This is what has been keeping me away from doing much on guitars. This is a toolmakers lathe, so no lead screw or even a carriage. You do everything from the cross slide and top slide. A small lathe, only 13" between centres and centre hight of 4"Still quite a bit of work to get if fully operational but I love it. Lorch are best known for watch makers lathes and the accuracy is superb.
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Great idea Bob. Just been looking on YouTube and some of the vids of metal spinning are very impressive. I was thinking about making a reso as some stage but was going to use something like a dish, but with this why not make my own. Thanks for the idea.
I'm not sure that it will be that useful for guitars. The only things I have planned so far are volume knobs and strap buttons. Not exactly important bits. I could turn pieces for fret markers but I have other ideas for those at the moment. Any suggestions for how it could be useful for CBG building? Can you use many turned bits on these instruments? I think its first job will be modifying some motorbike bits for a friend.
I have owned two Myfords. The last was a long bed Super 7B and is mainly the reason that there is quite a bit of space around this lathe, as it took up a lot more room. I sold it about 18 months ago.
The Achilles heel of the series 7 Myford is that it is a flat bed lathe. Mine had a hardened bed, but it is not standard so most don't have that. In time the bed near the headstock wears and you can either adjust it tighter for work near the headstock (in which case you can't wind it to the other end) or leave it with play in it, in which case the carriage waltzes down the bed under feed.
Some of the Myfords on eBay go for stupid money considering that they are incapable of accurate work unless the bed is reground. The advantage of Myfords is that the parts are easily available at least over here. Always go for a hardened bed if you can.
I thought that there would be much more choice of lathes in the US, but if you really want one from the UK surely you should go for a Harrison ;-)
HI Bob. You are spot on. It is very much like a scaled up watch makers lathe. Even the oversized hand wheels have that sort of look. I see what you mean about being like a wood lathe. The fact that there are no back gears for screw cutting makes the head much simpler and less cluttered. When it was new it would have come with a hand turning rest, but unfortunately that didn't come with this one.
Yes. It was on eBay and bidding ended last Friday. I picked it up on Saturday from a woman with more lathes than I have ever seen in one place, and more motor bikes that I have seen other than at Riker's cafe (for those who don't know, Riker's cafe is a traditional bikers meeting place at the foot of Box Hill, where bikers meet on their way down to Brighton).
It has a flat belt running from a countershaft to the headstock. It has taken a bit to get it to run almost right with a bit of work still to do. I have never had a machine with a flat belt before so adjusting it to ride right was new territory. It still needs a new V pulley on the countershaft as this one is sloppy on the spindle and rattles a bit.
I also need to sort out chucks because the one that came with it only has one set of jaws. I will need to get a couple of backplates machined and then fit chucks. There are no stock backplates (or anything else) for this. Spare parts are as rare as rocking horse pooh.
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Hi Bluesheart.
I'm not sure that it will be that useful for guitars. The only things I have planned so far are volume knobs and strap buttons. Not exactly important bits. I could turn pieces for fret markers but I have other ideas for those at the moment. Any suggestions for how it could be useful for CBG building? Can you use many turned bits on these instruments? I think its first job will be modifying some motorbike bits for a friend.
Hi Bob.
I have owned two Myfords. The last was a long bed Super 7B and is mainly the reason that there is quite a bit of space around this lathe, as it took up a lot more room. I sold it about 18 months ago.
The Achilles heel of the series 7 Myford is that it is a flat bed lathe. Mine had a hardened bed, but it is not standard so most don't have that. In time the bed near the headstock wears and you can either adjust it tighter for work near the headstock (in which case you can't wind it to the other end) or leave it with play in it, in which case the carriage waltzes down the bed under feed.
Some of the Myfords on eBay go for stupid money considering that they are incapable of accurate work unless the bed is reground. The advantage of Myfords is that the parts are easily available at least over here. Always go for a hardened bed if you can.
I thought that there would be much more choice of lathes in the US, but if you really want one from the UK surely you should go for a Harrison ;-)
HI Bob. You are spot on. It is very much like a scaled up watch makers lathe. Even the oversized hand wheels have that sort of look. I see what you mean about being like a wood lathe. The fact that there are no back gears for screw cutting makes the head much simpler and less cluttered. When it was new it would have come with a hand turning rest, but unfortunately that didn't come with this one.
Hi Juju.
Yes. It was on eBay and bidding ended last Friday. I picked it up on Saturday from a woman with more lathes than I have ever seen in one place, and more motor bikes that I have seen other than at Riker's cafe (for those who don't know, Riker's cafe is a traditional bikers meeting place at the foot of Box Hill, where bikers meet on their way down to Brighton).
It has a flat belt running from a countershaft to the headstock. It has taken a bit to get it to run almost right with a bit of work still to do. I have never had a machine with a flat belt before so adjusting it to ride right was new territory. It still needs a new V pulley on the countershaft as this one is sloppy on the spindle and rattles a bit.
I also need to sort out chucks because the one that came with it only has one set of jaws. I will need to get a couple of backplates machined and then fit chucks. There are no stock backplates (or anything else) for this. Spare parts are as rare as rocking horse pooh.