Copies of Myford Instruction Books
& Sales Catalogues are available
L.W. Staines engineering built their vertical milling attachment, it is believed, during the 1960s. As rarely-found accessory, relatively few can have been sold; however, users like it and claim that it functions admirably. A well made unit, it was probably cheaper than the competing Amolco and Rodney types with, like the latter, the drive being taken from the lathe spindle - in this case by the simple expedient of gripping a round bar in a 3-jaw chuck instead of the complex moulded plastic insert coupling of the Rodney. The throat - the distance from spindle line to the inner face of the swing housing - was 3.5" and the head assembly could be tilted through 90° each side of vertical. Drive was by a toothed belt, this passing over a pair of jockey pulleys at the rear of the unit that gave some provision for tension adjustment; the spindle, running in ball races, was fitted with a No. 2 Morse taper socket, took an M10 or 3/8" draw bar and (sensibly), had the same 1.125" x 12 t.p.i. nose used on the lathe.
With 70 mm of travel, the quill was operated by the simplest of mechanisms - a boss attached to its lower end being threaded and moved by a vertical screw carried on the side of the main casting. The tilt feature (a unique fitting on this class of accessory) was quick and easy to use with just two bolts on the earlier units and three on the later, to slacken and retighten.
One limitation was the limited clearance between spindle nose and T-slotted cross slide, this being in the order of just 3.5".
Little is known of the Myford "Big-Swing" attachment save that it was intended for home construction and probably available as kit of parts. The lower section of the unit was fitted with a No.2 Morse taper shaft that fitted into the lathe's headstock. The shaft was fitted with a toothed belt pulley that drove upwards to a second shaft fitted with a Myford spindle nose. The drive belt was tensioned by a jockey pulley. It's possible that other units may have used ordinary V-belts.