I recently purchased a Hardinge HLV H lathe that was initended to be used as a workhorse.The idea was to use the lathe for all those big and dirty jobs while using my nearly pristine schaublin for the more accurate work. After using the hardinge lathe for a while I found that I was stating to use it more and more and eventually came to the conclusion that this was my lathe of choice.
The hardinge lathe is overall a much better toolroom lathe. Carriage speed control is superior and it's screw cutting ability is magical . I had considered installing a digital read out on the Scahublin but found that it was going to be very difficult due to its carriage design . The Hardinge lathe was already equiped with digital read out which I find to be a huge time saver
Although the lathe was in pretty good condition there were a few issues that I thought I better address. The fist was that the cross slide was a bit tight when turning very small diameters. The plan was to pull the cross slide apart clean adjust etc but one thing lead to the next and the lathe was very soon pulled apart.
The reason for the tight cross slide was hardinge in their wisdom used very hard wear strips ( glued down WTF!!!!! ) on the crossslide but if water based coolant is used these wear strip start to lift at the ends. Once they lift and particals get under you can not reglue it down.
I have no idea how these wearstrips were attached properly. The one strip that was not lifting when checked with a straight edge was not correct and this is not due to wear. I am not sure that this was a fantastic idea as it's not a replaceable item .
On one forum it was advised to check the hardinge lathe for this problem prior to purchasing. Always the expert after the event but still happy with my purchase as I will have a magnificent lathe at the end .
The lathe was eventually stripped right down to the point were the bed could be removed. Although the bed was not worn I did not like the small corrosion marks on the bed and decided that I might as well go the full hog and grind the bed. Unfortunately grinding the bed caused some headaches due to discrepancies in the amount of material removed. I was present during the grinding of the bed and was told 1 thou was removed . I thought that I must have made an error in my measurements of the bed thickness as I rechecked my measurements and thought only 1/2 a thou had been removed. Packing the bed up with a 1 thou shim caused the tail stock to be far too high.
I should have accurately measured the vertical alignment of the headstock and tailstock prior to dismantling. Tool room lathes such as a Hardinge may have a vertical misalignment of 0 to 0.8 of a thou (tailstock high) maximum.
With the 1 thou shim under the bed I was obtaining readings well in excess of the standards , that is when I started to check all dimensions.
The conclusion was the bed had only 1/2 a thou removed as I had thought. If the original vertical misalignment of the headstock and tail stock was more than that ground then there is no need to shim the bed. Reassembling the lathe and purchasing a edge tail stock aligning tool, my tailstock is only 0.2 of a thou high. This is well within the specs of a tool room lathe. The tailstock must have been originally 0.7 thou high which is still within the tolerances . Why I did not carry out alignment checks prior to pulling the lathe apart I have no idea.
I have noticed that there is some discussion on some websites about grinding the Hardinge bed and the consequences. The headstock of the Hardinge lathe does not sit on the bed. The headstock is bolted directly to the lathe frame. The top of the frame has been surface ground to take the hard steel bed while the area where the headstock is located has been had scraped for alignment purposes. The headstock has a tapered pin that is screwed in and pulls the headstock onto the side of the steel place hence ensuring horizontal alignement of the headstock to the bed and tailstock
I did pull the headstock apart with the intentions of replacing the bearings and getting the nose tapers ground. I am not sure if this was a good idea as discussions with the local agent sent shivers down my back in relation to correct procedure.
Basically return headstock to the USA for bearing replacement and grinding of tapers when assembled to get best results.
I can not measure any noticeable runout since work carried out but 1/10 thou dial gauge may not be accurate enough
The lathe is nearly complete just waiting for a remote oil pump. Decided to do away with the original Hardinge system .
The hardinge lathe is overall a much better toolroom lathe. Carriage speed control is superior and it's screw cutting ability is magical . I had considered installing a digital read out on the Scahublin but found that it was going to be very difficult due to its carriage design . The Hardinge lathe was already equiped with digital read out which I find to be a huge time saver
Although the lathe was in pretty good condition there were a few issues that I thought I better address. The fist was that the cross slide was a bit tight when turning very small diameters. The plan was to pull the cross slide apart clean adjust etc but one thing lead to the next and the lathe was very soon pulled apart.
The reason for the tight cross slide was hardinge in their wisdom used very hard wear strips ( glued down WTF!!!!! ) on the crossslide but if water based coolant is used these wear strip start to lift at the ends. Once they lift and particals get under you can not reglue it down.
I have no idea how these wearstrips were attached properly. The one strip that was not lifting when checked with a straight edge was not correct and this is not due to wear. I am not sure that this was a fantastic idea as it's not a replaceable item .
On one forum it was advised to check the hardinge lathe for this problem prior to purchasing. Always the expert after the event but still happy with my purchase as I will have a magnificent lathe at the end .
The lathe was eventually stripped right down to the point were the bed could be removed. Although the bed was not worn I did not like the small corrosion marks on the bed and decided that I might as well go the full hog and grind the bed. Unfortunately grinding the bed caused some headaches due to discrepancies in the amount of material removed. I was present during the grinding of the bed and was told 1 thou was removed . I thought that I must have made an error in my measurements of the bed thickness as I rechecked my measurements and thought only 1/2 a thou had been removed. Packing the bed up with a 1 thou shim caused the tail stock to be far too high.
I should have accurately measured the vertical alignment of the headstock and tailstock prior to dismantling. Tool room lathes such as a Hardinge may have a vertical misalignment of 0 to 0.8 of a thou (tailstock high) maximum.
With the 1 thou shim under the bed I was obtaining readings well in excess of the standards , that is when I started to check all dimensions.
The conclusion was the bed had only 1/2 a thou removed as I had thought. If the original vertical misalignment of the headstock and tail stock was more than that ground then there is no need to shim the bed. Reassembling the lathe and purchasing a edge tail stock aligning tool, my tailstock is only 0.2 of a thou high. This is well within the specs of a tool room lathe. The tailstock must have been originally 0.7 thou high which is still within the tolerances . Why I did not carry out alignment checks prior to pulling the lathe apart I have no idea.
I have noticed that there is some discussion on some websites about grinding the Hardinge bed and the consequences. The headstock of the Hardinge lathe does not sit on the bed. The headstock is bolted directly to the lathe frame. The top of the frame has been surface ground to take the hard steel bed while the area where the headstock is located has been had scraped for alignment purposes. The headstock has a tapered pin that is screwed in and pulls the headstock onto the side of the steel place hence ensuring horizontal alignement of the headstock to the bed and tailstock
I did pull the headstock apart with the intentions of replacing the bearings and getting the nose tapers ground. I am not sure if this was a good idea as discussions with the local agent sent shivers down my back in relation to correct procedure.
Basically return headstock to the USA for bearing replacement and grinding of tapers when assembled to get best results.
I can not measure any noticeable runout since work carried out but 1/10 thou dial gauge may not be accurate enough
The lathe is nearly complete just waiting for a remote oil pump. Decided to do away with the original Hardinge system .
