Hardinge Conquest 42 Turret Oil Leak

[Jon Doell]

I am helping a customer purchase a 1992 Hardinge Conquest 42. This machine has not been used hard but has oil dripping from behind the turret plate as well as at the back of the turret housing on the tailstock side. I'd say a drip every couple of seconds. We have not torn into this yet to investigate. If anyone has worked on one of these turrets let me know what the common issues might be for leaks. Hopefully this turret doesn't require a complete rebuild. I see that Hardinge offers turret rebuild but I'm guessing that will cost more than this machine is worth potentially.

Thanks for any help.
Jon

 

[Ox]

Well, personally I am not sure what "rebuild" means, but your machine should git new seals. I've never done it in the machine, but I'm not saying that it couldn't be either?

The seals are not expensive, and the whole job is mostly just labor.

IDK what differences there are between the 42 and 51, but on the 51's there is 2 dowel pins that pin a doughnut and a doughnut hole together. This point is the cause of some slop in the turret. I make O/S pins to BEAT into the holes.

If they are sloppy, I will ream them out to a slightly larger size - just to round up the holes, and then beat in new pins. If they are not sloppy, but will come out easilly, just beat in new O/S pins.

I make new pins out of 4140Ph normally. These are drilled and tapped for removal.

But - again - I like them to be a "beat" fit, not just a nice press.
Again - this is a split hole.

If you have your own elbow grease, then this job is big, but not rocket science.
If you are buying a '92 machine and not expecting to run it all day/every day, and need to hire it done, buy a drum of hydro oil and drive on.


You will likely need to build some special tools during the process as well.


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[Jon Doell]

Thanks for that info, I think I am going to suggest he buy a drum of oil and just run it. He can run his entire year of production in one month and the turret seems to work fine.
Cheers.