Bought Another Lathe - a Myford ML7 Tri-Leva

[Windy Miller]

...I spent a good while this afternoon going round several electrical suppliers trying to get some 3 core and 5 core black rubber flex to wire up the motor and switch. The only place that stocked it would only sell a full 100m roll. I had to settle for 3-core blue arctic and 5 core grey pvc flex - not as neat looking as black cable but it does the job...

Very nice job.

B&Q do short lengths of VIR cable...

 

[Turbo]

Bear in mind that Myfords often took older machines back, refurbished them with newer components and resold them; yours may be one of these.

Didn't know that, thanks for the info.

B&Q do short lengths of VIR cable...

Nearest B&Q about 70 miles away! There's an electrical wholesaler that will sell it by the metre but they're 35 miles away!

Local hardware shop used to stock it but it's under new management and he has cut back on what I would call useful items and is steering the shop in a different direction, concentrating more on the fancy goods side of the business. Customers are leaving in their droves, everyone reckons it will be closed in a year!

 

[oilyneil]

You can always use SY cable if you fancy,,
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ALL-SY-CA...t=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var=&hash=item27e557f267
Cable stuffing gland at either end to tidy it up too,,

 

[Turbo]

You can always use SY cable if you fancy,,
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ALL-SY-CA...t=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var=&hash=item27e557f267
Cable stuffing gland at either end to tidy it up too,,

Personally I hate that stuff. Pita to strip and connect and only required in a really hazardous environment.

I've managed to get the switch unit fitted and wired up.

I've also stripped & cleaned both drip feed oilers. I discovered that a small lab bottle is perfect for filling them (can be seen in the photo with the white top).

Was bored earlier tonight so I went up to the workshop to take that photo. Got distracted and finished up spending 3 hrs up there!

Now the lathe has a proper switch I wanted to oil all bushings before running it. I fitted the 2 ba grease nipples I bought from the myford shop on ebay. Next job was to convert a grease gun to hold oil using the instructions on this site. http://www.metalwebnews.com/howto/oilgun/gunconvert.html

The actual conversion was easy, the worst part was the slow and very messy task of removing every trace of old grease from the old gun. Once I filled up the gun with oil there were no leaks, so far so good!

Unfortunately the seal on the coupler has gone hard and when I tried it on the lathe oil went everywhere but into the nipple. I tried an old trick I read somewhere of putting a cotton rag over the grease nipple and putting the coupler onto that. The rag helps to form a seal and in this case it worked! I could get enough pressure to have the oil coming out the end of the bush past the shaft!

I'll need to get a new coupler for the gun, can anyone recommend a good one?

 

[Turbo]

Got a groz coupler for the grease gun. It seals perfectly and grips well - too well as I snapped off an oil nipple trying to remove it!

I was debating whether or not to remove the spindle to check out the bearing shells. Last night I had the tri-leva mechanism off, mostly to see how it worked. Since it was only 4 more bolts to remove the spindle I ended up with this on the bench.

Its a good thing that I removed it as there is some light scoring on the shaft and bearing nearest the chuck.

It looks like either the bearing has ran dry or some dirt/swarf has got into it. I'm not sure what to do with it, opinions greatly received.

I've no marking blue to test for high spots, it's now on order. Instead I tried unsuccessfully using a black marker. I'm thinking I should take out a shim, scrape away any high spots and match the bushing to the shaft. The problem with that is by scraping the lower shell you are lowering the shaft on that end and you might lose some accuracy.

The rear bearing is in near perfect condition.

I have it built back up for the moment, I'm guessing it's ok to run it like that for a short while?

I'm watching some hand scrapers on the bay but I was thinking of making one from an old file. Can anyone give me pointers on making one ie grinding angles, etc. Could I use a wood carving gouge or wood chisel instead?

I've also got a new favourite solvent for cleaning down machinery - 2-stroke petrol mixture. The petrol does the cleaning and when it evaporates it leaves behind a thin protective film of oil which also gives it a nice sheen.

 

[Pete.]

I'd leave that shell bearing alone. If it's kept oiled the shaft will never touch it.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

I agree with the above, maybe a quick hone with some fine wet and dry on the shaft but no more than that.

 

[MattF]

Same as Pete and Wendel' here too. Scoring is always tempting to fart about with, but better to just leave well alone in most cases. It has to be pretty bad to cause any problems in use.

 

[Turbo]

Thank guys, guess I'll leave it alone then.

Decided to strip the tri-leva attachment last night to clean and service it. It's not that complicated but there's a lot of levers pivoting on shafts that have to be assembled in the correct order. Took a few pics & a drawing so hopefully I'll get it assembled correctly.

When I get it back together I'll take a few pics on how it works.

 

[Turbo]

Been busy at the lathe over the past few days and finally got it up and running tonight!

As promised here's a write-up on the tr-leva mechanism.

Here's all the components cleaned, painted and ready for assembly.

When you pull the lever on the left it pushes on the finger in the middle, it in turn moves the lever on the right with the roller on it. Each of the 3 rollers presses against a belt engaging it like a tensioner and transmitting drive from the idler shaft to the spindle. These pics might explain things better.

In neutral.

From behind

'Gear' engaged

Each of the step pulleys has its own belt and as you select each gear the roller tensions each belt giving you 3 speeds without having to move the belt between pulleys.

Now comes the clever bit. There is a built in interlock system to stop you selecting 2 gears at once involving this strange piece of casting.

I'm not sure how it works but as soon as you pull on a lever it immediately releases the previously selected gear. Here are the available speeds.

