myford super 7 motor problem

[ZiggarParticipant @ziggar]

okee dokeee

maybe its time now for a gentle strip down of the motor and a general cleanout of 50 year old crap and general shite from the general motor area 😀

just remove the top cap as the instructable you posted the link to and clean it out as best you can. Blow it out if you have an airline or use a couple of paint brushes if you dont. get as much crap and crap out of it as you can. if its stiff and sticky, use some wd40 on the brush to loosen it up a bit or some alcohol if you have some [nnothing with a label] 😀

make sure all holes and ventilation areas are clean and free of detritus. make sure all thats screwed down is tght and solid, and all thats loose and free running should be free running and loose.

[hugh mcwhinnie 1Participant @hughmcwhinnie1]

I got the 4 jaw indipendant chuck as well with lots of tooling and milling attachement, clamps and lots of extras the 4 jaw hasnt been on the lathe at all so its brand new it needs the preservate cleaned off it, I need to get used to the 4 jaw again !

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Hugh

As Kwil notes, you have the GripTru chuck – lucky you ! I managed to pick up one in good (used) condition at a reasonable price but they are VERY expensive to buy new! If you don't have the instructions for adjusting this just let me know ( when the panic is over!) and I will forward a copy.

Regards

Norman

[TomkParticipant @tomk39956]

Hi Hugh

I have sent you a PM

Tomk

[Grizzly bearParticipant @grizzlybear]

HI hugh mcwhinnie 1,

Just a small item, on your very nice photos, third one, Motor 2. It appears that the mains input, Line & Neutral are reversed. This will not affect your motor temperature, but it could cause Les Jones 1 to have a nightmare!

Different motor on my old ML7, but it only gets comfortably warm, even after 30 mins work.

Regards, Bear..

[hugh mcwhinnie 1Participant @hughmcwhinnie1]

I am humbled by the level of support from all you guys and amazed by how quickly the responces came from my initial question. I apprecciate all the input you guys have given me and would like to thank everyone for there thoughts and for taking the time to respond to me.

If i win the lotto tommorow i'll send you all a £5 note

On a serious note once i or someone else figures this out i'll let you guys know right away what the challenge was!

Grip tru chuck…………wow, so expencive i had no idea!

Yes Norman if you could forward that would be apprecciated

Bear i didnt notice that until you pointed it out, i had a look in the myfords book on installation and maintenance and they have it different, i have no idea who wired the lathe, i took a picture of that before taking the 4 wires out the top to move the lathe (my back still hurts, me and the misses had to get it from the sellers house round and into my combo van) then i had to get it to my shed with my son, not easy! I should have given the misses the heavy end lol.

[hugh mcwhinnie 1Participant @hughmcwhinnie1]

I had to drive to London for the lathe, it was 815 miles or there abouts, me and the misses left on thursday night 8pm and got back friday night about 7 ish pm. It was worth the drive but sitting in the combo van that length of time really hurt my lower back 'before' i had to lift the lathe! i think its about 23 stone or there abouts and not easy to hold on to anything when lifting, i'm still recovering.

[Les Jones 1Participant @lesjones1]

Hi Hugh,
Sorry to point you in the wrong direction with my first reply as I assumed the motor was not hot just the pully and shaft that you mentioned. I agree with Grizzly bear's comments about live and neutral appearing to be crossed over at the terminal strip and that it will not cause the problem with the motor overheating. As the only switch on the lathe is the Dewhurst reversing switch which will break both live and neutral in the off position it will not realy cause a safety problem. The only risk is that someone working on the wiring with it live could think it save to touch the blue wire (which should be neutral) on the input to the Dewhurst switch when it is in fact connected to live.

Les.

[hugh mcwhinnie 1Participant @hughmcwhinnie1]

Hi Les

No need to appologise i should have been clearer in my comunication and been more specific! I'm not looking at it as a problem i rather think of it as a challenge, someone might be coming to have a look at it with me on thursday so i will see if we can find a solution to this heat thing. I'm sure it will be sorted one way or another. Many hands make light work!

[Phil PParticipant @philp]

Just to put a slightly different slant on this.

I have a Super 7 which was bought by my late father brand new from Myfords in 1987.

The motor on that gets pretty hot to touch after an hour or so's use, it has been like that since it was new and never gives any trouble.

Now I'm of to find some wood to touch !!

Phil

[NJHParticipant @njh]

Hi Hugh

I have sent you a private message.

N

[hugh mcwhinnie 1Participant @hughmcwhinnie1]

Here is a link to a video of some my project stuf a couple of years ago, i hope you like my youtube alias (john smith) lol: http://youtu.be/raP0-q6UeGo

I had a little accident and nearly took my fingers off so i sold the lathe and all accessories and gave the projects up. This is me coming to my senses and getting back on the horse so to speak. I'm no engineer i just tinker with things! I'm learning, my son just finished his apprentiship at ryan air he does aeronautical engineering i'm really proud of him for seeing it through to a conclusion!

[ianjParticipant @ians]

Hugh.

