Myers Machine Tool Co. lathe

We are rebuilding a ca. 1905 Myers Machine Tool Co. 11" x 5' lathe. It's an early one at S/N 502 with the early style apron (pullout cross feed engagement knob). The lathe has ball cranks all round and not the latter hand wheels. Does anyone please have an image of the thread change gear chart located on the leg under the head stock? Thank you.

Have a couple of things for you.
Couple of questions.

Where was the S/N located? Have four and have not spotted a serial number yet, there is still time.

The date 'ca 1905.'
Found the incorporation date of October 23, 1913 for the Commonwealth of Pa.
Have not found any record of business prior to the date of incorporation.

The very early 11" Myers lathe had a rough finish to the casting.
Later the castings were thicker and had a better finish. The larger aprons are for 11" lathes and it is easy to pick out the early type.

I have only seen apron hand wheels on the 10" inch lathes that showed up in the 1920's.

Apparently most if not all Myers production in 1915 was sold to England per 'Iron Age July 8, 1915.'

The World's Foremost Collector of Myers Lathes !

JHruska is unquestionably the World's Foremost Collector of Myers Lathes !

This very old thread showed the Myers that I sold to JHurska.

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...hots-unknown-lathe-had-one-heck-crash-113479/

There are a couple of comments in that thread that might be of interest. PM sure went through a LOT of possible ID's before pegging it as a Myers.

The pictures were linked to metalworking.com dropbox; they are still be on-line under a different URL, MWDropBox.com - Home page like so:

http://mwdropbox.com/dropbox/JRRUnknownLathe0001.JPG

John Ruth

SouthBendModel34 said:

JHruska is unquestionably the World's Foremost Collector of Myers Lathes !
John Ruth

Click to expand...

Lol, or it just shows I got a soft spot for things no one else wanted.

I have that bed stripped of paint. Some more filler and it gets a coat of paint.
John

Just to drag this thread from the dead

I picked this lathe up last night and cant find anything about it really on that it says myers on the legs. Is it a myers lathe that's on the legs though? Anyone know of any data on this?

Pictures

Dropbox - 20200122_094958.jpg - Simplify your life

Dropbox - Screenshot_20200122-180851_Facebook.jpg - Simplify your life

Dropbox - Screenshot_20200122-180836_Facebook.jpg - Simplify your life

Hello and welcome to PM.
The lathe looks like an early 10" version of a Myers Lathe made in Columbia, Pennsylvania USA.
This image has the legs that match your lathe.

In this image the legs are like those of the 11" lathe. A bit more substantial.

The benchtop lathe was the same as the version with legs.

Quite likely this lathe was shipped in 1915 for the war effort.
Myers Machine Tool Company made lathes that would swing 11", 13" and 18" over the bed ways. These were more substantial in design and weight. Options for length of the bed up to 14 feet in length.
Regards, John

Finally someone else with a myers lathe... not much info out there. Heres some "before" pictures of mine.

Myers Lath "After" pictures

Here are some of my "after" pictures... still not running, have to fit the motor, pulley and belts and then adjust/tweak...

Skrueball, Welcome to PM.
Two Myers lathes in two days!
Nice clean up on the lathe. That is one good looking gear chart, new black paint?
Myers did not date their catalogs so things like guards for the back gears, design changes to the apron, and finish help approximate years of manufacture.
The gear chart on the back gear cover is a better location than on the leg. Don't know if that was a Myers' mod or not.
The apron is similar to that on the 10" lathe with respect to the cross feed engagement. Prior method for the 11" was a push-pull pinion gear engagement as shown in post #2.
The apron front face on the early 11" lathes was left 'as cast'. Later the face was machined to a flat finish and post war returned to the 'as cast' finish.
The spindle journals are oiled by a drip oiler / gravity feed oiler. Myers only supplied a machined plug for the top bearing shell.
The rear spindle bearing is a sleeve cut on one side only. The body of the sleeve should fit onto a locating pin. The front spindle bearing is a typical top and bottom shell.
Photos-Images:
Specs from the catalog, Follow and Steady rest, Shelf and Gear Train, and the Apron showing the original knob for cross feed engagement.

The black lathe is not mine. The lathes I have use the push-pull pinion for crossfeed engagement.
Thanks for posting your lathe,
John

Thanks for the info John. I’ve had a hard time finding info. Best I could tell was the 1930’s at latest and not much to go on as to what was original. I’m having trouble with the crossfeed now, so I’ll be taking it apart again soon to play with it. Can’t get it to be neutral and crossfeed freely manually. Feels like it is halfway engaged.

Also, gear chart was a fun little project and came out well. I used soap/water with a toothbrush, then brasso, then soap/water, then black spray paint, then a very light touch with 1000 grit sandpaper, then brasso, then soap/water, then clear coat.

When you pull the apron would you post some photos of the gear side.
Should be a single wall apron so every thing will be visible.

Here is a photo of the possible gear engagement.

The small blue gear has three positions, cross feed, neutral and carriage feed. This gear is always engaged with the clutch spur gear(not shown) and is mounted to the pivot plate(outline drawing). This setup allows for only one feed direction at a time, ie: crossfeed and carriage feed cannot be engaged at the same time to turn a taper. However, there may be no lock-out when the thread half-nuts are engaged to prevent gear damage.
This description is based on the Ten Inch lathe and your Eleven Inch lathe may be different.
If the design apple falls close to the tree then the clutch for this 11" lathe may look like this:

The beveled disc is drawn in for positive engagement.

Here is the 18" lathe. Myers used separate feed and thread inputs to the apron.


Likely that your lathe was made 1920 -1925. The company was in receivership by 1920 probably from the mini-recession in the machine tool market post WW1. Myers was sold by the receiver, Blanton C Welsh and sold to Keely Stove Co. in 1920. Keely planned enlargement to the product line and a restart of operations at an early date. Post war there were consolidation and closings of many machine tool manufacturers due to market saturation. Myers-Keely Stove continued operation until 1925 and after that info is not available.
John

heres one from "before"... i'll take a few today, after i have it apart.