Myford ML7 lathe, opinions please

[HandyAndy]

I,m thinking of buying a Myford ML7 lathe, its from someone I know & trust their word on its condition etc.

I,ve looked into buying one of the Machine Mart lathes, both the smaller one & the large one, but I,m quite taken with this Myford, yes its older (1972) but that doesn,t put me off as this machine in my opinion is a "Real" lathe, built to last etc.

Any of you guys who have their own lathe or know of this model, I,d welcome your thoughts please, good or not so good :)

The lathe also has various extra,s that come with it & a few extra,s that are an additional buy such as the 4 jaw chuck & milling attachment.

Thanks in advance.

cheers
andy

[flyerncle]

Well known lathe and the choice of most "garden shed engineers".

Would love one !

Easily serviced with bearings and the like .

[Talonmotorsport]

How are you going to use it,hobby or light workshop use and where are you going to keep it? The machine mart cheap looking lathes are ok if you have half hour to spend drilling a 10mm hole in mild steel on the work bench. Myfords fetch very good money espesh if they come with all the toys. For the same money as the lighter hobby lathes you can pick up proper light industrial machine although they do weigh 500-700kg. Most 3 phase motors can be swaped out for single phase 240v as a lathe does'nt need alot of power due to the gearbox/belt drive. I have a 1963 colchester student same as the ebay link, it's done all the wishbone profiling, bush tubes, mushrooms and the rear drums on the twin wheel transit.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Colchester-Student-Lathe-No-Reserve-/320611096129?pt=UK_Home_Garden_PowerTools_SM&hash=item4aa5e91641

[TSM Locost]

Hi Andy.

Nothing wrong with Myford ML7 lathe. Forget Machine Mart lathes they are ok for turning plastic, alloy and soft steel. The company i used to work for bought the one with the drill mill attachment and would not even look at stainless or any good quality steels even when using top grade tooling. :) :)

[HandyAndy]

cheers guys :cool:

Paul, same here, I,ve always wanted one, my father was a time served turner & he used to use one of these, tho the bigger machines & always spoke highly of them.

Cheers Phil, great info & the linky too........... To be honest I intend to use it as a hobby lathe & over time learn to use it to its full potential, I can turn but being honest, just in the basic sense, I,d be keeping it in my garage ( not garden shed :D ), I don,t think I could warrant having a BIG 500kgs lathe, I just couldn,t justify its size in my garage ( if that makes sense).
I,m looking at the ML7 for it being a life long purchase, I,m hoping it,ll do everything I would wish to do on a lathe, not too big but capable etc is my train of thought.

Cheers Mike, I,ve looked at the machine mart "bigger lathe", yes it looks nice, but have never used one & with all the extra,s works out to be quite expensive, whereas the Myford I,m looking at has all the extra,s with it & would only be costing me about half the price of the Machine mart machine.

cheers for your input guys, you,ve all confirmed my own thoughts, but thought I,d ask the more experienced lathe owners opinion :cool:

cheers
andy

[Enoch]

Andy, I have a Clarke CL500M mill / lathe that I have owned for about 10 years now. I have mainly used it for smallish model engineering type work, the very small stuff has been done on my Taig / Peatol micro lathe. The Clarke is great for what I would class as larger stuff, I have never had a job it can't cope with. It does need some minor mods to make it usable - eg the retaining screws for the lead screw bearings are useless, they vibrate out and give you tons of lash - easy to sort but it shows one area where money was saved at the expense of build quality. Speed has to be changed by moving belts - pain in the extreme. It won't take a screw cutting gauge, at least not one that I know of. Having said that it has served me well, it is very rigid and as long as it is set up well it will take on some pretty serious work. I rarely use stainless except in very small diameters so can't comment on it's performance with said material. When I bought it I could not afford the ML7 with all the attachments, if you can find a good Myford at a sensible price and you think it is big enough then I would go for that, if you can't then the Clarke is a good second best.
Hope that helps, sorry if it rambles a bit.
Enoch

[HandyAndy]

cheers Enoch :cool:

The Myford I have the chance to buy would only cost me the same as the "Baby" Machine Mart CLM250 lathe, & the Myford comes with all the "toys" included in that price, tho the price is a "Mates price" ;)

Thanks for the honest down to earth info of your lathe, :)

I think it,ll be the Myford, the right price & all that , you know I like a bargain:D

cheers
andy

[K4KEV]