Just a thought, you say the lead screw is difficult to turn so I assume you have a hand wheel on the RH end.Is it possible that the thrust coller fitted to the lead screw ( Part G62) on the left hand side of the RH leadscrew bracket needs adjusting. It's threaded & has a locking grub screw to adjust the lead screw end float.

Ian

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

This has been a temendous thread … a clear demonstration of the usefulness of the forum.

Noting the "near new" condition of Hugh's lathe; I do wonder if this motor has always been troublesome [which might explain why the lathe has apparently had so little use].

In your position, Hugh; I would remove the motor and get it fully tested.

As a parallel exercise, you can check all the mechanical aspects of the lathe "by hand".

MichaelG.

[hugh mcwhinnie 1Participant @hughmcwhinnie1]

Hi Ian

I took the gears off and spun it with the handwheel (right hand side) it spins fine, i just wasnt sure how much presure was required when the leadscrew was ingaged and how much strain it put on the motor. If the belts were tight (and i think they were) plus that was tight when i was making the cut then that would have explained why the chuck slowed down in the first place. I slackened the two belts now.

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

As a rough guide on belt tightness, if you can rotate the belt 90 degrees with your fingers half way between the pulleys, its will not be far wrong. Many people over tighhten these belts.

[hugh mcwhinnie 1Participant @hughmcwhinnie1]

Hi Michael

The gentalman who owned the lathe has passed away, he was a civel engineer, he has numerious trains, boats, tools (probably more than B&"Q ) and everything boxed or in glass display cabinits, it was like a musieum, i could have spent months opening all those boxes because it was all quality stuf purchased at a time tools didn't snap when you went to used them.

He also had a small train track running round his garden, his wife told me he used it to make 3 bushes for 1 of the trains and that was it!, i did see a few small flakes of brass on the topslide.

Someone, not sure if it was him or someone else who used it must have left the key in the chuck and turned it on because in the gap under the chuck there is a chip where it has walloped it. Mabe it was a near miss and it scared him i'm not sure but all i know is its cracking condition other than that, i mean who could have a myford lying for 30 years without using it? but it seems to be the case.

I was lucky to have got a lot of tooling with the lathe as well, i'll get pictures and post them when i get a chance, all of the stufs brand new.

One thing i'm missing i would have liked is the fixed steady but ill pick one up.

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

Make sure you pick up a genuine MYFORD fixed steady and not a far east copy.

[hugh mcwhinnie 1Participant @hughmcwhinnie1]

I will do!

[hugh mcwhinnie 1Participant @hughmcwhinnie1]

I just got a reply from the person on instructables who stripped his motor down:

My motor runs cool. I rarely do heavy cutting with it, so most of the time it is running with very light loads. I suspect something needs attention on yours, I'm sure it shouldn't run hot.

When I dismantled the motor (see the instructable – search for 'myford', there were huge amounts of crud inside – dust and wood shavings, oil, and grease, etc.

I did have smoke coming from it once – I took off its drive belt and checked that the motor ran smoothly and freely – it did. I then checked the shaft on the other end of the drive belt (ie the driven shaft) and found that there was quite a bit of resistance when I tried to turn it by hand – it was stiff.

On an ML10, this is a 'counter shaft', with a drive pulley one end (connected by a belt to the motor) and a triple-stepped pulley the other end (connected to the lathe headshaft, which has a corresponding triple-stepped pulley).

I removed the triple-stepped pulley from the counter shaft (by removing a grub screw and then hitting the pulley off) and pulled out the shaft (complete with its driven pulley) from its bearing. More crud and grease (it should never have been greased – only oiled). Cleaned the whole lot out, cleaned the oilway, put it all back together and checked that it spun round freely.

Whenever I run the lathe, I oil the two end bearings of the motor and the counter shaft pulley. I never forget! The counter shaft always runs warm to the touch – I don't know if this is acceptable – but I can't do anything more!!

Best wishes, let me know if you find your problem!

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

This seems a useful place to "file" this document for future reference.

Brook Crompton, Single Phase Motors

Good luck with the Lathe, Hugh … it looks like you have found a Gem.

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 17/09/2013 10:03:02

[hugh mcwhinnie 1Participant @hughmcwhinnie1]

Thanks Michael

[KWILParticipant @kwil]

Hugh,

Brook Crompton info clearly shows these motors ( or at least those covered) all have ball bearings. Whether or not your motor has I do not know (age etc), however no amount of externally applied "oil" is going to solve aged grease in the bearings as they all have shields ( ie 6203ZZ). So if your motor is suffering from old grease, its a strip down and new bearings job. Not a difficult job I would suggest. Previous comments about crud and debris obviously does not apply, since your photographs show an almost pristine interior.

Personal message sent

[hugh mcwhinnie 1Participant @hughmcwhinnie1]

Yes m8, its really clean, the lathe stood in part of the house, not a shed so spotless it was! I took some pictures of tooling ill add to the pictures section soon

[hugh mcwhinnie 1Participant @hughmcwhinnie1]

All pictures should be on now of the tooling that came with the lathe and the books as well. 99% of the things in the pictures came with it, a couple of odds were my own from a previous lathe.

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