All of those points are the same oil, I use 20 weight hydraulic oil; none are grease nipples
Yes you need an oil gun for the oil nipples, and to prevent leaks, it helps to pump through a single layer of paper towel.
The front bearing C id lubed via a wick from B
Backgear spindle lube you’ve not shown, there is a separate oil nipple in the middle of the engagement lever’s pivot, just below the spindle nose, and perhaps obscured by the chuck.
The 4 step V pulley also has an oil nipple, don’t forget that one either.
It should all be covered in the manual, which is available from Myford, or readily viewable on line.
If you have Facebook, join the Myford Lathes group. where you will find a wealth of information in the files section.

Bill

“We also have a quick change gear box on another Myford super 7.  are they easy to take off one machine and fit to another, and is the ability to cut threads worth the effort.”

I have never had a gearbox on my ML7R, initially because I couldn’t afford one but found I really don’t want one. The reason being that I have needed to cut worms and the cutting of ‘strange’ pitches is easier using change-wheels although I am useless at calculating gear trains and have to beg for help if a particular train is not given in a constructional article. A full set of Myford change-wheels gives most of the standard pitches, an additional 21T gear will allow a range of metric threads to be cut and it doesn’t take long to set up a gear train.

BTW, I have been engaging the back-gear to remove chucks on my lathe for the last 40-plus years simply because its easier and quicker than fiddling around with the spindle lock. If a chuck won’t move with a ‘gentle-sharp’ pull on a makeshift lever placed across the jaws then there is something very wrong with the thread in the back-plate. Oh, and the plastic Myford oil-gun is practically useless, avoid!

Hi Chris, That you use the back gear as a means to lock the spindle is possiblly because the ML7R does’nt have a fitted lock ? That you have got away with it is good ! The OP is I believe new to lathes and more so the Myfords and since I had had an S7 for over 10 years before I found my spindle lock, I felt it would be useful for him to know if he didn’t already ! I have 3 S7s all bought second hand,2 in a sorry state and having the back gears with teeth missing ! ME or MEW published an article sometime ago on a repair for this problem writen by me with help from Chris Robinson. Noel.

Re Back gears for locking Myfords,
OP has one or more Super 7s, so there isn’t a need for using the back gear to lock the spindle; they have a locking bolt built in on the left hand end.
I would suggest it’s fine anyway if the chuck is only hand tight; it’s when the chuck is stuck that damage occurs.

Re gearbox, it depends on the proposed usage for the machine.
Beware there are Mk1 & 2 gearboxes, with differing drive ratios.
The Mk1 might be a problem if the OP plans to cut metric threads, as the 33/34 tooth approximations won’t work with the earlier box.

If OP plans to cut splines etc, then changewheels might be more versatile.
Personally I have both options, as a non power x-feed S7 without box, and a Warco 720 S7B clone with box.
I use the Warco more often.

Bill

If the oil level at B never goes down then you have a problem. If you top the cup up to the brim you should see the level drop at least a little. It may well not use much, but it must use some. If not, then the bronze bush front bearing is going to suffer.

Making sure the oil cup and passage are not blocked would be good first step, because replacing the felt wick is a spindle-out job.

You also have to remove the back-gear lever. Behind it is a socket grub screw plugging a hole. On re-assembly you have to poke a sewing needle up that hole to hold down the spring loaded wick so that you can put the spindle back in without trapping the wick.

The terms used for the oil are from 2 different systems ISO and SAE both refering to viscosity, other info will be about the aplication or addatives. ISO 32 is a light hydraulic as is SAE 10. ISO 68 and SAE 30 is most commonly (now) a classic engine oil, both are mineral oils. Modern synthetic oils are not only expensive but not designed for this type of work. Since the OP mentioned a quick Change gear box the oil for this is SAE 30 or ISO 68 NOT EP 90 ! Noel.

By ‘total loss’ system, do you mead what goes in will come out?

