Myford ML10 (Malcolm Myford)

[dobbslc]

Are there any shims or washers fitted that could be wrong causing the shaft to bind?

 

[Richard.]

Have spent a good bit of time on the slides today and got them all what I consider perfect except the top slide.

The two nuts identified by Richard were not loose but tightened up a little and made no difference, I then found if I loosened the two screws holding the hand wheel housing to the top slide everything moved nicely but of course the hand wheel had a bit of a wobble because the screws were loose, which is not what anyone wants.

Dismantled everything and cleaned all moving parts and threads, pleased to see no sign at all of use/wear but could see nothing untoward causing the problem, although I realise visual is just that and may not show all.

Set the slide to move by hand with only the lightest of resistance, so should be about right.

Reassembled and still too tight if both pairs of screws are tightened, yet fine if the hand wheel housing screws are backed off a fraction, I am now thinking the screw housing and the hand wheel housing are out of line by the tiniest amount.

I don't think the lead screw is bent or it would have varying tension as it rotated.

I plan to buy a £ shop feeler gauge and break it up to make some shims and see if I can figure where to pack the housings to correct the issue.

It's nothing serious and is more than usable as it is but will nag me every time if I don't get it right.

That's a strange one Steve. The hand wheel dial isn't rubbing on the slide as you turn it is it?

 

[cumbriasteve]

Are there any shims or washers fitted that could be wrong causing the shaft to bind?

Nothing mate.

 

[cumbriasteve]

That's a strange one Steve. The hand wheel dial isn't rubbing on the slide as you turn it is it?

Never even thought of that Richard , that could be a lucky pointer and an easy one to fix..fingers crossed.

Will check tomorrow

 

[Richard.]

I'll send you my wheel combination this eve Steve to try out also.

 

[cumbriasteve]

I'll send you my wheel combination this eve Steve to try out also.

Cheers mate

 

[Richard.]

Have u got your metal Steve.

 

[cumbriasteve]

Nothing yet Richard, probably still sorting Xmas backlog of parcels

 

[cumbriasteve]

Decided today I would try and improve the lathe stand, initially I was going to convert it into a cupboard arrangement but decided open shelves were better, less chance of just shoving stuff out of sight, so a bit of ply ripping on my new Aldi saw bench and the job was done.

Then decided I would raise the lathe to suit my height by simply using some 3x2 timber I had as a 'try it and see', the height is now perfect, feels a lot better but at a cost... lifting it and sliding the wood under whilst bending at a weird angle and now in total agony with a bad back, not really great for an ex safety trainer and tomorrow morning I have a dental and find the couch uncomfortable at the best of times

 

[gaz1]

id still weld a thin bar around the base of that lathe bed with an oil collection point a box at one end of it at least you could drain it or even fit a pump onto the end and put the oil over the material again

otherwise you may find the oil will go onto those boards that you have done underneath it also to note you could also use a flick tin to run the oil back down to underneath the lathe as your going to get a loverly black line on the wall where spin off flicks the oil from the tools and the part your machining

 

[Richard.]

id still weld a thin bar around the base of that lathe bed with an oil collection point a box at one end of it at least you could drain it or even fit a pump onto the end and put the oil over the material again

otherwise you may find the oil will go onto those boards that you have done underneath it also to note you could also use a flick tin to run the oil back down to underneath the lathe as your going to get a loverly black line on the wall where spin off flicks the oil from the tools and the part your machining

Sure will. I've got an awesome grease/oil splatter line right up the brick wall behind mine.
My tray has got a drain plug in one corner which I wipe it all into a tin when it's starting to gain a puddle of cutting/nuto oil.

 

[cumbriasteve]

Yeah it's still design in progress, the back wall is to have some shelving and adjustable work lights, something will be made as a splash guard and catch tray.

 

[Highway_Star]

When I get a minute I'll take a picture of my late dad's ML10. Him and a fabricator friend of his knocked up the stand and tray. There is a drain etc for suds, never got round to that.

They're good wee machines, once you learn the limitations. It never used to cease to amaze me what my dad could knock out on it. Granted he was a former Rosyth Dockyard mech fitter/turner apprentice in his youth, so had some seriously skilled and knowledgable mentors. With my old man at the wheels the ML10 could punch way above it's size.

 

[mm289]

Hi Steve, bit late onto this thread didn't twig what it was until recently

Glad to see the lathe made it to Cumbria, it travelled a long way from Dover where I first picked it up about 3-4 years ago. Was in the garage of a retired ships engineer from the ferrys, along with a nice little mill and a BSA GoldStar - never did persuade him to part with the latter 2!

