# Here's my old lathe...



## Rob M (Mar 21, 2007)

It's a "Myford Drummond M42" lathe from (at the earliest) 1942, made in Beeston which is a little town near Nottingham. These were made in many thousands for the British government and were used by various branches of the British military during World War 2.

I am really pleased with it, it didn't cost me much, £100 (what's that, about $160?) and it came with loads of cutting tools, drills, bits of bar (Aluminium, brass, steel and nylon! Plus I bought some clear acrylic bar), a knurling tool, some other bits I don't know yet.

I used to watch a friend of mine working a lathe, he is a superb craftsman (he can scratch-build anything from clocks to working steam engines), I picked up a bit from watching him, but I am going to have to spend a great deal of time learning how to use this machine.

Unfortunately one of the reasons it was cheap is because the most of the screwcutting gears are missing, that's why my little brass torch ( http://candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?t=158228 ) is held together by three stainless steel screws rather than being made to screw together. Unfortunately I am just too busy at the moment to devote much time to learning to lathe... 

I am going to make more torches and flashlights with this lathe, also things like spring guides and stuff for my airgun collection too! I have already made some props for a Sci-fi LARP game with it which were very well received by the players!

Hope you like my old lathe, I love things like this, made well to last generations (like some of my airguns!).


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## Anglepoise (Mar 21, 2007)

Looks like a very good buy to me. Hopefully you will be able to get the gears you need. How are all the other bits?

Strip it down, clean and adjust, re paint and off you go. 

Good luck


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## gadget_lover (Mar 21, 2007)

That looks like quite a neat lathe. What are it's capacities (throw and center to center)? I can't tell just from looking, since the handwheels could be any size so I don't have a good reference.

If you have SOME change wheels you might check to see what threads you can cut. Swapping the position in the gear chain can alter the thread drastically. The same 4 gears may give you 6 or 7 thread pitches. Even if all you can do is one thread, that might be enough for your flashlights 

Daniel


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## Rob M (Mar 21, 2007)

I think its capacity is 3 1/2" by 16". There's some more info about it here:

http://www.lathes.co.uk/drummond/page13.html

I think I can still get a full set of changewheels for it, I think that I can also get wheels for cutting metric threads too, the Myford company was still going until quite recently. I'm glad you guys seem to like it, although it has one or two bits missing and needs cleaning, adjustment and a repaint (not to mention a guard of some sort on the belts and a rewire!) it does feel like a quality machine, I reckon it will give me a lot of enjoyment! It has been upgraded over the years, it now has a three-jaw chuck and a four-way toolpost which the originals didn't have. I just bought a nice parting tool for it too.

The other week I did my first bit of lathe work for money, I was refurbishing one of these:

http://members.lycos.co.uk/robm3/scorpion.htm

and used it to make a spring guide rod. The man paying me to refurbish his air pistol was really pleased with my work!

Thanks for the advice re: screwcutting Gadget Lover, when I get some time I will have to experiment to see what threads I can do. I've just bought this book as well:







It's very interesting and some of the diagrams actually feature my lathe! This is a reprint of a very old book.

Thanks for the kind comments and advice chaps!


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## Anglepoise (Mar 21, 2007)

I also was recommended the book 'The Amateur's Lathe' by Sparey.
It's one of the best of many lathe books I have and mine is very well worn through reading.


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## ABTOMAT (Mar 21, 2007)

You paid 100 quid for that? Great deal. Keep in mind that all the rotating bearings the sliding surfaces on that need to be practically running with oil. Shop rags were a requirement. Make sure that everything's clean, free of rust, and rotating smoothly.


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