My little Lorch-Schmidt lathe now up and running!

[ucl82]

I hadn't heard that news, thanks for sharing David. Such a shame to see another name of yesteryear shrinking away Like you say though there are many older Myfords still available and in a way they scuppered themselves by building a quality product to last, so little in the way of repeat orders unlike other goods with built in obsolescence.

[Yorkie]

Do you have the other set of jaws for the chuck?
Alan

That green jobby in a neat little thing Alan!

Re 'the other set of jaws' - I've got a little box with a few bits in and another box of original collets, but I've never thought to look for a second set of jaws. Presumably they're expanding ones to grip internally rather than externally? I'll have a look in my box of tricks tomorrow, and update you.

Night night!

(Are you off to Beeston on Saturday then to Myford's?)

David

[AlanBeckett]

Yes, that's one way of looking at the 'other' jaws, although they're usually used to grip the outside of bar stock like in my picture. The ones you have are usually used to grip bar stock that is too large to go down the centre hole of the chuck or the spindle.
Your lathe is usually used with collets, and they turn up regularly on eBay. You'd better make a nice comb jointed box for them - See Col for a suitable brass plate
I don't think I'll bother on Saturday or Sunday. My mate Pete has a Myford and I have a Pools which is similar enough for lots of bits to be interchangeable. We were over there a couple of years ago for an Open Day and it all looked a bit quiet. Pete bought a couple of gears and quite frankly they weren't up to the quality of earlier years. I'll be interested to see what happens to the Brand, which will clearly still exist and has a value. Chinese production?
Alan

[Yorkie]

Yes, that's one way of looking at the 'other' jaws, although they're usually used to grip the outside of bar stock like in my picture. The ones you have are usually used to grip bar stock that is too large to go down the centre hole of the chuck or the spindle.
Your lathe is usually used with collets, and they turn up regularly on eBay. You'd better make a nice comb jointed box for them - See Col for a suitable brass plate
Alan

I've found a second set of jaws, and have added a couple of pics below. As you'll see from the profile of two of them, they look as though they're meant to grip tubular stock internally. I've also added a pic of the box of collets and other bits and bobs, and the gizmo that fits in place of the tailstock into which the collets fit. The levered handle can be moved to the left to drill stock in the chuck. I'm sure that it will have a proper name, but I don't know what it's called. I haven't yet fettled it up - it's a bit scruffy! The box seems to be original. There's also a pic of the collet holder and a collet before fitting to the levered gizmo.

I put Colin's nameplate exercise in the same pigeon-hole as my 'cube in a cube in a cube', and a number of other things in life - the only time that you feel like doing it twice is just before you've done it once! I tend to be a bit tempestuous, and lacking the patience needed for intricate time consuming tasks, even though the end result is rewarding, and always a 'conversation piece'.

Hope the pics are of interest.

David

[AlanBeckett]

David,
This gets better, or worse from the envy point of view
The jaws should be numbered, and have to be fed into the slots in the chuck body in the right order to meet the beginning of the scroll. The slots may be numbered as well.
The collets should fit into the Headstock spindle, for which there should be a drawbar, usually with a nice big wheel on it.
The lever Tailstock is useful for drilling, reaming or repetitive work.

I like your wall bracket. I'll remember that 'cause as part of my garage refurbishment I'm going to install a small lathe against a wall. I did it once before with a slightly bigger lathe at the old house. Unfortunately that had an attached garage and when doing heavy cuts tended to make the house rumble.

Alan

[Retired]

Hi,

What sad news it is to hear about Myford. I own a very rare Myford it being an MF36. This lathe has a 36" bed and is one of only two known survivors of this model. After many; many years of abuse it was sold to me through eBay as in good condition.

When I finally got it home and assembled it proved to be a load of expensive scrap. The three jaw chuck has many hammer marks with one of the jaws a sloppy fit; all the gears are worn out in fact the 80T back gear had at one point been broken in two and welded back together; it was sporting a few gums. When I engaged the back gear the racket from the gear train was deafening. The half nut engaging lever and knob had been snapped off and were missing.

The carriage wound half way along the bed before stopping and refusing to go either way without a good push as the rack too was sporting a number of gums. the bed and cross slide is badly worn. The play in the headstock bearings was a joke and later after trying to do serious gear cutting I found under the dirt that the main headstock casting had broken across the front main bearing.

The mandrel and tailstock were not on friendly terms either as they did not align and still don't.

In spite of it's many problems I can and do turn out some very accurate work on this lathe but it is hard going. I have already turned new mandrel bearings from Tufnol and had the mandrel metal sprayed and returned to original specification. I have considered having a go at scraping the bed but to date have not had the time.