It was a bit dirty but in really nice nic when I picked it up and all I have done is cleaned it and oiled it more times than I probably used it!!! Replaced with a Harrison L5 I got off John on here (ZZR1200) and then sat in a corner till I saw BB asking about one so I thought it could find a better home than the corner of my machine shop

I got it because I had read they were a great learner lathe and I think/hope you will find that too

Couple of bits of info that may be usefull:

I never could figure out the tightness on the top slide - like you I don't think it is down to the ways or gib's and the leadscrew didn't look bent. The only thing I could think is the casting the leadscrew bolts to (on the front side of the topslide) was out of true and that was putting pressure on the leadscrew. TBH for the dozen times I used it I lived with the tightness at it still worked perfectly, but defo worth investigating

The backgear does as said above - from memory undo the allen key on the main gear and it slides away allowing you to undo the nut on the backgear and slide this into enagement with the main gear then retighten the allen key. As said above make sure it turns freely before engaging the motor.(there is a better explanation in the manual I think)

You have probably noticed the belt tension lever can be used as a rudimentary clutch but i never found it worked that well so used the on/off switch.

And now for gearing........ It has a full set of imperial gears but figuring out how these convert into feeds was a minefield until...... I discovered a partial reprint of an old ML10 manual (attached). If you look on page 11 of this it will show a couple of pics of how the gears can be set up to provide fine feed both into and away from the headstock. The chart inside the belt cover gives you various combinations of driven and driver gears on each of the 3 primary studs that allows you to cut all the different thread pitches or setup different feed rates. NOTE: before you spend hours trying to figure out why this doesn't work (like I did ) you will find that there is 1 spacer/bolt arrangement missing from the set. I havent got a pic but basically the gears sit on the shafts via a collar retained with a bolt. From memory it has a long and short version which is enough to set up a "3 changewheel" feed but you need 1 more for a "4 changewheel" feed as per the left hand image on page 11. Without this collar you wont be able to set up all the wheels need to get the full range of speeds.

It is a really simple collar and I was going to make one as one of my first turning projects but never got round to it. If you play with the collars you will work out which one is missing really easily and just make one up to the specs of the current one - I am pretty sure it is the longer collar but could be wrong.

Once you have got that sorted you will be able to swap gears around to your hearts content - I did have it running with a "3 changewheel" combo so i know it all works OK but that fed in a bit sharpish! If you are into fettling then a very popular mod in these is to fit a dog clutch to the leadscrew. Lots of info on google or Model Engineer but you basically saw the leadscrew where that groove is on the l/h end and fit a sleeve on a lever (page 13 of the manual) - really useful if you are going to be using the leadscrew powerfeed a lot (given the clutch on the motor isn't upto much)

Sorry for the massively long post, hope that helps and happy turning

Cheers,

MM

 

[Pete.]

I would say that the most likely cause for the top slide problem is that the hole in the nut is not bored perpendicular to the mounting face. It doesn't have to be off by much for it to bind like mad when you tighten the mounting bolts.

 

[cumbriasteve]

Hi Steve, bit late onto this thread didn't twig what it was until recently

Glad to see the lathe made it to Cumbria, it travelled a long way from Dover where I first picked it up about 3-4 years ago. Was in the garage of a retired ships engineer from the ferrys, along with a nice little mill and a BSA GoldStar - never did persuade him to part with the latter 2!

It was a bit dirty but in really nice nic when I picked it up and all I have done is cleaned it and oiled it more times than I probably used it!!! Replaced with a Harrison L5 I got off John on here (ZZR1200) and then sat in a corner till I saw BB asking about one so I thought it could find a better home than the corner of my machine shop

I got it because I had read they were a great learner lathe and I think/hope you will find that too

Couple of bits of info that may be usefull:

I never could figure out the tightness on the top slide - like you I don't think it is down to the ways or gib's and the leadscrew didn't look bent. The only thing I could think is the casting the leadscrew bolts to (on the front side of the topslide) was out of true and that was putting pressure on the leadscrew. TBH for the dozen times I used it I lived with the tightness at it still worked perfectly, but defo worth investigating

The backgear does as said above - from memory undo the allen key on the main gear and it slides away allowing you to undo the nut on the backgear and slide this into enagement with the main gear then retighten the allen key. As said above make sure it turns freely before engaging the motor.(there is a better explanation in the manual I think)

You have probably noticed the belt tension lever can be used as a rudimentary clutch but i never found it worked that well so used the on/off switch.

