Cataract swirl finish scraping?

[Billtodd]

I don't think my one is actually Hardinge , or at least not US Hardinge. I suspect it is a close copy, since basic size seem correct.

 

[TomBoctou]

" No telling what else might have been done to it in 100 years."

Yep, but I'd bet 20 bucks nobody machined off any butterfly frosting. Also it's low wear, the square form leadscrews have minimal backlash. It was with a lathe that was set up for an operation not using the compound.

Frosting doesn't have to be machined off, my experience is that it'd rather go away than stay. In the modern era it can be easily removed with a scotchbrite, in the old days the books recommended "oily waste" - steel wool. I recently used Eastwood's Rust Dissolver to clean a Stark compound that had minor surface rust - no abrasives. The scraping was still visible where the rust hadn't been but was gone from where the rust had been.

I'm less diplomatic than Larry. NOS means New Old Stock - the key part being new. If it's been damaged then it's not new.

 

[TomBoctou]

Apparently Hardinge did some amount of contract manufacturing, at lest in the early days - I have a microscope that's a repurposed opthalmoscope, with a rack & pinion that's labeled Hardinge Chicago.
Perhaps someone in the UK asked Hardinge to make some lathe parts for them? OP says "Everything that needs to be good is good, but it's as though they didn't have the time to add the finishing touches".
Maybe the original constructor of the lathe had the ability to make most of the lathe but contracted the more complicated compound to Hardinge?
I've seen a few examples of period pricing, my impression is that an equivalent lathe from Hardinge/Stark/Ames etc would have been mutiples of thousands of dollars in 1920's/30's dollars, so it's easy to imagine someone buying the important parts and making the easier parts.

 

[jim rozen]

Not all hardinge or cataract parts have that frosting.

 

[sjlarkin]

Engine turning / swirel finish , https://www.cratex.com/Products/Rubberized-Abrasives/Blocks-and-Sticks/Round-Sticks just another way

 

[jim rozen]

Ah, the sandpaper swirlies that Connoly looks down on....

 

[eKretz]

Yeah there may be one or two here who still think that they're the same thing.