Cheap lathe and expensive lathe

[Alexander]

I was wandering through modern tool and I saw these two lathes. I'm going to start with the cheap and cheerful one.

This one is missing a few parts as you can see in the picture. Still an awesome deal at 600 bucks. I think this could easily be fixed up if you already have other machines. Alternatively they have this one for $1,800

I think the second one could be a tiny bit overpriced. To me it just makes the first one look all the better

 

[EricB]

Those Myfords are nice little machines. One of my neighbors saved one that was going to be left behind when his shop changed buildings and it was going to be left in the building that was slated to be DEMOLISHED! People can be so wasteful and silly. Anyways, he moved it out, took it home, fixed it up and used it for a long time. Now he has a Schaublin lathe and mill that are incredibly drool-worthy and is thinking of cleaning up and selling the wee Myford. I told him to let me know if he decides to, and I might know someone who will buy it. I'll let you folks know if that happens.

 

[John Conroy]

Looks like the cheap one is missing the tailstock and compound but I bet you locate those without too much trouble as those little Myford lathes were pretty common. As Eric said, nice machines for someone who want a small lathe! Too bad neither one has the "screw cutting gear box"

Lot of good information on that lathe here:

http://www.lathes.co.uk/myford/page2.html

 

[Tom Kitta]

I somehow think for $1200 you can get the missing parts easily.

I would inspect the bed through and other things under "inspecting used lathe" category.

 

[PeterT]

Those were certainly 'the lathe' to have back in the day. A lot of museum quality models were built on them. The heyday era was probably mid 60's late 70's? That link provided looks like an excellent resource. But I also get the impression lurking on other metalworking forums including the UK sites that even those boys are having to scrounge for parts these days. What used to be plentiful & widely supported machine & tooling, not to mention all those cool & ingenious casting kit add-ons... is apparently getting to be skinny pickens & increasingly expensive. Unfortunately for Kanuckistan, that means US aftermarket suppliers (at 1.44 $C$U Fx as of today) or UK (shipping heavy things also spendy) or roll your own. Personally, I would treat it as an act of TLC restorative love... like finding a 1960 sports car that deserves to be driven amongst the modern plastic. (Well... on Sundays... not raining.. and not too far from home).

I met a guy late-70's who owned anML7, built some beautiful steam loco's on it. R.I.P He was Classic Brit model engineer, made the milling accessory entirely on the lathe (table, leadscrews, ball handles), this was mounted upright in the lathe, to make a tool, that eventually made the part... you know the routine.