Lathe Pictures

Various pictures of the lathe.

Initially, nearly all the parts of this lathe were nothing more than scrap!  Each part was acquired separately and carefully restored.  The lathe bed has been reground, the saddle has been re-machined and slide-ways scraped etc. The bronze spindle bearing has also been carefully scraped in to maximise performance. It can now out-perform many lathes of this capacity by adding the CNC kit. The motor is a TECO 1HP 3 phase, powered by a TECO variable frequency inverter.  Both items can be purchased from Drives Direct.
In 2018, a TECO 2HP 3 phase motor has been added which really makes a massive difference to the performance when machining larger diameter components. There is also improved speed stability when screw-cutting without having to engage back-gear.

A simple homemade 3 Axis stepper motor controller for the lathe which uses the most basic of breakout boards for the parallel port. (top left in photo) The third axis is intended for a tool changer which would be a nice feature to add in the future………….!

An afternoons ‘playtime’ at the Doncaster International Model Engineering Show produces plenty of swarf…….and some shapes that would be virtually impossible to make on a conventional Myford Super 7 without resorting to filing.

A potential buyer looks on as a 10 start thread is machined. (one of many being machined over the weekend)
There was  fantastic support and interest in the CNC conversion at the Doncaster Show, proof that there is a healthy and rapidly growing trend towards high tech CNC home workshops.
Thank you to all who made comments and kind remarks about how the lathe looks and operates.

June 2020

FOR SALE
CNC MYFORD ML7

I’ve normally been supplying and fitting CNC kits to the Myford Super 7 lathes and thought it worthwhile converting an ML7 to CNC using virtually the same kit that is supplied for a Super 7 in order to prove that it could be done without too much extra work. I’ve been asked many times whether the kit would fit the ML7 lathe and I’ve always said – because of the differences, mainly between the headstock spindle design, there would need to be some slight alterations made to the encoder disc and housing attachments.
Rather than leaving everyone wondering whether it could be done, I’ve built this complete CNC lathe which is very nearly ready to sell. This is a plug-and-go machine ready to make parts.

I’ll be uploading some machining videos soon so that it can be seen working.

I hope to include video’s of:
Peck drilling.
Rigid Tapping.
The easy way to make small ball handles
Chamfered washer making – A repeat parting exercise
Loco Wheel profiling
Small ornamental steel bell
Various screw-cutting examples
Encoder operation

If you have a drawing or a DXF file of a component that you would like to see made then send me an email with details and I’ll consider giving it a go.
cncyourmyford@btinternet.com

Items included:
Refurbished Myford ML7 lathe & Cabinet
Full CNC kit with optical homing switches
Teco 3/4 HP 3 Phase motor
Teco 1 HP variable speed drive (VFD)
ER40 Collet Chuck & 26-25mm single Collet
Keyless chuck for the tailstock
Dickson style quick change tool holder & 4 holders
Computer running Linuxcnc 2.7.15
2 Axis Stepper Motor Controller (Upgradeable to 3 axis) using parallel port and active breakout board that is opto-isolated.
Keyboard console and monitor