The previous people using this lathe and causing so much damage should never be allowed to touch a lathe again as they are nothing more than vandals.

I'm familiar with Tony's excellent website that Alan kindly gave the link to and have just been drooling over the following from the site;

http://www.lathes.co.uk/lorchschmidt/page2.html

It must have been absolute joy to own and use such a lathe from brand new. As an apprentice mechanical engineer with the National Coal Board I used to attend Wakefield Tech one day and two nights per week; I used to walk up Wood street and in those days there used to be an engineers shop near the bottom end of the street and I would spend ages looking at the brand new Myford's on display knowing that I could only ever dream of owning one. Myford lathes were not cheap but were toys compared to the Colchester I was trained to use at the Crigglestone NCB training centre.

A good lathe is a joy to operate and I do enjoy working on my Myford even though I call it names. I miss my Colchester Triumph though and might end up selling the Myford to replace it with another Colchester. I don't know the model of the Colchester I trained on but it was a beauty; I do remember it had a lever mounted on top and to the front rear of the headstock that gave variable speed control; the training centre had a bank of these lathes and all were in first class condition in fact they looked new.

I like machines and lathes are the daddy of all machines; once you start to use the Lorch David it will open up a whole new world for you.

Kind regards, Col.

[AlanBeckett]

Col,

You should have gone for this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Vintage-Colchester...erTools_SM&hash=item27bc6f4d17
Fortunately I've no room, otherwise I would have been tempted. On the other hand it's probably not much use for pot spindles

Alan

[Yorkie]

once you start to use the Lorch David it will open up a whole new world for you.

Kind regards, Col.

I've cleaned up the box of collets, drawbar and a few other bits this afternoon. I didn't understand the numbering on the collets - from very tiny to numberings of 50, 60, 70, 80, which is the largest. I tried a few drills in the collets, and soon realised that the numbering relates to mm sizes - eg, 80 = 8MM. (The smallest is a fraction of mm).

I don't have any immediate projects in mind for the lathe, but over the last couple of years I've had several small projects in which a metal turning lathe would have been very handy, (knob inserts, spindle couplers etc) which would have been well within the scope of the Lorch, but have had to use my woodturning lathe. Far from an ideal solution!

Lathes are like so many other things that we may not use a great deal, but are worth their weight in gold when needed - biscuit jointers, routers, jigsaws, bandsaws...

I bought a few lathe tools at the Northern Model Engineering Show a month or two ago, so along with what came with the lathe, I should be well set up.


David.

[Retired]

Hi,

Here's a bit of information regarding collets;

http://www.sherline.com/1160inst.htm

A lathe is generally considered a machine for producing round items such as shafts and spindles but it can also produce dead flat precision surfaces. If the item can be gripped in a chuck or secured to a face plate then it is easy to "face". For items such as castings then these can be accurately set up on the cross slide and machined using a single point cutter (fly cutter) in the chuck. For great accuracy and ultra fine surface finish lapping can be employed.

Here's a fly cutter being used in a milling machine;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzT2R6luWxo&NR=1

Here's a fly cutter being used in a lathe;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOEjGSCIub4&NR=1

I'd better not forget to mention using milling cutters in a lathe as these are extremely useful but highly expensive; I have a good selection of these cutters and they are ideal for cutting key-ways in shafts and slotting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZNaqSRYER0

The size of the lathe limits the size of the item being fly cut but by re-adjusting the position of the item overlapping cuts can be taken; a bit of imagination helps a great deal and it is amazing what can be done using a lathe. Even a lathe as small as this Lorch will produce quite large items; obviously on such a small lathe it is impossible to put on a 1/2" cut and engage feed but taking light cuts and exercising a lot of care and patience the Lorch will prove highly usable.

Many thanks for the eBay link Alan, what an old beauty this Colchester Triumph is. I was delighted with my more modern (60's) Triumph as it had a gearbox and matrix clutch; it would thread cut in both imperial and metric at a push of a lever; two levers gave the speed range; I do regret parting with it but it was a big lathe and took up a large footprint in my garage; fitted with a 5HP three phase motor it was an industrial quality lathe.

I fully agree David that certain machines or even tools are used seldom but once they are used come into their own. I do use my giant Startrite bandsaw a great deal though for cutting both metal and timber; this bandsaw is way over the top for an average workshop but now it is restored it is a joy to own and use. It's time I got something done!!

Kind regards, Col.

[AlanBeckett]

Col,

It should perhaps be pointed out that there's no such thing as a 'Collet''; there are a multiplicity of different ones. Indeed it sometimes seems to me that Maunufacturers delighted in doing their own thing, presumably in the hope of locking customers into their products - see http://www.lathes.co.uk/collets/

Alan