That 0,018mm 'lift' is about 7 tenths in old money.

Presumably you mean vertical play in the carriage?

I've had my WM250V for over 7 years now and never been aware of such a thing, nor given any thought to how I might measure it, what it might do, how I might fix it or whether it's worth doing so.

I can only imagine it might have some effect when there are upward forces communicating to the carriage, such as when turning in forward rotation from an RTP, or milling the underside of a component in a vertical slide – something I did successfully and AFAIK with decent precision only yesterday.

Now I don't know whether I should be worried about it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm quite happy with my lathe. It does what I need and more. But if you look closely you'll find it's a bit roughly finished, still happy considering the price.

Possibly from 15 thou of combined wear on the top surface of the bed and the surface of the carriage that runs on the top surface of the bed, lettting the whole carriage drop down, creating the gap on the lift plate?

Or possibly it left the factory like that? Wiith the Delta's long carriage "wings" extending forward of the toolpost it is hardly going to tilt the carriage when cutting with the topslide extended forward. Usiing a long boring bar would be about the only time any force was put on the carriage that might lift the back end of it a bit.

Or possibly from swarf ingress causing wear on the lift plate surface?

Not necessary to look closely – they are roughly finished! But they're a modern design, and although clearly made-down to a price, they're generally good enough where it matters.

One of my old books, aimed at industrial purchasers before 1930, is highly critical of a British bad attitude to machine tools generally. Old-fashioned, out-of-date, conservative firms assumed best buy lathes were heavy old-fashioned manual lathes expected to last 60 years or more. Well-finished, beautifully made, hideously expensive, required highly paid skilled operators, and had to be ordered 6 to 12 month in advance. For this the owner got a wonderful machine and low-productivity, unable to compete with firms who had modernised at home or abroad. The book advises buying machine-tools designed to work hard for up to a maximum of ten years, then replacing them with whatever was best at the time: capstan lathes, then mechanical and hydraulic automatics, through Numerical Control, CNC, CAM, and multi-axis machine centres.

The Myford ML7 is a good lathe, but it can be criticised on cost-grounds. Several features could be simplified, and money could be saved by not bothering with the finish, as was done to British lathes made during WW2 – spartan, but fully functional, made to do a job of work, and paying no attention to pride of ownership. Far Eastern hobby lathes are in the Spartan camp – aggressively priced to suit Model Engineer's notorious for not spending money! The machines work reasonably well and the price point make them attractive compared with better finished, but costly western alternatives.

Much criticism of Far Eastern gear is based on look and feel rather than how well they cut metal. Comparing cylinders turned on various lathes In a double-blind test, I don't think it would be possible to identify which lathe produced which cylinder. However, in hobby workshops, the output often isn't the be all and end all! The owner may well have other goals. Good-looking smooth sliding tools increase confidence, productivity and pleasure, especially if you like everything to be 'just so'. In contrast, I don't care much about warts provided equipment does what I need, or as Chris puts it keeps me 'happy about the price'. Others, more power to their elbows, are sensitive to finish and seek perfection in their machines. Some folk worry about having their kit painted the correct colour: not me!

Main thing is to enjoy the hobby, however it takes you!

Dave

Might I suggest that it's more about controlling the weight of the apron, which pivots about the front of the bed. The only thing that stops this is the apron power shaft/shafts, which will be subject to unnecessary wear without the rear 'clamp'.

I don't believe that in todays constant drive to remove cost it would still exist if it didn't do something, just because some europeans put it there back in the day the design was copied.

My understanding is the screws are loose on purpose, just to take up the slack. I only noticed they were loose when I had to take the carriage apart due to a crash. Didn't think much of it at that time, thought they must have come loose during use, but tightening them down during assembly the carriage got stuck. So I reasoned the clamp should have been shimmed, and that's what I did. Probably it was not necessary as some have commented.