Hardinge Split Bed - advice please

I went to look at a split bed DV-59 over the weekend. The cross slide is a model R, the cutoff is a model 7. The spindle taper, both inside and out were a little rough, not gouged, but worn, slight corrosion. I couldn't run it, and so didn't get to hear the bearings. The cross slide is not the original, but is set up for the dovetail bed. The cross slide has 0.006" backlash, the compound backlash is undetectable. No detectable play in the tailstock barrel. One concern was the bed scraping; all surfaces of the bed were covered with small "dimples", say 0.020" by 0.002" deep - is this the original scraping? Also, can that cross slide be adapted to the split bed? There were three or four pulleys from motor to countershaft, also a lever for high/low speed, but I couldn't tell exactly how that lever worked. I posted regarding this lathe on the Yahoo group prior to looking at it and Larry Vanice dated it to late 1941. The seller wants $450; am I walking into a money pit?

Paul

I think I have explained that there is no such thing as a split bed DV59. It is a TR59 or ESM59.

The motor should be a two-speed three phase. If it is 240V, it is easy to run from RPC or VFD. If it is single phase or a higher voltage, you need a new motor.

The slide rest may be correct for a TR, but modified for a different lathe. It needs a sliding bed locator on the bottom which seems to be missing. It needs a bed clamp assembly, as shown in the picture. Most of those slide rests I have bought turn out to be very worn and abused. I have rebuilt some, but it is a lot of work and new parts are no longer available.

The price is OK considering the value of the parts and tooling. New bearings cost a few hundred bucks and are tricky to install.

Larry

In the 2nd picture, you can see the "pock" marks that cover the bed; is that how they were originally scraped?

Here is an example of original Hardinge scraping. You can find the original scraping when you remove the headstock from a bed that has never been redone.

Larry

Thank you Larry - unfortunately, the bed on this thing bears no resemblance to that. It looks like someone took a ball peen hammer to it.

I can't really tell from the photos but it's unlikely that the vintage machine you have, ever had
the butterfly frosting as seen on larry's machine.

More likely it was shipped with a plain ground finish on the bed, as mine was. But there were
no pockmarks there. This sounds like wear that accumulated over many years of use.

But a better photo detailing the bed condition might help with a conclusion.

Appreciate you taking a look at this Jim. I ended up passing on it, finally coming to grips with the fact that I don't really have time for another "project" at this point, much less space for another machine. Not to mention the unknowns in dealing with a machine that was quite unfamiliar to me.