# Advice on lathe purchase



## Jonm (14 Nov 2020)

I would like to learn how to use a lathe. I have been offered a lathe for £250. I have briefly seen it but was very short on time. It comes with lots of bits and I attach some pictures. It is a myford but I do not have the model number. It does run and sounds ok.

Basically I would like some advice on whether this looks like a good buy and what I should look out for. I appreciate this is very vague but basically if I do not get on with it I would like to be able to resell it without losing too much.


----------



## flh801978 (14 Nov 2020)

I don’t know much about myfords but snatch his hand off at that price


----------



## Jelly (14 Nov 2020)

For that price, and the machine shown... Buy it!


----------



## rxh (14 Nov 2020)

It is a Myford ML7 with quick change gearbox. A real bargain at that price.


----------



## Doug B (14 Nov 2020)

As has been said a bargain at that price


----------



## kenledger (14 Nov 2020)

Cleaned up and working worth about a grand. Do not pass this up or you will regret it. Just needs some TLC.


----------



## Jonm (14 Nov 2020)

Thankyou all for the advice.

I have just contacted the owner and he has had some further interest so I have agreed a price of £400 Including the bench it is on, I should have acted quicker. I will let you know how I get on.


----------



## clogs (14 Nov 2020)

absolute bargain......go right now with the cash.....
remember it's heavy will need 2 good men......
Dont rattle it around in a trailer, use a van or estate car....robust but delicate.....


----------



## Jonm (14 Nov 2020)

clogs said:


> absolute bargain......go right now with the cash.....
> remember it's heavy will need 2 good men......
> Dont rattle it around in a trailer, use a van or estate car....robust but delicate.....


Thankyou for the transportation advice, I have an estate so will put it in that, just a case of getting it in there. The table can go on the trailer.


----------



## TFrench (14 Nov 2020)

Bargain with the quick change box. Last one I sold went for more than a grand. I think myfords are a cracking little lathe for a home workshop.


----------



## Jelly (14 Nov 2020)

TFrench said:


> Bargain with the quick change box. Last one I sold went for more than a grand. I think myfords are a cracking little lathe for a home workshop.


Absolutely a bargain!

I believe the factory refurbished ones sell for about £5.5k, which is substantially more than you'd pay for a much larger high quality import like a Warco GH1330 and DRO (£4.3k ish).

They're actually still making them (£8.2k a piece) which is testament to how good the design was, and how desirable they are!


----------



## TFrench (15 Nov 2020)

Jelly said:


> Absolutely a bargain!
> 
> I believe the factory refurbished ones sell for about £5.5k, which is substantially more than you'd pay for a much larger high quality import like a Warco GH1330 and DRO (£4.3k ish).
> 
> They're actually still making them (£8.2k a piece) which is testament to how good the design was, and how desirable they are!



While I think they are a great lathe for the home workshop, I do think they're massively overpriced. 8k is completely INSANE for one. I've got less than that invested in my machine shop at work (only in machines, not tooling!) and I've got a hardinge, harrison, 3 deckels and a radial arm drill, plus quite a few other support tools.


----------



## Jelly (15 Nov 2020)

TFrench said:


> While I think they are a great lathe for the home workshop, I do think they're massively overpriced. 8k is completely INSANE for one. I've got less than that invested in my machine shop at work (only in machines, not tooling!) and I've got a hardinge, harrison, 3 deckels and a radial arm drill, plus quite a few other support tools.



Agreed! Given 8k and some time I'd fully expect you could equip a full toolroom, including grinding capabilities from the second hand market.

Whilst the new Myfords come with infinitely variable speed control and a spec approaching that of the HL-V in terms of equipment, they're still ultimately a little (and not overly rigid) 3.5" lathe at the end of the day, and when you can get full sized toolroom lathes (from a manufacturer like Hardinge, Boxford, DSG, Lang or Monarch) for substantially less in good nick, it's hard to fathom who would buy one... 

Though I guess that's why they only build them to order from the same stock of castings they use for the spare parts operation.


