Myford 254S Lead screw lever issue

[alan1bParticipant @alan1b]

Good morning all,

I am new to this forum and would appreciate any help on this.

I have inherited a Myford 254S lathe from my father who had this lathe from new on which it was used extensively whilst building a 5″” gauge B1 loco. Its 90% finished and I am hoping to get it completed in his memory. It’s now in my workshop, and I am in the process of setting it up and going through the tooling he had.

The only issue I have is that I cannot get the lower lead screw lever to engage?

I have tried everything I’ve read, and gone through the original manual, but had no luck. It doesn’t appear jammed as there is slight up and down movement. page 18 (9)

Has anyone had this issue before?

Myford cannot offer any help!

Many thanks.

Alan

 

[Dave Sawdon 1Participant @davesawdon1]

Alan, in response to your PM about removing the apron … it was a while ago now, but I think I just removed the support bracket at the right hand end of the feedshaft and leadscrew, and then slid/wound them through the apron. When the bolts holding the carriage to the apron are removed the apron comes away easily. The only gotcha are the two spring covers for the leadscrew – restrain them with cable ties before removing the leadscrew.

Before removing anything it might be worth checking that you understand the operation of the controls. By “lower lead screw lever” do you mean the lever that projects to the left of the apron and engages the half nuts on the leadscrew? If so, have you made certain that the other lever isn’t interfering with it (as it’s designed to do) and have you tried moving the carriage while pushing down on the half-nut lever?

 

[Dave HalfordParticipant @davehalford22513]

First make sure it’s not finger trouble.

So with the hex shaft selected and rotating you engage which ever power feed you want with the upper lever. that also locks out the lead screw half nut select because both drives at once equals trouble.

If this bit works then with the upper lever in neutral the cut-outs will allow the half nuts to engage for screw cutting, when you find the sweet spot.

It might be the levers are out of position on the shaft and clashing when they shouldn’t.

 

[alan1bParticipant @alan1b]

Many thanks Gents for your kind help.

I really appreciate your time. I will certainly check the”finger trouble first” before a more in depth strip down.

If Im honest, I should have paid more attention when Dad was using it !!

Thanks again.

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

It may seem obvious but have you tried manually moving the saddle, leadscrew and feed shaft as it might just be the gears etc not aligning. Sort of what happens occasionally when you try to change gear in a car on the settings without synchromesh.

[Dave Sawdon 1Participant @davesawdon1]

Where are you in the country (approximately)? There may be someone who could help.

[alan1bParticipant @alan1b]

Thank you Dave & Bazyle,

After a low level inspection and going through the manual (again!), I found the Stop screw- lead-screw nut, located under the apron to the rear.

It looked bent and loose?

So the only option was to remove the apron, as described in an earlier post, thank you!. It was quite easy really.

Then It was obvious what the problem was. I straightened the screw, so that the tension spring was loose around the thread, and tightened up the the threaded clamp. Then once adjusted up the lever then moved as it should do. Its quite a small adjustment though.

It also was a good opportunity to check the half nut, and give it all a good clean, and took photos for future reference!

So Thanks for the help everybody, now the lathe needs levelling. Another thing I have not done before.

 

 

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