Myford lathe pledges

[David Hayward]

As recommended to us before, a few of us have been eyeing up Myford lathes:

http://www.mike-willis.com/Pictures/Misc/ml7.jpg

They were made here in Beeston decades ago. We had a pledge drive in January that floundered because we were in a tiny space. Now we have a big hackspace, it's doing pretty well, and some of us think it's lathe-o'clock.

We're apparently in a position where we can almost afford one, and if we had pledges for the last £150 - £200 or so, we definitely could. After some chatter, members on Twitter immediately started pledging, here's the list so far:

James Hayward: £20

Dominic Morrow: £20

Tony Shannon: £10

David Hayward: £15

What do you reckon? Something you'd use?

David

[Iain Sharp]

I am very supportive of getting a lathe. Count me in for £30.

I gather the tools and accessories can be expensive. Have you factored that in?

Iain.

[Dominic Morrow]

get the lathe... the tools will follow... don't worry about them. 

--
Dominic 

Nottingham Hackspace Organiser 

For more information about the Hackspace please visit us at

www.nottinghack.org.uk 

[Michael Erskine]

Chalk me up for £20.

[Matt Lloyd]

Last night David and i were looking at the Myford ML7's or ML10

its a case of finding a good one on ebay when we are ready 

theres not a particular auction that we have an eye on yet

delivery/collection may be a issue so looking close to home

they tend to come with a selection of chucks and accessories 

but we will look for the best selection we can find, 

as for cutting tools a basic set tungsten carbide bit is around £25-30

and we can expand over time as we learn what tooling will be useful or needed

stick me down for £15 (ill start a wiki page)

'RepRap' Matt

[Adrian Godwin]

Keep an eye on this site too :

http://www.homeworkshop.org.uk/

And your local model engineer's club : there's an ML7 advertised here :

http://www.nsme.co.uk/Blower/blower0.pdf

(NSME is where NortHACKton meet).

-adrian

[Michael Procter]

I'll pledge �50 for a lathe. Do we have a specific one in mind, or is it
a case of finding out how much interest there is and then going looking?

Michael

> On 17 November 2011 18:48, Iain Sharp <shar...@pinedragon.com> wrote:
>> I am very supportive of getting a lathe. Count me in for �30.

>>> James Hayward: �20

[deejak]

Not so much decades ago - the company only closed in July this year.

A Great pity - the finest modelmakers lathes available. The patterns
and spares etc. have been bought up (by a Yorkshire, I think,
company), so all may not be lost.

David Clarke.

[Spencer Owen]

Bung me down for a Tenner.

Spencer

[David Hayward]

Up to £190 already! I guess anything people want to put in above the 200 will go on extra tooling for it.

David

[BuLLeT]

Total now upto £200 with my Tenner pledge!

Tom

[Joe Duckhouse]

Then put me down for a tenner towards tooling. 

Sent from my iPhone

[jfowkes]

£20 from me.

[Dominic Morrow]

I'm not sure what the original plan was but I recon we shouldn't worry about the tooling yet... Hear me out... Tooling is virtually a consumable. I'd be happy to raise more pledges in the lathe and have Hackspace and induction money cover some of the tooling. 

We've seen a cracking lathe for £750 the more we raise in pledges the more we'll have in the coffers for tooling! 

So what I mean is lets not pledge or worry about paying for tooling yet. Let's get a lathe first!? 

And before everyone jumps on me about tooling being important (obviously) and expensive (yeah I know) I think you'll find that putting effort into getting and having the main bit will influence a lot of others who aren't even sure why we need or what a lathe is to also dig deep.

Done is the engine of more. 

DM 

Sent from my iPhone

[Iain Sharp]

I sort-of see where Dominic is going with this argument, but I think it would be worth hearing if people have particular tools they are interested in. For me I would like to have a drill-chuck to go in the tailstock. Being able to centre holes in cylindrical shapes is one of the big advantages of a lathe IMHO.



Iain

[Adrian Godwin]

On Fri, Nov 18, 2011 at 9:28 AM, Iain Sharp <shar...@pinedragon.com> wrote:
> I sort-of see where Dominic is going with this argument, but I think it
> would be worth hearing if people have particular tools they are interested
> in. For me I would like to have a drill-chuck to go in the tailstock. Being
> able to centre holes in cylindrical shapes is one of the big advantages of a
> lathe IMHO.
>

There's a rule of thumb that you can expect to spend as much on
tooling as you do on a lathe. But you don't have to buy it all at
once. You just need some fundamentals to do the main things with.

I'd recommend as a bare minimum :

3-jaw chuck
hard centre
tailstock drill chuck
small selection of cutters and a suitable method of holding them.
These really are consumables but if you choose indexable carbide
cutters then the holders are quite a large investment. A few HSS
blanks are a good cheap start.

and, quite quickly,

4-jaw chuck
faceplate
bench grinder if you don't already have one

[cong...@gmail.com]

Sorry, I was only jokingly responding to Davids comment as the pledges are over £200.

My pledge is for the lathe pot in general. I dont expect it to be kept for tooling. :-/

[Matt Lloyd]

I like to point out the add for the lathe in the Blower

Myford ML7 with screwcutting gearbox on maker’s stand. To include three and four jaw chucks, tailstock with lever feed, tailstock live centre, tailstock chuck 0 – 1⁄2in., faceplate driver, 7in. and 9in. faceplates, rear cut-off toolpost, fixed steady and countershaft clutch. 

