- Thread starter grandads_shed
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grandads_shed
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I was looking at similar lathes - hold out for an old one
I found a complete Drummond/Myford M type for £200 including a load of tooling and accessories. The chap even delivered it for me for free
i have been offered one of these, but i cannot collect it. how big are they? i have not seen the one i have been offered as it is 200 miles away.
it looks bit on the pictures they sent me.
how heavy would you say it is? will it fit into a estate car it the top is removed from the legs?
I haven't got a stand but each part is pretty heavy.
I managed to man handle the bed with headstock attached on my own pretty much. 2 man lift is much easier!! The motor was a pain as it weighed almost as much but there was no room under the bench for 2 people so I used a precarious floor jack...
It'll go in an estate car - mine easily went in a Astra van but I dunno about the stand.
It is now liberally covered in swarf and I haev working lights and tools everywhere - never was a tidy worker!!
Jack is at the bottom...
Motor
Countershaft.
Gubbins
I managed to man handle the bed with headstock attached on my own pretty much. 2 man lift is much easier!! The motor was a pain as it weighed almost as much but there was no room under the bench for 2 people so I used a precarious floor jack...
It'll go in an estate car - mine easily went in a Astra van but I dunno about the stand.
It is now liberally covered in swarf and I haev working lights and tools everywhere - never was a tidy worker!!
Jack is at the bottom...
Motor
Countershaft.
Gubbins
grandads_shed
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seems to be a lot of different types of myfords, im thinking of getting one of these instead of one of the cheap mini lathes,
is there anything i need to check for on a myford.
is there anything i need to check for on a myford.
JimM
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Good thing about Myfords is that the company is still going and the machines have a reputation for quality. Spares are readily available and loads of people have them so if you do have problems there will be plenty of support.
Bad thing is that because everybody wants one they are ridiculously overpriced (at least in my opinion) If you do find one that is sensibly priced then I'd suggest the main things to check for are wear on the slideways etc, twisting of the bed etc
If you have the cash then you can buy a reconditioned machine direct from Myford
If it was me I'd look at a similar lathe from a different manufacturer - I've got an old Atlas 10F which is like a Myford, bought complete with chucks and tooling for £120. OK it's not in A1 condition, and rattles and clanks etc but as something to practice on whilst I'm starting out it's not too bad. Problem is it's a basically an American machine so parts can be a bit tricky to source. The Boxfords also seem to be better priced and again there are a few of them around so parts are not such a problem.
HTH
Jim
Bad thing is that because everybody wants one they are ridiculously overpriced (at least in my opinion) If you do find one that is sensibly priced then I'd suggest the main things to check for are wear on the slideways etc, twisting of the bed etc
If you have the cash then you can buy a reconditioned machine direct from Myford
If it was me I'd look at a similar lathe from a different manufacturer - I've got an old Atlas 10F which is like a Myford, bought complete with chucks and tooling for £120. OK it's not in A1 condition, and rattles and clanks etc but as something to practice on whilst I'm starting out it's not too bad. Problem is it's a basically an American machine so parts can be a bit tricky to source. The Boxfords also seem to be better priced and again there are a few of them around so parts are not such a problem.
HTH
Jim
brightspark
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check the headstock bearings for wear. check the bed and saddle for wear also. make sure theres no tight spots on the travel or its not sloppy with any chatter .check theres not excessive backlash on the feedscrews .cross slide and topslide. if alls well there it should be good 
basicaly make sure it hasnt had a hard life
basicaly make sure it hasnt had a hard life
Last edited:
Wedg1e
They call me Mr. Bodge-angles
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I'm on my second Boxford and the consensus is generally that the Myford is more suited to fine, precision work where the Boxie is a bigger, more robust but slightly less precise tool. Part of that stems from the fact that they were sold in large numbers to schools and training establishments where the absolute, n'th degree of precision wasn't as important as being able to cope with hamfisted schoolboys and apprentices.
The usual ploy with advertisers is that they claim 'ex-school machine, hardly used'... which may be true, but given that my daughter went to the same school as me, by which time (1995) all their machinery had been sold off to make way for computers (as was common at that time), that's another 15 years of wear and tear, NOT in a school, that most of those lathes have endured.
Minimum spec' you really should go for is an 'A' or 'AUD': these are back-geared, screwcutting, power-feed machines. The UD indicates that the drive motor and pulleys are contained within the base so the lathe is shallower (thus less workshop space). For full-on dog's-dangliness, try and find a VSL, preferably the 'Mk 3', as this has continuously-variable spindle speed control and will run from about 50 to over 2000rpm with no belts to change. £750 should do it.
Sorry, Boxford-worship mode off now...
You can get absolute sheds, but that applies to Myford,s Colchesters, Harrisons and Dean/Smith/Graces too...
