Model engineers lathe
Good day to you all. You may recall a number of comments being made and asked about model engineering lathes, I think it was late last year 2024.
I said when I get time I will put something together so here it is.
I have a Myford Super 7 and I think it was built in 1952. Myford have the information, so if you know the serial number, you can easily trace it. It has been used and has a couple of dongs here and there but is still very accurate and parts off like a dream, using HSS. Due to its size it would struggle with carbide. These lathes have bronze split bearings in the headstock which makes them very rigid which reflect in the machining ability of the lathe. Lathes with roller bearings in the headstock tend to lack the same stability, hence the issues with part off. I machined 4 sets of bevel gears out of ali-bronze for the steering mechanism on the William C Daldy (old steam tug here in Auckland, google daldy.com) with a bore of 1-1/4 inches finished true and parallel. The OD of the gears was close to 3.5 inches. The lathe handled the job well and it took me 40 hours to machine all 8 pieces. I also made myself a fixed steady out of 6061 aluminiun, which you can see from the pictures. The OD was too large to fit over the saddle so I had to use a boring bar to turn and part off, from the ID and OD. I can highly recommend a Myford machine as they are excellent quality, but as anything which is good quality you pay for it. I had to make a 21 tooth gear for a special thread so I turned the blank up and hand cut the teeth. It did the job perfectly. If you have any questions please add to the conversation. Cheers Ian and happy modelling.
I said when I get time I will put something together so here it is.
I have a Myford Super 7 and I think it was built in 1952. Myford have the information, so if you know the serial number, you can easily trace it. It has been used and has a couple of dongs here and there but is still very accurate and parts off like a dream, using HSS. Due to its size it would struggle with carbide. These lathes have bronze split bearings in the headstock which makes them very rigid which reflect in the machining ability of the lathe. Lathes with roller bearings in the headstock tend to lack the same stability, hence the issues with part off. I machined 4 sets of bevel gears out of ali-bronze for the steering mechanism on the William C Daldy (old steam tug here in Auckland, google daldy.com) with a bore of 1-1/4 inches finished true and parallel. The OD of the gears was close to 3.5 inches. The lathe handled the job well and it took me 40 hours to machine all 8 pieces. I also made myself a fixed steady out of 6061 aluminiun, which you can see from the pictures. The OD was too large to fit over the saddle so I had to use a boring bar to turn and part off, from the ID and OD. I can highly recommend a Myford machine as they are excellent quality, but as anything which is good quality you pay for it. I had to make a 21 tooth gear for a special thread so I turned the blank up and hand cut the teeth. It did the job perfectly. If you have any questions please add to the conversation. Cheers Ian and happy modelling.
Liked by AlessandroSPQR and Commodore-H and
7 comments
- RPLedm🇨🇦Chief Petty Officer 2nd Class·Very Good. Eight bevel gears!! I am truly impressed. Furthermore, I am very curious on how you cut the gear teeth and whether they are an approximation or a true involute? Please enlighten. I had to cut an involute spiral bevel pair once. It ended up being a horrible approximation, it ran smoothly but I could hear the noise despite hours of fettling and I vowed that I would never accept an assignment of that nature, ever again ... never ... ever ...Liked by Commodore-H
- IanL1🇳🇿Midshipman·Thanks for your nice comments and no I didn't cut the teeth on the Myford as they were done by an specialist gear cutting company. I just made the blanks. However, I did hand make the 21 tooth gear for the special thread I had to cut and I hand filed the shape of the tooth after drilling and sawing away the bulk of the waste material. The teeth weren't perfect but it was the 21 teeth that was most important. I have since 3D printed a gear and its on the lathe now as part of the feed gear train. If any of you Myford owners would like one just let me know. For some threads you need 2 x 21 tooth gears so I had to hand make another before I bought my 3D printer. Cheers IanLiked by RPLedm
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