Yes – hence my reference to my “Beeston Oil Leak” ! In my epxerience, Myford S7s are oily machines –  maybe I go overboard, but I don’t get through huge quantities of oil. All the oil you apply to this machine will eventually end up in the coolant / swarf tray.

So I should see some emerge from the bearing ?

Not necessarily. If you could see some oil coming out whilst running, it will probably be inside the headstock at the rear of the bearing – from memory oil moves through a tapered bearing from the large end to the small end. Bear in mind that the felt wick is smaller than you might expect. I knew I had a new spare wick somewhere & found it whilst in the garage just now. It is only around 1/4″ diameter at the end that contacts the spindle (around 3/16″ diameter in the section that sits inside the contact spring) & the oil flows by a wicking action through the dense felt. You will not (and should not) see large quantities of oil emerging from anywhere after the short runs you are doing. This is what the wick looks like as a spare part

not sure exactly where you meant by “headstock area / top of the raising block”

The area underneath the bed beneath the headstock casting, where the bed casting sits on the raising block that sits on the coolant / swarf tray – where you would reasonably expect that oil would drip out from the vicinity of the front spindle bearing.The headstock casting is open where it bolts to the bed & the bed is also hollow / open, so any oil that esacpes within the headstock area works its way out there.

I have my stand & coolant tray angled sllightly towards the headstock end so that coolant (if I used it) would tend to flow towards the coolant outlet at that end of the tray – the lathe sits level on the raising blocks. Used oil (know as “tramp oil” in industry) on my machine thus tends to flow towards that end of the machine & I have a couple of sheets of kitchen roll there to mop up the oil – this gets changed a coouple of times a year (maybe ! ).

Did you have a read through the S7 manual I linked to – lubrication is covered there.

HTH

Nigel B.

My drip tray has a permanent film of oil on it from the gradual passage of oil through the various bearings.

If you look inside the belt cover there is a sheen of oil from the various bearings running down the castings underneath them.

I use slideway 68 all round on my machine. If I used 32 grade I would be awash!

Any oil is better than none!

Still unsure with this bearing and if it is getting properly lubed

Sounds to me that you are convincing yourself that there is a problem here. In that case – for your peace of mind – there is no real option other than pulling the spindle to inspect the condition of wick. If you choose to do this, then it would also be a good time to replace the spindle drive belt.

But, in reality, if you are using the correct oil as specified in the manual, it is probably working as Myford intended. From the sectional drawing on Page 19 is apparent that the wick contact point on the spindle taper is above the level in the oil port. The only way for the spindle plain bearing to be oiled is by oil drawn up the small diameter dense felt wick. The oil needs to be thin to be drawn up the wick in the way Myford intended – using thicker than recommended oil here could actually reduce the amount of oil reaching the bearing. The wick will not be able to supply a large quantity of oil so you will not see large volumes of oil deposited anywhere when the spindle is running.

Myford’s recomendation in the manual is to replenish the oil cup twice daily. I would expect that be for a machine in continuous use throughout the day. I replenished the oil cup on my lathe yesterday to see what it took. The machine has been stood since before Xmas & the oil meniscus was concave & just below the top surface of the cup. It took 6 or 7 drops from an oil can for the level to rise to the point that the meniscus was just convex, which is about what it always takes. I expect that I will be cleaning those 6 or 7 drops out of the swarf tray at some point, even with the lathe just standing, but will take several days (maybe more).

Myford built a lot of Super 7s over a very long period. As tales are not rife of widespread front bronze bearing problems with these machines, there would not appear to be much wrong with the oiling method employed if used as recommended. I would just get on with using it, topping up the oil cup with the recommended grade of oil at the recommended interval and see how you get on. At higher speeds it is not unusual for the front of the headstock casting (surrounding the bronze bush) to warm up, but getting too warm to touch could well be as much a bearing adjustment issue as a lubrication issue – the manual covers this adjustment in detail should the need arise.

Nigel B.