Once a popular accessory for the Myford Series 7 and 10 lathes - and with adaptor base fittings available for Boxford and Atlas machines as well - the English-made Amolco was of good-quality construction and a particularly useful attachment in the smaller workshop. Manufactured by N. Mole & Co. (Machine Tools) Ltd. of Watford, it could also be had as a particularly compact and useful stand-alone milling machine with a 15" x 6" table.
When used as an accessory, unlike the Rodney and Staines vertical milling attachments that were driven from the lathe's headstock, the Amolco had a bench-drill-like V-belt motor drive that gave speeds of 325, 650, 1100 and 1600 rpm. The unit was designed to bolt to the tailstock end of the lathe bed and, of course, use the lathe's T-slotted cross-slide as the milling table. The 2 M.T. head, with taper-roller bearings and 6.5" of vertical movement, was fitted with a standard Myford spindle thread (1.125 X 12 t.p.i. ) that allowed the economical interchange of tooling and accessories. The head was bored through to allow the use of a draw bar and offered a maximum clearance of 8.5" between the table of an ML7 or Super 7 and the spindle nose.
Vertical travel of the head was under the control of an external screw that passed through the head casting - with the whole head assembly running on a long gib block to ensure that its location was not lost during changes of position.
In a different form, the basis of the milling head was used to construct a small but useful drill press..