And now for gearing........ It has a full set of imperial gears but figuring out how these convert into feeds was a minefield until...... I discovered a partial reprint of an old ML10 manual (attached). If you look on page 11 of this it will show a couple of pics of how the gears can be set up to provide fine feed both into and away from the headstock. The chart inside the belt cover gives you various combinations of driven and driver gears on each of the 3 primary studs that allows you to cut all the different thread pitches or setup different feed rates. NOTE: before you spend hours trying to figure out why this doesn't work (like I did ) you will find that there is 1 spacer/bolt arrangement missing from the set. I havent got a pic but basically the gears sit on the shafts via a collar retained with a bolt. From memory it has a long and short version which is enough to set up a "3 changewheel" feed but you need 1 more for a "4 changewheel" feed as per the left hand image on page 11. Without this collar you wont be able to set up all the wheels need to get the full range of speeds.

It is a really simple collar and I was going to make one as one of my first turning projects but never got round to it. If you play with the collars you will work out which one is missing really easily and just make one up to the specs of the current one - I am pretty sure it is the longer collar but could be wrong.

Once you have got that sorted you will be able to swap gears around to your hearts content - I did have it running with a "3 changewheel" combo so i know it all works OK but that fed in a bit sharpish! If you are into fettling then a very popular mod in these is to fit a dog clutch to the leadscrew. Lots of info on google or Model Engineer but you basically saw the leadscrew where that groove is on the l/h end and fit a sleeve on a lever (page 13 of the manual) - really useful if you are going to be using the leadscrew powerfeed a lot (given the clutch on the motor isn't upto much)

Sorry for the massively long post, hope that helps and happy turning

Cheers,

MM

Thanks for all that, I did reckon there is some misalignment causing the top slide tightness, have got it where its not bad but will get round to sorting it out properly.

 

[Turbo]

The stand is looking good but I would add a few short welds at the joints to steady things. I would also add an emergency stop on the apron alongside the dewhurst switch!

Have you thought about a cover yet to keep the dust & damp off it? I was using a cheap bicycle cover from poundland, it's a perfect size & shape for a small lathe! I only recently upgraded to a heavier motorcycle cover from Lidl which covers some of the stand as well.

Some nosey git was looking under my cover, didn't replace it properly & left some of the lathe exposed to the damp air. Those bits suffered some surface rust so the cover is definitely working.

 

[cumbriasteve]

The stand is looking good but I would add a few short welds at the joints to steady things. I would also add an emergency stop on the apron alongside the dewhurst switch!

Have you thought about a cover yet to keep the dust & damp off it? I was using a cheap bicycle cover from poundland, it's a perfect size & shape for a small lathe! I only recently upgraded to a heavier motorcycle cover from Lidl which covers some of the stand as well.

Some nosey git was looking under my cover, didn't replace it properly & left some of the lathe exposed to the damp air. Those bits suffered some surface rust so the cover is definitely working.

It is tucked up under it's ex bed sheet same as my welders and other machinery, it makes a big difference to stop condensation forming on the surface.

I was not going to bother with an emergency stop but was amazed how much torque it has, so for a couple of quid I will get and fit one.

 

[cumbriasteve]

With my drive to reduce the scary forecast cost of my next years electric bill I have ordered some 12v led light banks to give a general and hopefully good light around the lathe area, I still fancied something more direct to aim at the chuck and whatever is being turned.

With some time to kill a walk into the £ shop resulted in the purchase of this light, it uses 3 x 1.5v AA batteries which in my simple leccy maths is near enough to a usb wall charger plug of 5v of which I have a few spare.

Have tried it with the batteries and it seems to give a very good area of illumination, so a bit of soldering/wiring, manufacture an adjustable stand and it could be ideal.

It has a handy flat area to mount onto whatever I make and already swivels in the vertical plane so the stand only has to adjust in height and the horizontal, not a difficult project at.

 

[cumbriasteve]

Not progressed much this week due to the uncomfortable temperatures in the workshop and not wanting to heat the place for non essential work.

I did yesterday however require some stainless tube to be reduced a fraction in the external diameter, I managed to produce exactly what I wanted but realised the whole lathe set up is not sitting right and I can't expect to enjoy the machine unless I remove all conditions that interfere with it's performance and accuracy.

The garage floor which I thought was flat is far from it and wedges/packers under the wood I am using to raise the height is not the answer, so I decided to make some height adjusters that would offer the ability to get it spot on and stay spot on.

Once these are in place and all is level, straight and secure, two retaining brackets will go from the stand to the wall, this should make the stand as rigid as possible.

I will then set the bed according to the Myford instruction manual to ensure there is no twist at all, I must admit I originally thought on such a solid and short bed this would not be an issue but apparently I was very much wrong and it's costing me nothing but time so well worth doing.

I did think of following the suggestions of welding the joints on the stand but they are held by fair sized bolts and with my plans to tie in to a solid wall I think I will leave that as it is, unless proven it's needed.

My ebay led lights have arrived and seem ok with a quick check so next week may sort those into some overhead unit to illuminate the work area, still got the direct work light to sort/make so plenty to do but not a lot that will show any real machining accomplished for a while.