Manufactured from the early 1950s to the mid 1980s (early versions were painted cream, later ones silver and the last ones light green) Myford's neat, well-made and beautifully finished 4-inch centre height wood-turning lathe enjoyed a large and loyal following. The bed was made from a length of seamless drawn steel, with an attractive dull nickel-plated finish, and was available in three standard capacities of 30, 36 and 42 inches between centres. A standard 30-inch machine was catalogued as the ML8 but, when fitted with bowl turning became the ML8A and, with 36 and 42-inch beds as, respectively, the ML8B and ML8C. The makers could also supply separate bed sections, complete with individual mounting feet, to give a maximum length capacity of 72". The No. 1 Morse taper tailstock and the tool-rest assembly were both locked by levers that passed through a long slot cut into the front face of the bed and operating on clamps incorporating quick-action, 2-start threads.
The No. 1 Morse taper , 13/32" bore ground-finish headstock spindle ran on angular-contact ball bearings inside a completely enclosed headstock and carried a 4-step V pulley with a ring of 24 holes to assist in dividing and marking out; the nose thread was 1" x 12 t.p.i on the right-hand side and 7/8" x 12 t.p.i (left-hand) on the left-hand (bowl-turning) end.  Unusually for an amateur's wood lathe the spindle was ground with proper registers behind the threads to allow the accurate fitting of metal-work chucks and heavier face-plates. The motor and countershaft unit were mounted underneath the lathe on a specially-constructed adjustable countershaft and drove upwards to the headstock spindle by a single "link" V-belt. Four speed were available from the 1425 rpm motor (0.5 hp 3-phase ot 0/5 h.p and 0.75 hp 1-phase): 700, 1140, 1780 and 2850 rpm.
Although initially available with a wide range of accessories - mortising, planing, sawing, polishing, grinding, bandsaw and metal-turning compound slides - by the end of the production only the basic lathe was offered. The ML8 is often found fitted to a longer version of the braced pressed-steel stand offered for the Series 7 metal-turning lathes; a short bed version, the ML8S, was also produced, usually mounted on a simple underdrive stand in light angle iron with a pressed-steel top and complete with outboard bowl turning and a metal-working compound slide rest from the ML7.