pro, done a hell of a lot of mileage over the last 10 years, getting noisy now, never serviced it....) I was buying this cordless grinder based on the quality of the impact gun.

Larry...... Yeah, you've hit the nail on the head I think.

I'll check this will take a grinding disk but I don't think it matters, it's going back, the poor quality of the plastic switch alone is an indication of everything else, CLEARLY not cut from the same cloth as the 400nm 20v impact gun.

Old Mart the 12v stuff I've seen just doesn't have the guts, but some of it is extremely portable, perfect for light tasks, general screwing drill driving die grinding etc.

Lesson learnt, even though the range of 20v powertools from Lidl use the same battery charger, they are clearly not all made to the same standard, take each one in your hand and judge quality! (Wasn't possible in this case, they were all cable tied shut)

Ahhh well...

I picked up a £29.99 cordless angle grinder (no battery, no charger) as I already had a 4Ah battery and charger that came with the £59.99 400nm impact gun (which is a superb quality piece of kit, and its got some serious oomph, way more than any pneumatic hand held gun ive used!)

Back to the grinder....

2 issues, the no load speed is only about 7500rpm, not the 10,000 advertised, I didn't charge my battery (as I dont intend on using it and long term storage outside of 30-60% charge is very damaging for a lithium pack). My 3 bar battery indicator shows full, however these show full at anything over about 30% from what I've read online, so not to be trusted. I'll charge it up tonight and see how it goes.

Issue 2...
It's easily got the worst on switch I've ever seen, horrible wobbly bit of plastic that latches in at the end with a nasty sharp feeling hook thats held in by the spring tension of the switch trying to return to the off position. The side of the "slot" that the thumb switch slides up and down is notched on one side so assuming you're right handed, its like a sort of safety feature, you have to guide the wobbly switch away from it, as your right thumb naturally pushes towards it - no "safety" for lefties I guess! Its pretty awful, and its the looseness of the switch and the sharp cheap catch feeling that makes it so. It frequently gets caught on something and won't move from off, must be a notch or catch under the button that cant be seen, perhaps you're supposed to press it in before you slide it.

The casing plastic is cheap, sharp looking flashings etc.

Overall, looks nice, but the quality is absolutely no where near that of the big 400nm impact driver I bought. Bit of a let down to say the least. Although it was only £29.99 and I've got the battery and charger and I'm sure it'll do exactly the job its supposed to - I'm still tempted to take it back.

This one is the newer version that looks the same as the old one, but the battery is at an angle to the body - not sure if thats any different.

Anyone else got one, what are your thoughts?