Hello from Darlington

[JCSteam]

Hello there everyone, my name is Jon.

I signed up here a few months ago, and have been lurking around, trying to pick up tips and advice from those more experienced than myself.

Some of you may know me from the mamod forums, of which I'm also a member, after much head scratching and asking advice over there, I had my eyes on a Chinese lathe from amadeal, though the expense kept making me think twice. However I have just come up trumps (I think) on an ebay buy, my very first lathe. Its a myford ML4, and comes with a lot of tooling, reamers, drills, a fly cutter and a 3" three jaw chuck, 4" 3jaw chuck, both self centering, and a 4" 4 jaw independent chuck. The ebay link is here.

http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/Myford-M4-lathe-/152527283962?nav=WATCHING_ACTIVE

After reading a lot of info and taking advice, ive finally bit the bullet, and think its about time I got hands on with it, also I couldn't let that deal pass me by

So here I am a complete machining novice with a £300 lathe in a shed, I hope I can learn a lot from you guys, and build some steam engines along the way

I'm looking for a member who may be close by that could help me out, and be a mentor in setting the lathe in situ, and any points that I need to look out for when setting the lathe up.

 

[Cogsy]

Welcome to the forum. Lathe looks like it was a great buy (judging on what is available where I am anyway). Have fun making chips!

 

[JCSteam]

Thanks Al

We'll see how it goes, lots of chips and swarf, and not a lot to show for it I think to begin with, until I get used to the machine

 

[goldstar31]

My best wishes from just North of the Roman Wall.
I once overhauled a ML4 or whatever that had been used for making Northumbrian bagpipes.
Again, my first encounter with one was one that had made an Sparey petrol engine and the old guy made me a metering valve for a Henwood jet engine. It was somewhere at the end of WW2 and I was a precocious schoolboy!

So Darlington???????. Perhaps you have heard of Hurworth. In happier days, I was at the Hall ( Clarinet and Saxophone Society meet) and guess there is a club as there is a model loco track outside.

Best Wishes

Norman

 

[JCSteam]

I'm not far out of school, just over 30now. As I've said this is my first lathe, and hoping to build some steam engines and accessories to go with them. With a bit of luck I might have something running soon :lol: You'll have to be patient with me as I have a lot to get to know, the engines youve described ive never seen before :roll:

Anyhow thank you for the welcome

 

[goldstar31]

As far as I can 'Google', the club meets at Hurworth Grange which is 4 miles from Darlington itself. There is a Sunday meeting with a portable track listed and an evening indoors at the Grange itself.

Why not give them a visit?

Meantime, enjoy your hobby

Norman

 

[JCSteam]

Well Norman, you were quiet right, found Hurworth and the railway, and got in touch with one of the members, I decided to go along for an introduction yesterday, at one of their weekly gatherings. Very nice chatting with them and been shown around, even thinking of a 5" battery loco if I can find some plans somewhere

I took a video of the track, but will take an age to load from my phone to YouTube.

 

[goldstar31]

Jon
Glad to be of some use! My late wife had had a hip op that went wrong. Needle hit the femoral nerve. Result paralysis. Then she was problems. We thought that it was nothing more than constipation or whatever. Couldn't be her ovaries which we thought that they'd gone.
They were still there-- bang- cancer. Nothing found until the autopsy.

I'm sort of glad that 'my duty driver job' to take her to Hurworth was some use to someone.

Funny old world. Take care!

Good Luck

Norm

 

[oilmac]

Hello Jon,

Many years ago, 1958 to be precise! I purchased a similar pattern of lathe , It had a shorter bed, I am certain it also was a very early Myford, It was not in such a good condition as your lathe, But once I had it adjusted up and running it proved to be a good little machine. It was used by me for approx six years,

On that lathe I turned up a couple of Stuart Turner engines and other stuff, It was a good learning curve, Do not expect to machine as quickly as todays " Throw away tool Gurus" I used and still use high speed tool steel , and on occasions I form a tool out of high carbon steel , Drill rod, forming and grinding up your own tools is going back to the engineering shop practices of the days when steam engines were being built.

Try and get yourself a copy of L.H. Sparey's book Lathework , You will not go far wrong Enjoy and have fun.

 

[JCSteam]

I hope this works, this is the lathe sat on the kitchen table, missus got a little annoyed (to put it lightly) about this hunk of cast iron on her table.



With a bit of rust chucked up for fun

It occurred to me after a week that I hadn't heard the motor running, and thought that its a lost cause if i dont even have a working motor, so I connected this up and thankfully ran very sweet, with no vibration, even though it wasn't strapped down.

Thanks for the compliments on the condition of the lathe, it will be looking better once its on the bench, as I'll be cleaning it all up and its amazing what a good blast with WD40 did for the surface finish just got to get the slideways cleaned up as there is a lot of old bits of metal stored in those!