I would run a fan heater into the motor for a while to dry out the windings before switching on. The late John Stevenson used to dry motors out on quarry belt conveyors that had got flooded in the winter when the River Trent burst it’s banks—those were 3 phase 440v items and they recovered.

You will need some elbow grease in places too. Best of luck

Brian

For the grease, I would use plenty of White Spirit and a stiff brush or tooth brush. If you have a suds tray, block the drain hole up first. I doubt  that grease has got into the slideways, so once the surface grease is off, inspect slides for rust and if so, remove with a fine steel wool or Scotchpad then clean and liberally oil the slides (Myford users will specify all sorts of oil, but I use clean engine oil). Pump plenty of oil into the oilers to flush out any old stuff.

Follow Brian’s advice for the motor. Make sure that cabling , plug and fuse is up to it .

Check the belt(s) have some life left in them or replace.

Now have some fun.

Bob

+1 for White Spirit, or kerosene to remove the grease, but then coat the surfaces, lightly with oil.

It is surprising just how quickly things will rust. (i have seen a freshly sand blasted steel item, collect a thin film of rust before my eyes) If your workshop is not well ventilated, and kept reasinably warm, you will suffer condensation. The oil can turn grey overnight as it emulsifies.

If you are not familiar with machine tools, I would advise against stripping the machine. You might do more harm than good; after all it worked perfectly well enough for your father. Being unused should not have misaligned anything.

You say that you are not faniliar with the lathe, so it would be a good idea to buy and read oine or more books on their operation. The books will all differ slightly, but the basic principles are exactly the same.

Since you have a ML7, the classic, “The Amateur’s Lathe” by L H Sparey would be appropriate, if it is still in print, or obtainable.

You might find Ian Bradley’s “The Amateur’s Workshop” a useful companion. Ditto if still in print. (It tells some things that are not in Sparey. He also wrote “Metalwork and Machining Hints and Tips” WPS 24)

Other good authors for general lathework are Stan Bray “Basic Lathework” (WPS 45)or Harold Hall “Lathework – A complete Course”(WPS 34)

Before too long, you may find “Tool and Cutter Sharpening” (WPS 38) by Harold Hall useful.

WPS is the Workshop Practice Series of books (You can get these from places such as Arc EuroTrade, Camden Steam Services.

FWIW, my advice would be to stick with High Speed Steel tooling. The ML7 was not built for the speeds and feeds for Carbide tooling. For this, you will need to learn how to grind the tools.

The angles do not have to be too precise; a degree or two either way is unlikely to cause problems. Where possible, err on the side of the lower figures. Removing too much metal will slightly weaken the tool, and more importantly, lt reduces the area capable of conducting away the heat caused by the cutting action.

One other thing, a self centering 3 jaw chuck is unlikely to hold work absolutely concentric.

If work has to be absolutely concentric, you will need to use a 4 jaw independent chuck, and use a DTI on a magnetic base, to reduce the eccentricity to an acceptable level.  Alternatively, if needed, the 4 jaw can be the means of producing eccentrics, when needed.

If you do not already have a set, Zeus Charts will be very useful. I still use mine from 1958!

If you can, find a local Model Engineering club, and join. There you will find folk who can advise / demonstrate, face to face.

HTH

Howard

Back again, made a couple of key board errors, the £ sign should 3 and second 30 should be 60

Before leaping ahead into the motor and electrics, I suggest:

1. A surface clean, avoiding a deep strip down at this stage.   (Beginners often lose parts, or misassemble them!  Though not rocket science, lathes come with a number of booby traps specially designed to catch engineers unfamiliar with the breed.)
2. Check that the saddle, cross-slide and tailstock all move freely as expected.
3. Apply oil.
4. Disengage the banjo (gears driving the leadscrew) and make sure the half-nuts are open (not gripping the leadscrew) ,  Turn the lathe over by hand.   The chuck and motor should both spin smoothly with some resistance, not binding.  If the lathe or motor bearings are damaged, no point in powering the motor yet.
5. Engage the banjo, and turn over by hand again..  Expect more resistance, but should still move smoothly.   It’s possible the gears are not mounted correctly on the banjo, so make sure they transfer power from the spindle to the leadscrew
6. Engage the  half-nuts and turn over by hand again.   Much more resistance, and the saddle should move slowly towards the headstock.  (May take many turns of the chuck before the saddle is seen to be moving.)

Once the lathe is confirmed to be in reasonable order mechanically, the electrics are another ball-game!  Here safety is top priority, followed by making good any damage done to the electrics throughout by damp.   Step one is to thoroughly dry everything out.  Motors  are difficult because the windings trap moisture, so allow plenty of time.    Unfortunately, sounds as if this example has been stored particularly badly for some time, making it likely that the motor, switches, wiring and terminals are corroded – more work!

With all due respect to John Fletchers money saving advice to fit another ex-Myford single-phase motor, if a new motor is needed, then this is an excellent opportunity to upgrade to 3-phase/VFD.   So far no one has ever regretted going 3-phase!

Dave

To answer your original question about oiling prior to start-up, you should oil all the rotating elements through their lubrication points – spindle, countershaft, gear-train and leadscrew – all lubrication is total-loss, so any oil film will have been broken in storage so that all components will currently be in a metal-to-metal state.

As Dave says, rotating everything by hand and liberal (initial) oiling will restore an oil film.

The headstock spindle oilers look to be the OEM ones – there is a needle inside which is raised or lowered to control oil flow through the mechanism at the top, I can’t see whether yours have levers or a knurled cap….whatever lifts the needle up opens them, lowering the needle closes them..

If you don’t have anything with the correct nozzle to fit the oil nipples on the other parts, probably best to temporarily remove them and fill the hole with oil prior to commissioning – put them back in to keep dirt & debris out..

Is the machine on wooden blocks? ..once you have it up and running you will need to check whether it is cutting straight & true – to a great extent this depends on the stability of the mounting, so environmental changes in the wood may induce a little twisting, which tho’ barely perceptible may still give issues if trying to turn parallel lengths..

Do you have the ML7 set-up / installation manual?

Much useful information inside, I think one can still find a pdf online..

The Tailstock sensitive drilling attachment will be useful, as will the Graduated Handwheel on the Leadscrew.

Presunably, you have all the changewheels, ready for when you eventually want to set up for an automatic feed for turning, or even more daring, to screwcut. (Although for many of the smaller, “standard” threads, you are likely to use Taps and Dies.)

You can learn a lot, and gain useful experience by making simple tools, such a Centre Height Gauge, Tailstock Sliding Die Holders – easier to buy Die holders and make the body to suit. Taps can be held in a Drill chuck, which can slide on the same arbor, a Mandrel Handle.

All simple turming jobs which will give practice, and be useful afterwards.

P M me if you want further details / photos

Howard

In the context of the chuck and removing it Howard uses the word can damage the gear teeth, in this case I fancy a better word is WILL ! Locking the spindle by engaging back gear is not a good idea. I don’t recall a spindle lock on the ML 7 (and it took 10 years for me to find the one on my S7), grip a bar or hex in the chuck, fit a spanner or similar and give a sharp whack. Warming the chuck may help. The spindle bearings are white metal and dampness may have caused rusting. Loosen the headstock bearings a little and try to turn, if no luck then remove the caps, these are shimmed DO NOT mix up the shims. Good luck. Noel.

On 10 August 2024 at 07:03 miner Said:

[…] Some I’m unsure of including the dividing thing. Lots to learn.

The Myford  ‘dividing thing’ is treasure in its own right

MichaelG.

Paint doesn’t make it work better. Just call the present condition ‘patina’