Myford Mandrel thread.

[Nick WheelerParticipant @nickwheeler]

Posted by NJH on 06/08/2017 13:30:38:

If you have a little time to spare making up one of these and keeping it on the lathe is useful. ( I can never find my 6" rule when I need it! )

Norman

Edited By NJH on 06/08/2017 13:31:23

I stuck a label on the headstock giving the centre height from both the lathe bed and the cross slide. So I can just use the digital height gauge to set tool height.

[NJHParticipant @njh]

That's true Nicholas but my height gauge is pretty big and rather unwieldy to use on the lathe – my little gauge sits happily on the lathe shelf. I guess I could add a second arm to use it on the cross slide but, in truth, I've never needed to do that.

Norman

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

Posted by Nige on 06/08/2017 20:03:03:

I was looking at the ML4 thinking about how I would make the sleeve to enable me to mount series 7 back plates etc. My concern is how far the machining area id from the tool post. The ML4 has a permanent gap in the bed and with the saddle as close to the head stock as possible while still being fully supported the cross slide edge is 3 1/4" from the rear of the mandrel at the furthest point that i would need to cut. My worry is that 3 1/4" is long way for a tool to overhang that is having to make an accurate cut.

Questions: Should I be worrying about the distance the tool will have to reach?

Can I bring the saddle closer to the headstock even though it means less support from the bed and if so how much saddle overhang might I get away with?

Anything else I should consider?

The ML7 has a similar sized gap in the bed. The thickness of the chuck and then the jaws protruding from it move the job out to somewhere in line with the beginning of the bed ways, so no problem. The only time I have run in to the problem you are worried about was when turning between centres and the carriage had to be wound way over to the left for the tool to cut right up to the driving dog on the end of the job. Solution is to hold a soft centre in the chuck, turn it true for every job, and use a bent-tailed driving dog that engages with one of the chuck jaws.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Hopper, Nige wants to turn a sleeve insitue where the chuck register is so needs to work on the extreme left.

[NigeParticipant @nige81730]

Question of technique. If I mount a piece in the 4 jaw chuck and bore out the centre so that it will fit the current register on the mandrel, can I unscrew the chuck from the mandrel, complete with the work, to offer up the work to check the fit and then screw the chuck back on and reasonably expect the piece to still be in alignment if it needs a little more machining?

[Brian WoodParticipant @brianwood45127]

Nige,

The short answer is yes

Regards
Brian

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