Hello there,Congratulations on your aquisition, these are rather idividual but well engineered bits of kit, ignore any BS about shavings getting stuck in the tiubular bed, nothing more sophisticated than a stick or if you are technical a vacuum cleaner does the business. Myfords own manual usually available as a photocopy on EBay is very vague about maintenaince, merely cautioning you not to over tighten the headstock bearings, if yours is old enough to have imperial bearings these are very dear, but metric bearings a relatively cheap and are available from bearing suppliers.
Apart from keeping the old girl clean and rust free, 0000 steel wool and WD40 if matters have got out of hand, otherwise a swipe with the famous oily rag. The head stock bearings are lubricated by a kind of total loss system via threaded plugs above each bearing. I use ATF which is the same viscosity as Nuto 32 are sold by Myford at chateau bottled prices.You might want to inspect these bearings to ensure that they are not choked with wood dust and congealed lubricant, thebearig covers are easily removed and there is no gasket or sealant required. After putting say 60ml or so of oil in through the plugs run her up until no further oil leaks out around the spindle.If you suspect /feel end float on the spindle undo the grub screws in the locking collar on the outboard end of the spindle and with you BS standard fingers onlyfirst undo the collar and then tighten it until iyt feels firm, you should not then apply too much end loading to the bearing set yet, leave the necessary thou or so end float to allow adequate lubricant circulation and a space for thermal expansion on a long high speed session. The spindle nose is threaded 1" 12 tpi whitworth thread form, this is Myford own combination as is the tailstock at 7/8" 12tpi LH.Tracy tools in Devon do a tap for this a very reasonable £12 or so and making your own face plates is easy especially if you start with common or garden 3/4 16tpi stuff as fitted to record lathes and many others.Headstock and tailstock have a No1 Morse taper. These lathes were made by engineers, not accountants and given a modicum of care will provide excellent service for many years to come , but turning up legs for the snooker table might have to be farmed out.
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