An easy upgrade then.

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MichaelG.

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Edit: interestingly, this is listed as suitable for the ML10

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/373512849086

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 21/04/2022 08:32:45

When I bought my Speed 10 brand new from the original Myford many a long year ago I asked for the bed to be induction hardened. I was then told that this was not an option for the Speed 10 so I wonder if it was ever an option on the ML10 or Speed 10.

Usually CI beds etc are not hard-hard like hardened steel anyway. Just harder than untreated cast iron. So a scratch test could be a bit inconclusive.

Anyone know how hard a cast-iron lathe bed can be made? I found some figures suggesting induction hardening could lift the hardness of ductile cast-iron from about 15HRC up to about 50. So not in the same league as HSS (about 65HRC) or Tungsten Carbide about 90HRC. Grey cast-iron is less suitable.

Seems to fit; although they don't like it much you can machine HSS with Tungsten Carbide and chilled cast-iron with HSS.

For best results items are induction hardened more than once. My guess is a hobby lathe only gets one pass because each quench risks cracking the casting and writing it off.

My lathe bed claims to be induction hardened and it's distinctly harder than my mill table which doesn't. Better than not bothering but don't expect miracles,

Dave

Hi again. Further to my previous post on IHBs.

The castings for the IHBs were cast from a more 'exotic' grade of iron than the standard beds, that was more suitable for induction hardening. Production runs for the ML10 were much smaller than the 7 series machines so probably not high enough to offer the option of Induction Hardening on the ML10 beds.

At the time the 7 series lathes were designed, these were serious Industrial Standard machines. These were later followed by the MiniKop, 245 and 280 series lathes.

I may have inadvertently misled one of the previous posters – The machines whether they had hardened or none-hardened beds, were always painted the standard Myford grey (unless a special order), it was the trough between the bedway shears that was colour coded to identify whether it was an IHB or not.

I suspect that I had left for 'pastures new' when the IHB name plate was introduced, so I cannot comment if colour coding of the beds continued after that.

Alan

Mine is a green IHB with the plate saying so and the middle of the bed is an off white.

Ah, I should have said "off white" – though dirty grey is a better description of mine! 20 years of cutting oil…

Am I right in saying the hardening only extends into the bed a few thou deep?

I remember when Myford used to advertise the option of a hardened bed for the Super 7 it stated that a hardened bed was not available for the long bed Super 7, I was always a little puzzled by this.

So on one of my visits to the Myford works at Beeston I asked Mr Moore why hardening was not an option for the long bed. He replied that it was simply because at the time he had sixty long bed raw castings in stock that were cast from a grade of iron that could not be hardened. This wasn't many years before he decided to sell up, so I wonder what happened to all those bed castings.

Anyway, I still miss the old Myford factory and the odd chat with Malcolm Townsend.

Quite likely hardeded long-beds were made at times, just not consistently. Lathejack said ' So on one of my visits to the Myford works at Beeston I asked Mr Moore why hardening was not an option for the long bed. He replied that it was simply because at the time he had sixty long bed raw castings in stock that were cast from a grade of iron that could not be hardened. '

As Myford were in business for over 70 years and the Super 7 was in production for about half a century, like as not that the exact specification varied over time. It's unusual for manufacturers to make everything themselves in-house, because specialists normally knock out better components for less cost. Unlikely Myford ever made their own nuts, bolts, washers, motors, paint or electric cable!

Does anyone know which parts Myford made themselves from scratch? My guess is most components were outsourced: castings, electrics, gears, bearings, belts, paint, lead-screws, handles, etc. Myford owned and improved the design, accurately machined the lathe-specific parts and completed the lathe to a standard. Much more than a simple assembly operation but not everything was made by Myford, and some variation is inevitable.

Dave