As you can see has a nice selection of the sort of accessories we would be looking for 

'RepRap' Matt

Sent from my iPad 2

[Dominic Morrow]

Exactly and besides we'll still sort tooling out as and when to increase the awesome. 

Sent from my iPhone

[Andy Harsley]

As the culprit for suggesting a Myford earlier in the year I suppose I
should add a few points:

Disclaimer: I've owned an ML7 for about 7 years so am a little biased,
but it does mean I know the machine pretty well and can come over and
give some instruction when you finally get one.

1. Don't worry too much about screw cutting. It's a pain unless
there's zero backlash in the machine, and tricky even then. Much
easier to source threaded bar and rework the ends as required.
Sourcing all the change gears is exensive as well.

2. Forget tool grinding. It takes years of practice. Use indexable
cutters instead. They're pretty cheap on ebay.

3. An interchangeable tool post system is very useful.

4. Try and buy a lathe that comes with loads of tools. It'll be much
cheaper than sourcing them separtely.

5. I very rarely use a faceplate, but a chuck with outside jaws is a
must. An independent 4-jaw chuck is also needed when working with non-
circular parts. These are expensive if they don't come with the lathe.

6. A fixed steady is more useful than a travelling steady, but not
needed very often.

7. You'll need reduced shank "blacksmith" drills for anything over
13mm.

8. Milling machine slot drills (NOT end mills) are good for boring
flat bottom holes. You'll need an MT2 drill chuck for the tail stock
anyway.

9. Don't worry about a gearbox assembly. The Myfords are belt drive
and changing speed only takes seconds. (Although the lowest three
require fiddling with the bull wheel, but you won't need the back gear
very often anyway.)

10. You'll need a cheap digital caliper that lives with the machine.
The hand wheels are accurate enough for rough work, but not precision.
(And they're imperial.)

11. Probably the most compelling reason to buy an ML7 is that every
single part is still available to buy. And despite the recent factory
closure, this is not likely to change for many years. This is not the
case with many other makes of lathe. (That's why I opted for one.)

Some nice picks at: http://www.lathes.co.uk/myford-ml7/

Happy to anwser any specific questions anyone may have.


andy

[Matt Lloyd]

Ok so the £750 lath from the blower has already been sold
Time for david and I to start looking around on eBay and else were I guess

Keep pledging folks the more we have the better!

[mark]

Put me down for £20.
Exciting stuff!

Mark.

[Matt Pritchard]

I dunno if there are any lathes but have you guys seen this auction
coming up for general tools and machinery stuff?
http://www.arthurjohnson.co.uk/catalogues/catalogues/sale/0465/cat/S5

[DPS - LWK]

Time to call in the pledges already!!!

We Have Lathe!!

or will do once we arrange collection! (its in Scunthorpe)

I've been trying on ebay since Friday and was able to get on last night!
I was actual able to get a MyFord Super 7 (later model than the ML7 we
were looking for)
Some detail on the Super 7 model can be found here
http://www.lathes.co.uk/myford/page2.html

some pic's here
http://wiki.nottinghack.org.uk/wiki/File:MyFord_Super7ebay1.JPG
http://wiki.nottinghack.org.uk/wiki/File:MyFord_Super7ebay2.JPG
http://wiki.nottinghack.org.uk/wiki/File:MyFord_Super7ebay3.JPG

From the pictures some of the accessories we should be getting are:
3 jaw Chuck
4 jaw Chuck
Drill chuck for Tail stock
Live Centre
Dead Centre
7" faceplate
Catch plate
Fixed Steady
Vertical slide
4 way tool clamp
selection of change gears

Right Pledges

As always the preferred method would be direct into the hackspace bank account!
Name: Nottinghack
Number: 1 9 0 9 8 5 9 6
Sort Code: 6 0 - 2 4 - 7 7
If you can please add a reference LATHE

other option is of course CASH to board member next time your in the space

there is a list of who has pledged on the wiki
http://wiki.nottinghack.org.uk/wiki/Myford_Lathe
if you have access please update it when you have made payment or just
let me know here on the list an i will update it

'RepRap' Matt

[Martin Raynsford]

I pledged £10 and left the money in the cash envelope at the space.

[James Hayward]

Paid and marked JamesHPledgePay so I don't have to set up a new recipient every time!

J

sent from my HTC Desire

[Michael Erskine]

On 22 November 2011 08:56, DPS - LWK <dps...@gmail.com> wrote:

> We Have Lathe!!

Whoa! Things are happening fast! Perhaps it's time for me to quit my job now :D

[James Hayward]

No! Where would we get stuff from then?

sent from my HTC Desire

[Iain Sharp]

Good job. I've paid my £30 by bank transfer, but it has got a blank reference (sorry). Anyway you should be able to find it OK I hope.

[Spencer Owen]

There's £10 flying over via bank transfer right now...

Spencer

[David Hayward]

Collection arranged. If everything goes to plan we should have it by tomorrow evening.

David

[Tony]

Fast work guys - fantastic effort & a great asset to the space -
pledge paid :)