Reply To: Myford Lathe (what model?)

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

This mystery puts Glen’s Myford in the same class as the Antikythera mechanism.  We might never know the whys and wherefores!  Three possibilities spring to mind:

• It’s early production, and Myford spotted an opportunity to cut costs.   (If so, they were right to do so because gazillions of happy Myford owners never noticed they’d been trimmed! )
• A customer needed extra rigidity and ordered a special.
• The machine is a mixture, perhaps fixed using real parts from one of Myford’s not for hobbyist machines, like a Capstan lathe.  Bernard tuned me to into this possibility: ‘Wonder if its an early capstan, the big headstock bearing there for taking the constant use of a cut off slide?’  The ever wonderful lathes.co.uk has a section on Myford Special and Capstan Lathes.

Didn’t look for an match for Glen’s headstock in the many photos on Tony’s site, but this special caught  my eye’:

Only one example known, it’s a 5′ long bed Myford Super 7B.   Why?  We shall never know!

Dave