There are 3 std speeds and 3 in back gear. If you are lucky enough to own one of the very rare 2-speed motors, which I haven't got, that gives you another 6 speeds. If you put a bigger pully on the motor that will give you the other 6 speeds.

I did something rather stupid. Part of the cover for the tri-leva was bent & I tried to straighten it with very slight pressure. Unfortunately it snapped off!

It's made of some type of cast alloy, very crystalline in appearance -any suggestions on how to repair this? Any heat process will mean I have to try to remove the label with the speeds on it without damaging it. It appears to be on a thin aluminium plate so gentle heating from the back might release the glue.

 

[MattF]

It's made of some type of cast alloy, very crystalline in appearance -any suggestions on how to repair this?

Likely either aluminium or monkey metal, (Mazak, Zamak). Getting any strength into a repair on that likely won't be simple, especially if it's the latter. Might be weldable, or you could just cut a strip of steel and plate it, (drill, tap & screw).

 

[Turbo]

or you could just cut a strip of steel and plate it, (drill, tap & screw)

It's a bit light for that. The part that's broken off is basically a t shape in profile with each leg around 5mm thick. I could plate it at the front but I want the repair to be invisible. What about those 'durafix' type rods, would they work here? I've never used them before so I would be very nervous using them on something like this that's very hard to replace if I screw it up. I've brazed before, would it work on this? I've got an oxy propane set with welding nozzles plus a mapp gas and propane torch so a heat source is no problem.

Is tig an option with monkey metal? I've no tig set to try it myself but there's a local guy I've used before to weld aluminium. He's not cheap but he does a top class job.

 

[MattF]

It's a bit light for that. The part that's broken off is basically a t shape in profile with each leg around 5mm thick. I could plate it at the front but I want the repair to be invisible. What about those 'durafix' type rods, would they work here? I've never used them before so I would be very nervous using them on something like this that's very hard to replace if I screw it up. I've brazed before, would it work on this? I've got an oxy propane set with welding nozzles plus a mapp gas and propane torch so a heat source is no problem.

Is tig an option with monkey metal? I've no tig set to try it myself but there's a local guy I've used before to weld aluminium. He's not cheap but he does a top class job.

Best thing to do would be to take the pieces to that chap and get his opinion. I believe brazing is out, as that would be above the melting point of aluminium and likely mazak, so TIG sounds most feasible.

 

[Pete.]

I tried to TIG some of that stuff and got a shower of fireworks but no weld.

 

[Fintray]

I think I would try to drill say a 1.5 or 2mm diameter hole in each piece as deep as possible and use a steel pin with some adhesive to help bond the pieces then smooth and paint over or leave as is if neat enough.

 

[Turbo]

Thanks for the replies, your advise and comments are appreciated.

I had another look at the cover earlier and the broken piece is only 3mm thick and not 5, so not much meat to start drilling holes into. I'm thinking of trying those HTS 2000 alloy soldering rods, obviously after practicing on some scrap!

I thought I had the lathe ready to use but then realized that I had forgotten about the chucks.

The main chuck didn't look to bad apart from some surface rust but I decided to strip it down completely & clean it.

It came up quite well, a nice original Burnerd chuck.

I couldn't see this writing until after I cleaned it.

I'm not sure if this is the original chuck but if it is the lathe has had very little use as the jaws are virtually unmarked. I'm glad I stripped it as I had quite a lot of crud in the bottom of the cleaning dish when I finished.
I wasn't sure whether to lube it or not during assembly but in the end I used light gear oil on everything, more as a rust preventative than anything else.

The tailstock drill chuck had quite a good coat of rust so it was destined for the e-bath. There was no hole inside the chuck to allow me to drive out the arbour so I had to make one.

I mounted the chuck in the spindle and used the chuck from the pillar drill to bore a 5mm hole. The lathe made it so much easier than the last time I did that job. Once the hole was there it was a 5 minute job to strip down the chuck.

Parts are now in the e-bath for an overnight soak. The jaws on the drill chuck are very fresh looking as well.

 

[Turbo]

After an overnight soak in the e-bath and a quick run over with a wire brush the chuck parts came out like new.

A quality Jacobs chuck ready for another 40 years work!

When I soaked the tailstock to try to free up the barrel the fluid attacked the paint & blistered it in places (the fluid is 50% cellulose thinners!). It was too bad to paint over so I decided to strip off the rest of the paint & respray it. The e-bath had little effect, the myford paint is tough stuff but it did reveal that it has been repainted in the past. The grinder & wire brush took care of the remainder and it's now ready for painting.

I'm missing 2 of the reverse step jaws for the 3-jaw myford chuck. If anyone has a spare set I would be very interested.

This is what I'm after.

 

[Turbo]

Time for an update. I got the tailstock painted & assembled.

I took one of the covers to a local auto paint store & 2 guys spent ages adding tinters to a base to get a near exact colour match.

The bed is the original paint - a very close match methinks! It's a brush or spray on synthetic enamel and I've got the recipe if anyone wants it. At £15 per litre it's a lot cheaper than the Myford stuff.

I have been using the lathe but I gave it a good clean yesterday and took some post restoration photos.

 

[lchris21]

looking sweet.....

 

[Turbo]

Bought this yesterday.

I wanted it for the framework which is 40mm box legs, 25mm box on the rest and is just the right height & depth to make a table for the lathe.

Then I had an idea - why not leave most of the stainless steel sink unit on it and mount the lathe on top of that. The coolant can run down the draining board and collect in the sink which I'll cover with fine mesh. I can either use the sink as my coolant tank or drain it into a separate tank.

So what do you think - daft or genius?