Small vintage lathes

[Greybeard]

I have a brass wire wheel on my bench grinder. It's just the job for removing patina without marking the surface. It's the same one I used for my A10.

This mechanism is a candidate for nickel plating. I might have to use my polishing mop before plating.

[berger]

GB my brother did some alterations on my ML4, the bull wheel has been converted to a small allen key fitment, when the allen screw is loosened i slide it up and this lifts the drive key out for using back gear. the end gear on the spindle is also kept in place with a grub screw this is a standard way of doing it. you might be interested in the extra gear on the saddle apron which now doesn't confuse which way you want it to travel, well worth doing.

[groily]

Both Berg's bro's mods upgrade to ML7-style and later - more user-friendly / intuitive. Like loads of folk, I use back gear quite a lot for threadwork  . . . and it would be a pain to have to remove anything from deep down in there. Awkward enough getting an allen key in there in fact.
Worth it GB I would say  . . . but all too easy to say without knowing how hard it was to do the mods!!

[Greybeard]

Awkward enough getting an allen key in there in fact.

Not even as easy as an Allen key; it requires a straight screwdriver and long nosed pliers to grab it before it dissapears! I think I'll get a couple of Allen socket grub screws as a start.

[berger]

greybeard one of those telescopic magnets are very useful for grabbing and rescuing small things, or magnetize the screw driver

[RDfella]

Here's what you need, Neil, a medium sized version ......

[Greybeard]

Bergs, I like the idea of the reversing gear for the apron. If or when I feel able to make a version I may try. By then though I'll probably have got the habit of turning the wheel clockwise for toward the chuck and anticlockwise to move away! Thousands of other owners must have lived with it.
Will you try to take some clear photos of the area for me please?

The tiny screw for the pinion on the end of the main shaft needs to be flush on my machine or else the gearbox cover fouls it. I found that a short gib-strip screw is the correct item.

Can anyone tell me what size gib strip adjusting screws are? I'm guess BA thread but what size?

[Greybeard]

Here's what you need, Neil, a medium sized version ......

Call that a lathe... this is a lathe!

Skoda I see.
I believe that Skoda were the only company able to make the hub for the Millennium wheel in London

[berger]

greybeard the screws are 2BA. i will try and get round to some photos in the next few days.   If our famous engineering company's were still going there would be no need for outsourcing work. we had some of the best in world. picture of the channel tunnel boring head.

[Greybeard]

If our famous engineering company's were still going there would be no need for outsourcing work.

But you bolshie working class types were demanding more money than the Chinese/Taiwanese/Japanese/Korean/Czech workers wanted and you also wanted two days off every week, so the work went to them. Us large industries have got to increase our profits, year on year you know.

[RDfella]

Those cack-handed lathes are a menace. Had an old Condor once which required clockwise to approach the chuck. After decades of using lathes going the normal way, I lost count of the times I'd whip the tool away from the job - only to smash into the chuck. I ended up giving it away. My small BUD Boxford is similar to a Myford but at least the controls are normal. Seriously worth converting yours, Neil.

[Topdad]

Jeez,GB,those words are right out of Maggie thatchers mouth !!

[berger]

greybeard you could be wrong you could be right, [ song in there somewhere] but i think the gaffers got greedy and thatchers globalisation meant shipping all the tooling to the far east made the gaffers super rich 50 times quicker than they could by paying decent wages to the workers. i knew loads of workers who were asked to go out to the new factories to show the workers how to do stuff, my brother was asked by the chiefs at a glass bulb factory because he knew the jobs and maintenance inside out, he didn't go! the ones that went either didn't realise they were giving their jobs away or they thought they were on an all expenses jaunt , or were just thick.

[berger]

some pics greybeard. the apron was drilled and threaded to take the new wheel with the screw butting up to the apron and a locknut fitted. the rack pinion was fixed to a new shaft with a small key and a 23tooth gear pressed on. the gear on the wheel is 16t and these were bits he had hanging about, it works well.

[Swarfcut]

 Anyone remember George Turnbull, a man knighted for his services to the British Motor Industry ? He has a Wikky Page, interesting stuff I remember first time round.......The man who turned the Morris Marina into the Hyundai Pony, and launched the Korean Motor industry which  then proceeded to bite the hand that fed it.

 Same is true of our Universities. In the early 1970's  a large proportion of the Graduates in Engineering were all from the Far East. Now whether it was industrial relations, cheaper materials, rice bowl wages or whatever, the Asian Powerhouse has achieved higher productivity, lower costs, and a backs to the wall and over the cliff for our major wealth creating industries.

 But against this background, the Gravy Train still rolls on. A man in a Shepherd's Hut tried to convince us that we were all in this together, and those astute observers of the world of politics know where this phrase came from......

 Swarfy.

 Apologies, this is supposed to be about lathes .I sorta got drawn in by bergs.

 SKODA were the outfit that made the big spindle for the Millenium Wheel/London Eye. In the early 20th Century they had expertise in heavy industry, particularly the big stuff of armament production. The rest is history.