Some pictures already on here of that done. I then machined the 4 tool holders I bought by 4mm from the underside, pictures already posted above. I think the reason others were making a new top slide was to take the 14mm holding bolt supplied by the maker & of course much lower in deck height. This will not fit the Myford top slide. So hence making another one. This is what I did. The height of the original bolt to accommodate the post is higher than the bolt on the Myford. So you have a tool post with a 14mm bore & the end of the stud is below the top of the new tool post, The Myford being 11.10 or 9/16" & a height greater than the stud on the Myford. I made a bush from alloy for the bottom & a sleeve nut from some very hard stainless hex bar I was given by a friend for the top nut. See pics attached. I tapped the sleeve nut to the same BSF size of the myford. I will be posting this mod on You tube to compliment my other vids on anything garage. Steviegtr. Slag me as you will. The 4 holders now cut down by 4mm hold any tool up to 14mm thick. It is stable & once adjusted without silly bits of packing & cut down hacksaw blades is set permanently without need for any further adjustments. Fit & use. The tool holders are very cheap to buy on ebay, so you can have as many as you want all tooled up with what you need. Fit the cutter, adjust the depth screw & lock. A great mod for me. Some will knock it as that's what a few members do. But what the hell. I did it. Another thing I did last night was every time I used the tail stock to use for drilling bar ends. The screw would seem ok & then other times was very tight as if something was jamming inside. I took it apart from the rear. 1st taking off the handwheel. Then removing the rear collar by releasing & unscrewing from the body. Behind was a small ball race which was all good. Unscrew the backnut & it all comes apart. The thing was all gunged up. I guess never touched since 1977. I cleaned & carefully lightly sanded the parts & re-assembled with some synthetic oil & now it is smooth. So since buying less than a month ago what have I done. A few members told me to use it & gain experience. I have basically stripped the whole thing down, taken the 3/4 hp motor off & replaced with a 1 1/2 hp 3 ph motor. Built a control panel & fitted a quality Omron programmable inverter. This has so many parameters. I have set a 1.5hz jog speed, which basically slows the motor to tortoise mode 20rpm & has no torque whatsoever so if anything is not right the chuck will stop. . Some will say why. But set up your work & sw to jog or inch mode & you can make sure you work is set properly, fit a dial gauge against your work piece & you can watch the results without manually turning the chuck. Again will post on you tube. I have also set it so stop-start is soft with around 5 second up & down slope. Nice & steady. But what if you have a problem & need to stop quick. So I set the e-stop to instantly cut the power output. It goes with a thunk & stops. Not chuck spin off just a quick stop. I can monitor the current at any frequency. I have set it so if I get a jam & the current rises as it would the motor cuts out immediately. Another thing I did was from my old contracting days of making inverter panel for Blue chip companies was to fit a 10 turn potentiometer for speed control as there spec's & again got lots of negative comments from forum members. I only ask you to try & make a set frequency & you will find it very hard with a 1 turn pot. I can select any frequency / speed I require so it was a wise choice. I have perfect control over the motor speed. Another mod was to fit a cheap rpm or DRO meter. Slow to react to changes but works pretty good. I have stripped the headstock to fit new standard belts. Some say they fitted the linked belting but for the hell of me cannot think why. This belting was invented many years ago for industry by a company called fenner, where a line shaft was used through a shop floor which drove many machines from one source. To change a belt on any machine with a broken belt mid production was impossible with say 20 machines all running at once. The linked belting allowed the fitters to change a broken belt without stopping production. I have worked in such an industry. One being Trebor basset's in the polishing pan room & Rowntree Nestle. The new belts were obvious by there clack clack sound & were changed for proper belts on a P.M. People are fitting these things & think they are the best things since sliced bread. What is wrong with people, they are rubbish & temporary belts. What else. I stripped the cross carriage slide as it had a bit of play in it. 5 thou back lash. Since putting it back together it is down to around 2 thou. I need a new nut. Will get one soon, but not important as this can be accommodated in use. Made sure the bed was level & with a test piece all seems good. So what is next. I have decided to cut down my garage. In that I mean to put a partition at 1/3 rd of the garage & make it a dedicated workshop. I probably will not be doing many motorcycle or car rebuilds due to old age. It means I will have a workshop 4m x 3m which will be easier to keep warm. It will give me an extra wall to fit another workbench & over head cupboards. Regards to all & what have you been doing with your Myford or other lathe.
Steve.