----------



## Trevanion (15 Nov 2020)

I suppose £8k isn't a ridiculous price if you took into consideration how much a brand new DSG, Hardinge or Monarch would cost if you were to make them today.

No idea what a Super 7 would've cost back when they came out but according to Lathes.co.uk a completely bog-standard ML7 *without* even the motor in 1946 was £34, calculated for inflation that would be around £1400 now.

My CVA Lathe back in the late 40's (Mine is a 60's machine though, I've got the documents for it somewhere so I'll dig them up and have a look) would've cost around £700, which is closer to £30,000 in today's money.


----------



## Jelly (15 Nov 2020)

Trevanion said:


> I suppose £8k isn't a ridiculous price if you took into consideration how much a brand new DSG, Hardinge or Monarch would cost if you were to make them today.



The last HLV-H lathes rolled off the production line in 2018 when Hardinge finally discontinued making manual machine tools, at that time the base price was $55,000 (so about £42k).

In that context, it isn't so crazy... Especially as the Super 7 "Connesiour" has some features (like combined angular contact and plain bearing stack up in the headstock) which are not really found anywhere else nowdays and were originally the hallmark of Hardinge and DSG's toolroom lathes.

I suppose the question is how many people actually need that level of precision, in a small manual lathe?


----------



## Jonm (3 Dec 2020)

Following all the advice on here I purchased the lathe for £400, if I had moved quicker I would have got it for £250. Took three of us to move it. I put some sheet osb in the back of my Volvo estate and it went in no problem. Transported the steel table on the trailer.

I am re-arranging my workshop/garage at the moment so it will be a while before I get round to using it.

Many thanks for all the advice. I will post something about how I get on with it, when I have worked out how to use it.


----------



## threeReefs (3 Dec 2020)

You definitely got a good deal there. And from the look of it, there's a good deep-clean and bit of restoration needed. Don't rush that bit - you will learn loads about how lathes work doing the cleanup, so enjoy that stage. And post lots of pictures here please !


----------



## pcb1962 (3 Dec 2020)

Jonm said:


> Many thanks for all the advice. I will post something about how I get on with it, when I have worked out how to use it.


You'll find a lot of Myford knowledge at the Model Engineer forums, a large proportion of the guys there have Myfords.


----------



## Jonm (3 Dec 2020)

Three reefs and pcb1962, thankyou for the advice,


----------



## OldWood (4 Dec 2020)

One thing to particularly remember is that the headstock bearings are white metal and are gravity oil fed from the cups. Always make sure you have oil in the bowls and that the flow is switched on, but don't leave switched on or the oil will just drain down into the bed. 

If the oil consumption is excessive, you will need to face the difficulty of dismantling the headstock area and to 'blue' and scrape the bearing surface (I wonder if such scrapers are around nowadays!) - the whole lot is then reassembled with the bearing tightened up by taking a segment out of the 'peelable' packing.
Rob


----------



## Jelly (5 Dec 2020)

OldWood said:


> (I wonder if such scrapers are around nowadays!)



They are and relatively inexpensively too, I bought a couple of sizes of triangular and "shoe -last shaped" scrapers from a Chinese company last year to scrape in the bearings on a friend's 0-6-0 hunslet tank engine... 

From that experience I think finding smaller sizes for less gargantuan bearings would be quite easy


----------



## hawkeyefxr (5 Dec 2020)

I think you can get oil resevoirs for these, you fill them up and set a flow that way you keep the bearing in yop condition, or as good as they are.


----------



## Jelly (7 Dec 2020)

hawkeyefxr said:


> I think you can get oil resevoirs for these, you fill them up and set a flow that way you keep the bearing in yop condition, or as good as they are.



£22 for a pair of drip-feed type oilers, well worth the investment.

I've used Myfords fitted with the little cup type oilers with a sprung cap where you fill the cups with 5-6 drops of oil at the start of each use, and they're pretty good, but if you're doing a long period of turning it's essential you oil it every couple of hours and again at the end; as an occasional user they're probably more economical _as long as you remember to use them._


----------