Defo the Myford Andy.... purely for the range of stuff for it, especially on fleabay.... would defo invest in a piston type QC toolpost (this one item with several tool holders totally reformed my Churchill Cub lathe)

[Twin]

I was advised to go down the Myford route ;)

2nd dibs please :)

[Enoch]

If you can get the Myford at that price and you have room for it you would be madder than a box of frogs to turn it down. The Clarkes are great for what they are but the Myfords are in a different league.
Best and all that
Enoch

[Enoch]

I forgot to say - check if the graduations are metric or imperial - most Myfords are imperial, my Clarke is metric. Don't know what you prefer to work in but make sure your dials are in whichever format you prefer. I have to work in imperial as most model engineering drawings are old and in imperial, constantly converting to metric is a bit of a drag.

[HandyAndy]

Cheers everyone for your thoughts :cool:

I,ve taken them all onboard,
sorry "Twin"......I,m having it :D .

Thats my xmas prezzie sorted, & as its my birthday soon my lovely SWMBO has bought me a Plasma Cutter too ,

WoW, i,ll never be out of the garage............maybe thats her intention:eek: :D

cheers
andy

[monsterob]

Plasma cutters are brilliant i just had no luck with my 3 dodgy batch aparently :-( gave up in the end and got a refund :-(

[Bonzo]

My lovely SWMBO has bought me a Plasma Cutter too



cheers
andy

Nice one on the lathe Andy .... Good choice, my late father produced some wonderfull work on his trusty Myford :)

I can well imagine you in the garage .... Let loose & free with a plasma cutter :cool:

You'll be getting another donor car so as you can have fun cutting the bejesus out of it :D :D

[HandyAndy]

cheers monsterob, i,ll soon be having a play with the plasma

cheers Ronnie,
thats one of the reasons i,d like to learn to use a lathe properly, as my late father was a time served "Fitter/Turner" as called in those days, so like to think i can learn similar skills etc, won,t be a patch on what he used to turn tho :o :)

The mrs must,ve had a weak moment......getting me something i,d like instead of socks & jumper :eek: :D

cheers
andy

[AshG]

andy dont forget you need a compressor to run a plasma cutter unless you go for one of the more expensive ones with the built in compressor. better add it onto the christmas list ;-)

[HandyAndy]

andy dont forget you need a compressor to run a plasma cutter unless you go for one of the more expensive ones with the built in compressor. better add it onto the christmas list ;-)

Cheers Ash,
got one already, airlines & a few nice airtools too , slowly building that kit up too :)

cheers
andy

[spud69]

Well done Andy, got my twin post car lift in today just need to wire in it. Who says its gloomy up north.....;)

:D And dont forget i'm after that other plasma cutter.:D

[Enoch]

Hi Andy, if you are new to lathe work have a look at this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Amateurs-Lathe-Lawrence-H-Sparey/dp/0852422881
It's a great little book that gives loads of handy (fnarr fnaarrr) hints and tips that will help you get the best out of your lathe. Bits of it are very basic but it's well worth the money.
Enoch

[CaptainCrash1971]

HAndy, would you like something to practise your turning skills on? I've got a set of book spec steering rack extensions that need shortening down to correct length. I'd happily pay you for your time, and if you bugger em up, nee bother, I'll just buy some proper length ones like I planned.

[HandyAndy]

cheers for the linky Enoch , i,ll have a butchers at that , cheers :cool:

Captaincrash,...cheers for that, I,d be happy to have a go on the extensions for you, wouldn,t need any payment mate, be nice to have a practise run etc.
But the lathe won,t be with me till next month, that might too late for you?

cheers
andy

[Tatey]

Andy if you need some more turning practise I think my steering rack extentions are too long as well :D :p , as my wheels sit at a good 15° angle pointing outwards when the rack is centralised. I haven't had time to confirm this but im leaning towards this being the problem.

[HandyAndy]

Andy if you need some more turning practise I think my steering rack extentions are too long as well , as my wheels sit at a good 15° angle pointing outwards when the rack is centralised. I haven't had time to confirm this but im leaning towards this being the problem.


:eek: :D
yup, if your rack extensions are to book spec then that IS the problem;)

practise makes perfect as they say :eek:

cheers
andy

[CaptainCrash1971]

No hurry HAndy, I've had my chassis and bits for about 8 month and managed to do absolutely nick all in that time. Hopefully that will change over the next few weeks, got quite a few days off work coming up, so am hoping to get cracking.