Hello there since I seem to be hi jacking other peoples threads in the quest for info on my lathe I thought an update and an introduction were probably necessary.

I bought this lathe from e-bay for the princely sum of £350, it came with a range of tooling some of it knackard, some still usable. Also 3 jaw, and a four jaw self centering, and a 3 jaw quick tightened  chuck. It also has a myford fixed and traveling steady and a couple of tapered drill chucks for the tailstock which are to be honest a little past it but may be useful at some point so have been put to one side.

Firstly some photos of the lathe as advertised

Edited By Jon Cameron on 22/09/2017 23:08:31

Edited By Jon Cameron on 22/09/2017 23:13:24

Edited By Jon Cameron on 22/09/2017 23:14:43

This useful info posted by another member shows some very useful identification for the 4 different variations of the ML series.

It came time to set the lathe up and mount the motor and lathe on the 38mm chipboard worktop, and kitchen cabinet I got from freegal. Great place freegal for odd bits of money saving.

I first started with the motor using M8 threaded rod cut to length, and a nut backed onto another nut to form a good lock nut. The position of the motor was selected, with the lathe in situe. So I could gauge what room I'd need to be able to work around the lathe. Once finalised I marked the bolt openings from the motor frame onto the worktop with black market pen. These were then drilled using the cordless, and to the front edge of the markings enabling the motor bracket to move back and forth to allow tension to be set on the lathes belt.

Then once the bolts were passed through and bolted tight, I turned my attention to the position of the lathe, making sure with a long enough straight edge the pulleys were in line. Then again marked the position on the bench and drilled. What I should have done is put some silicone down the holes when putting the bolts through as this would stop oil ingress, and potentially expansion of the chipboard as it takes on oil. (Will come back to that).

The lathe was mounted on the studs (cut slightly longer than the studs for the motor mounting). To allow the lathe to be levelled, or more accurately trimmed for cutting concentric bars, drilling holes ect. Firstly a builders level was used length ways and at 90 ° to the bed, then diagonal from corner to corner of the bed. All the time watching the bubble and making small adjustments to the nuts. To get as close as I could with the level.

I have got sick of seeing rust on my lathe and bad paint, so I stripped the tailstock down and cleaned it up, I degreased the parts and then polished some of the metal parts to get rid of the rust. I cleaned up the bore and the spindle whilst I was at it, it's amazing how much bits of metal were back there.

With a fresh coat of paint the parts were left to dry over night and baked in the oven for an hour at 50°C this evaporated the solvents and hardened the enamel paint. I was careful not to get any paint on surfaces that were machined or would be in contact with other parts, these got a wipe over with oil after painting, whilst I was at it I also decided to do the change gears and bracket.

Hi all, some interesting reference material here on ML4 lathes from last year, and a more recent thread about half nuts, which also contains some useful references and information here

Edited By Jon Cameron on 28/09/2017 00:40:41

I have gone about it another way, and I've a video which demonstrated the frustration in setting it up. In that there are three items that can all influence the angle of the tailstock. 

So I put a piece of rust in the three jaw and mounted up a R/H cutting tool, I set the compound over as far as I could and turned a point onto the bar, this makes a reference point for center hieght, and eliminates if there is wear in the taper of the spindle. 

Once a point was turned the tailstock received a MT1 dead centre. Since all tools will have a taper connection to this part then it seems logical that if there is wear in the tailstock then this must be taken into account. A reamer in the chuck would be a better idea but im not that brave yet, or confident about it's alignment.

The tailstock is brought upto the chuck, as far as it'll go, then the quill extended to meet the other point on the turned bar. 

Horizontally I look good so proceed to make adjustments to the gun slide, making sure everything else is locked up, (be sure if your tightening the gibs the the clamp has opposite force applied. Ie screwing in the adjuster, will mean you have to loosen the clamp, and visa versa.

With a 6inch ruler between centers, the ruler tells you which direction the tailstock gibs need to go. To adjust the gibs make sure the bolt on top is slackened slightly to allow movement, and tightened back up after before proceeding to make adjustment to the other screw. Once you are happy that the tailstock is centred, move the tailstock up the bed, and extend the quill as far as you can, low and behold a different reading, and frustration en sues, what I did was adjust half of the difference of the duller with one screw, then the other half with the second screw. If your lucky when you move it back to the first position you'll be darn close to level, I was using the dovetail on my saddle to determine where I needed to be, and the whole thing was done by eye.

Video will be uploaded to YouTube and posted later today, just to give some insight to the daft design.

Edited By Jon Cameron on 28/09/2017 17:28:11

Edited By Jon Cameron on 28/09/2017 17:29:08

Double post

Edited By Jon Cameron on 28/09/2017 20:47:54

I also tried a rudemetary way of aligning the tailstock. Using one of the largest taper drills i have, (think it's 7/8&quot mounted in the tailstock. The quill was extended out as far as I could and the gib adjusters loosened off. The drill was fed as far into the chuck as I could get it, and the jaws nipped up, not locked tight just nipped up. Then the gib was brought to mate with the ways and tightened, the clamp at the rear was then loosely tightened. Just enough to give some pressure to the rear. The adjusters were then tightened up making sure the whole setup wasn't moving, and locked into place. I've yet to check it's alignment, but the quill by eye looks to be perfectly parralel to the ways. The worn gib strip is also sitting nice and flat against the ways, whereas before it was slightly tilted.

Edited By Jon Cameron on 29/09/2017 21:43:38

I even got told by the person I bought the lathe off not to play with the adjustment on the headstock bearings, as they were prone to damage by been ham fisted. So until today I hadn't done anything with it. Till I'd heard a noticeable clucking noise. The clunk was the spindle hitting the top bearing that wasn't pressured against the top of the spindle.