I'll start a new thread when I actually have this lathe in its new home..
Meanwhile.. trying to flesh-out what to me was a mystery - why it had not sold already a year or two ago..
A) The 'smoked' main-drive motor: Had anyone bothered to contact Don, they'd have found that the motor itself may not be damaged at all.
Seems it came in his door with either a soft-start or static phase converter gadget attached. He has sources of useful 3-Phase, no need of such crutches.
The sparks 'drama' occurred when he tried to bypass that device at the motor's peckerhead so he could make a video of the HBX actually running. There's a better than even chance the sparks affected only some shorted leads, not the motor windings. Even so, the way it is mounted makes conversion to some other motor not all that difficult.
B) The missing parts of the 'power' option on the tailstock:
Henri Bruet, "the younger" did the original design of the HB lathes as his University Graduate Thesis. Clever ideas would have earned academic points from Professors, whether they made sense in a real-world production lathe or not.
OTOH, as his Dad, Henri Bruet "the elder" was the works manager who took over Cazeneuve and carried it through the Great Depression, then World War two, we can presume neither Bruet was lacking in practical experience.
This device, I'd rate as borderline useless, and have told Don that had the previous owner not removed it already, I'd do so myself.
The issue is that it is geared 2:1. If one needs to power the TS ram into and out of even a two-inch deep bore, the carriage has to have favourable location and travel enough to move FOUR inches. On a lathe with but 30" or a bit less c-to-c, before HS workholding AND TS toolholding is deducted, that happy coincidence is not often assured.
Usually better to drill directly from the carriage, TS simply slid out of the way..
C) Proprietary combined hydraulic pump and coolant pump missing from the arse-end of the final drive motor:
It should probably never have been there in the first place. It should certainly not have been combined. ONE hydraulic pump was not a good idea.
Problem here is that the single hydraulic pump fed all of:
1) The costly, superprecision spindle bearings.
2) The 'special' carriage and its complex geartrain
3) The recirculating ball, not threaded, leadscrew/surfacing drive via it's enclosed sealed, telescoping tube.
4) The actuators for the Vari-Drive sheave movement mechanism.
5) Other points in selective geartrains
What is wrong with this picture is the 'fretting corrosion' AKA friction wear, occurs at many points. Leaks can occur at even more.
The shared dual-use hydraulic-actuation + lubrication circulating system cannot guarantee that the precious spindle bearings are not put at risk from particulates originating in the cheaper seats.
At a minimum, the critical spindle bearing lube circulation should be isolated to its own pump, reservoir, filter, and plumbing.
Better yet, the precision ballscrew and the costly and complex gearing in the apron should also be severed from the vari-drive actuator hydraulics.
Particulates aside, separate systems reduce risk that leaks in one system could cause all others to go dry.
And, of course, coolant pumps are simple creatures that don't require mechanical integration with a main drive motor at all, even less in an arrangement that might rely on seals preventing their juice and adjacently pumped lube/hydraulic oil mixing, either direction.
So.. three not one, electrically-driven 'oil' pumps and filters are now on my shopping list. Coolant pumps I have aplenty already.
Looking forward to a very good lathe with not a great deal to have to fix.
Greedy enough to be pleased that no one else
had bought it first!
Probably to our advantage to go and have a look at:
Welcome to Procyon Machine - Specializing in CNC Machine Tools...
More often.
Most especially when Don pops up in a PM thread about something exotic he has gotten his hands on. He doesn't keep
all of the toys. Sometimes he sells them and goes after other interesting ones to drool over!
Grateful I don't have his job. I'd
never sell.
I'd starve to death out of coveting stuff first!
More as it transpires...