Do you ever wonder…..

[Kevin FParticipant @kevinf]

[Kevin FParticipant @kevinf]

Only yesterday I was busy working on my lathe ,an old but very useable Myford ML4 ,I like the lathe as for me it's a trip down memory lane ,a time forgotten when old school engineers used and built the lathe, this got me thinking about previous owners and what they made on the machine ,do you ever stop and think what was produced on your equipment , if only these machines could talk………. ' apart from the odd chatter ' I bet this old Myford could tell a tale or two .

[LambtonParticipant @lambton]

Kevin,

I sometimes have similar thoughts when using my 1902 Drummond flat bed lathe that is still fitted with the original treadle and as far as I can tell have never been power operated. Apparently many such lathes were used by the Royal Navy often in submarines.

I bought it about 30 years ago and it was my only lathe for some years but only gets used occasionally now. I have often wondered about the previous users who like me toiled (pleasurably in my case) at the treadle when using the lathe for prolonged periods. Some poor matelot desperately trying to make a vital new part under pressure from the Captain with the enemy closing in….?

This lathe is still very accurate and surprisingly little worn. On reflection I suppose it is difficult to wear out a machine only powered by your foot just as well made bicycles never actually wear out.

I have lots of change wheels that I have accumulated over the years some bearing a crown motif with AM (Air Ministry) so these are clearly much younger than the lathe. I have made and fitted resettable index dials for all movements including the tailstock and with a pair of finer pitch change wheels (48 and 127 teeth) I can cut totally accurate metric thread. Screw cutting is a doddle with this lathe as the speed is so controllable.

Eric

[RJWParticipant @rjw]

With both of my Myford 7's I knew something of the history and often reflect on it and wish I was able to talk with the previous owners!

My first Myford was bought from an estate sale organised by the deceased's son, but I'd actually gone to buy his Boley watchmaker's lathe!
There was a rather sad element to this, because the son hated all his father's equipment so much he just wanted rid of it, the reason being his father spent more time in his converted coal shed working on his loco's than with his ailing mother who died some years before his father …… a lesson to be learned by us maybe!

The seller's father had made most of a 3.1/2" scale Jubilee and to a high standard, along with it came a kit of bits for an original M.E.Minnie traction engine plus a full set of build notes for both, plus a set of MEW mag's!
The lathe also came with its own enclosed cabinet purpose built by the owner, and more tooling than you could shake a stick at!

When my friend became terminally ill, he asked if I would like to buy his workshop equipment, which included the Myford 7 I now own, he built several small steam engines plus several clocks on this machine, but my first Myford was sold to fund the purchase, but most of the equipment from the first machine is still with it!

The Boley is the machine I use most though and which the previous owner (deceased estate) purchased at an antique fair in Belgium where he spent most of his later years!
The suprise for me with the machine was finding inscribed in the lid of the box 'André M, Stalag XA, 20543'
How did this lathe find its way into a POW camp and get permission to be used, or was it smuggled somehow? was it used to manufacture escape materials, spectacles, tools etc, what did it repair, how did the owner wind up in Stalag XA anyway (tons of stuff on the camp via Google) and what happened to him after WWII, did he even survive the camp?
So many unanswered questions with some of the stuff we become custodians of!

John.

[jason udallParticipant @jasonudall57142]

Had cause to put a brown and sharp cam auto in skip last week.

Machine has lane fallow for at least 30 years. ..out of curiousity fired it up …still ticks…

And still got parts from at least the last two batches in the bottom. . ( two different parts…so atleast two batches)
..

..not my machine but still breaks my heart…

Edited By jason udall on 17/12/2013 20:27:32

[Steve WithnellParticipant @stevewithnell34426]

My Dad still has the Britannia's his Grandfather bought. One is in service, having had new screws cut for the cross slide and compound a couple of years back. The other is in kit form, think the treadle is still about.

So I do Wonder what stories those lathes could tell…

Steve

[Dianne BestParticipant @diannebest69516]

My 10" Southbend was build in 1941 and sold to an aircraft company so it undoubtedly saw war time service. At some point in the 1960s it was sold to a community college auto shop and was used and abused there until I bought it in the 1980s. It is worn and sloppy but now does infrequent light duty and gets pampered. I feel good that it now has a good home where it is appreciated.

[mickParticipant @mick65121]

If my machines could talk, I'd probably pay them to keep quiet!

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

I have a Myford ML10 of which I know the full history as I purchased it for the Company I worked for. It did at one time go somewhere else and then came back as that section closed. It has been used by me nearly the whole time. When the Company downsized I was able to purchase it at a reasonable cost, the point being I ordered all the accessories at the purchase and only I knew what was what. The only thing I did was replace 3 Phase with single phase. It has done everything I have asked of it and produces accurate work. I have the original purchase order as well.

Clive

[davebParticipant @daveb17630]

I have a very old Excel filing & sawing machine, it bears a label, Rovex scale models, Dover. I read an article in ME several years ago about a well known contributor who got a job there in the 50s, he said that he hated the job, so boring. I often wonder if it was this machine that caused him to move on.

Dave

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