Restoring a Myford Super 7 Lathe (Part II)
Just to recap from Part 1. My Dad and I bought an old Myford Super 7 Lathe (Serial number SK68133) at an auction. At first glances it looked terrible but after cleaning off the dirt, grime and rust, there was hope.
Below is what we ended up with after completely dismantling everything to parts, cleaning, painting and finally reassembly. But thats not the whole story…
Because the lathe was in such a bad condition when we got it, I decided to strip the entire thing down to the individual parts, give everything a good clean and then resemble. I got hold of a copy of the original manual, just Google for it, so at least I had the drawings for all the sub assemblies.
Starting by stripping down the Motorising Assembly, you can see it’s been removed in the photo below. Then moving on to the Head Stock, Lead Screw and Gear Train, Tail Stock and finally the Carriage and Apron.
As you can see in the photo below, the Tail Stock, cleaning everything became rather messy. I took things apart according to Sub Assembly to make it easier to find parts again later. Then all the parts where washed in paraffin to remove grease and dirt, if there was any rust on them, it was carefully buffed off with a wire wheel on a bench grinder.
All the small parts, screws, washers etc. where then stored in glass bottles with a healthy dose of paraffin to stop any rusting, the bigger parts were wrapped in paper towels.
We decided to strip off the old paint, down to bare metal. What we found to work quite well was to use “Durastrip” and a “Karcher” high pressure washer. All you need to do was paint on the stripper, wait 15min and wash it off. The high pressure water jet made it easy to get into the small corners and crevices. Most of the parts took two sessions to get the old paint off. After paint stripping, the pieces were worked over with a brass wire brush on a drilling machine to remove the last flecks of paint and any loose debris.
Just when the can says use protective clothing, it’s a probably a good idea to. That Drurastrip burns like hell if you get it on your skin and will form blisters if you don’t wash it off immediately.
After paint stripping the parts were masked and then sprayed with grey primer. The grey parts in the photo below are primed. Now this is where the trouble started… After priming, I sprayed the pieces with what was called Ford Tractor Grey. I don’t know why they called it that, ’cause the colour is more cream than grey.
But anyway, most of the parts got sprayed that colour. I really didn’t like it and after much arguing with my Dad we decided to change to the traditional machine grey. The plan was to just spray the new colour over the top of the cream colour, both colour paints where from the same manufacture so what could possibly go wrong…
Well practically everything. The machine grey seemed to “Fight” with the beige paint and bubbled and created a web of ridges. It’s a pity I didn’t get any close up photos of what it looked like, you can’t really see it on the zoomed out shots. I tried several things to try smooth out the finish and fix the issue. We got a new batch of paint mixed, same problems. We also tried different thinners, different ratios of paint and thinners but nothing solved the problem.
Unfortunately by this stage my leave had run out and I needed to get back to work. The plan is to strip the paint off and start from scratch but this time stick to ONE colour.
The lathe came with a steel cabinet. The doors needed some filling of what looked like a large burn mark and there was some writing engraved into the left door. The photo below is the cabinet before sanding and painting.
And below is the after painting shot, looks pretty good. In the top right corner you can just see the drain hole we added for the coolant system.
Coming in Part III, I’ll cover the respraying of the Lathe, final assembly and hopefully turning some test pieces. Stay tuned…
Hi Stewart,
I read your blog with great intrest. I have a Myford Super 7 that needs a v belt to be replaced. Can you give me the belt size and is it a big job to replace said belt? I cut the old belt off as it was badly worn and in need of
renewal, and it has gone missing in my workshop. Your help will be much
appreciated. Theo.
Hi Theo,
The lathe is at my Dad’s workshop at the moment, I’ll check the size and get back to you on that.
It’s a bit of a pain to replace the belt, you need to dismantle the Headstock and Counter shaft spindles. It’ll probably take 2/3 hours to do. If you google for “myford-super7lathe.pdf” the procedure is discribed on page 35 “Replacement of Headstock Vee Belt”.
Hi
I have bought a Myford Lathe stand from ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330516259733&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT
I am trying to repaint it but I don’t have clue how to proceed. Any suggestions you can give me would be great.
Thanks
Caan
This is what I’d do…
Get rid of the old paint, use paint stripper and then flatting paper (water sandpaper). Clean up any rust with a wire brush and if needed fill in any wholes with body filler. You can paint on a rust stop paint if needed.
If you’ve got a compressor and spray gun. Get some good quick dry undercoat, you might need to thin the paint down so check the directions. Spray a couple (2/3) layers of under coat sanding in between the coats. Then spray with a top coat of quick dry enamel paint, maybe 4 coats or so. Also sand between coats. Remember to rather spray many light coats than try make the coat too thick.
You can also paint it by hand, get some good brushes and the procedure is basically the same. You’ll probably need to do some proper sanding between coats to get the finish smooth.
Good luck and let me know how it turns out.
[...] to recap from Part 2. After cleaning off the dirt, grime and rust, things where looking good, thats until the paint [...]
I wonder if you can help me.Iam looking for parts for an myford super 7 late.I am lookig foward to hear from jou.
From, johan
Hi Johan,
I ordered the spare parts directly from Myford in the UK. If you need the part numbers just Google “myford super 7 manual” for a PDF. I’ve noticed some differences between the PDF manual and my machine, so just double check with Myford before you order.
You can reach Myford sales via email at: sales@myford.com I spoke to Linda when I emailed.
hi , ive just bought a super 7 and im a total novice could you please give me some advice? after searching the internet i cant find any helpful information.
my questions are, what is the back gear used for? also what are the tumbler gears used for? and lastly when i see the spindle gear chart it says geared what are the geared spindle speeds used for and how do i engage them and is anyhting what do i have to disengage before use ? any help would be much appreciated, thanks.
Hi, hopefully I can point you in the right direction.
Download the super 7 manual PDF, it’s available on the net, it’s a bit difficult to read but it contains detailed drawings and descriptions on changing the spindle speeds ect.
1. Back gear: You can engage this to reduce the spindle speed even further. Be careful not to engage this while the machine is running, you will damage it.
2. Tumbler gears: This changes the direction of the lead screw, you use it if you want to switch between cutting left and right hand threads.
3. Spindle speeds are a skill you kinda pick up different materials need different speeds, same goes for the cut and finish you are trying to achieve. I’d buy a book on machining or visit your local hacker space and get some lessons.
But to change speeds, switch the machine off, disengage the clutch, un-tension the drive belt and change the positions.