No workshop should be without...

[DickBrowne]

A 1948 Myford lathe!

Evening all. It's been busy in the workshop this week, following the arrival of my "new" Myford ML7 lathe. Made in 1948, I would suggest that the last time this particular lathe was cleaned, the USA was looking at Vietnam and wondering what their chances might be


Suffice it to say, I prepared myself for a major cleanfest, including Jizer, methylated spirit, WD40, several brushes and enough rag to swaddle any number of junior deities of your choice.

[DickBrowne]

A week of evenings later and, finally, everything was back together and able to be touched without risk of dengue fever. You may notice that the fan-shaped motor belt cover is missing and the explanation for that is that the mounting hardware for the cover is missing.

Now, it's an immutable law of the universe that the first project any lathe becomes involved in is the making of a part for itself and this particular lathe is no exception. The belt cover was missing a bracket to the rear and a spacer on the front.

Taking my life in my hands, well, drive belts were exposed, I measured the space which needed to be filled with a spacer and, before you could say "they probably sell those in Homebase", the spacer was made, the bracket fabricated and the cover was on.

Now it's all up and running, there are a couple of small MGB projects on the horizon. Firstly, a tool to tighten bezels on Lucas Switches, and the then a sleeve to allow me to fit an early ball-type gearknob to my 1967 GT.

[Ian F]

You lucky man! I would love to have some proper heavy workshop machines, but with too many classics I couldn't fit any in. Will that lathe cut threads and other clever stuff?

Ian F

[DickBrowne]

Hi Ian

It will cut threads (and I was careful to get an imperial lathe for that reason). The standard lathe uses changeable gear wheels to give different threads per inch, but mine has a quick change gearbox, so anything from 7-56tpi is possible without needing to change anything other than the position of the two levers on the bottom left hand side of the machine.

[Ian F]

That sounds excellent Dick. Lots to learn I suspect, and probably quite a few tools and stock metal to get.

Ian F