Hardinge HLV lathe info needed.

griff25-06 · Jan 22, 2022

Just bought a Hardinge lathe and need a bit of info:

There is no gears for threading, what do I need? see pics.

Also there is a few attachments that I am not sure of:

I presume this is a radius cutter

bracket of some description, same colour as the lathe, so obviously Hardinge.

Any info would be much appreciated, would like to be able to cut both metric and imperial..

L Vanice · Jan 22, 2022

The lathe is an HLV model (5" wide dovetail bed) with hand crank spindle speed control which was made from about 1950 to 1955.

You need a bracket and change gears to cut 10 TPI and unusual inch and all metric pitch threads. The parts for doing 10 TPI were included with the lathe when new but often get lost over time. There was a different, extra cost, bracket and gear set for cutting metric threads. I have the bracket and gear set for 10 TPI on the 1960 and later HLV-H (7" wide bed), but do not know if it fits the older model.

That is a Hardinge radius cutting attachment, but I cannot tell from the picture if it fits your lathe. The RTA for the DV-59 (3" wide bed) lathes looks the same from that angle.

The gray assembly is the follow rest for your lathe. The unpainted thing is shop made.

I understand that HLV lathes were made in the UK and have serial numbers in a separate series from the USA-built lathes. From about 1955 to 1960, the speed control was done with a pushbutton box above the headstock. In 1960, the new and improved HLV-H was introduced.

Did you look here? Early Hardinge HLV Lathe
Manual reprint here: Hardinge HLV Lathe Data Pack (Original version with narrower bed) | store.lathes.co.uk

Here is a picture of the 10 TPI set. You had to buy extra gears to cut unusual inch threads, but they fit the same bracket and gear studs.

Larry

Peter. · Jan 22, 2022

L Vanice said:
The lathe is an HLV model (5" wide dovetail bed) with hand crank spindle speed control which was made from about 1950 to 1955.

Larry that model was still produced in the UK into the 60's. My own had a 1957 patent date on the motor.

L Vanice · Jan 22, 2022

Peter. said:
Larry that model was still produced in the UK into the 60's. My own had a 1957 patent date on the motor.

Did the UK plant adopt the electric speed control (pushbuttons above the headstock) around 1955 or so, like the USA plant? Tony just says that feature was on the later models without guessing a date (1955 is my guess).

Here is the USA HLV/TFB serial number list. I based my 1955 guess on the serial numbers adding the -3 suffix, indicating an important design change. The list indicates that HLV production stopped at 3088-4 in 1960. The HLV-H model serial numbers started with 100 in 1960.

Larry

Peter. · Jan 22, 2022

L Vanice said:
Did the UK plant adopt the electric speed control (pushbuttons above the headstock) around 1955 or so, like the USA plant?

Larry

I don't kow if there is any overlap in the models but I will look to see if I can find my reference. I do believe that I figured my machine to be 1960/61 I will see if I can find that reference also for you.

Peter. · Jan 22, 2022

Larry, please check out these 4 postings from an ex-Hardinge UK tech, he states the HLV as being in production up to 1962 in the UK:

Model Engineer

griff25-06 · Jan 22, 2022

L Vanice said:
The lathe is an HLV model (5" wide dovetail bed) with hand crank spindle speed control which was made from about 1950 to 1955.

You need a bracket and change gears to cut 10 TPI and unusual inch and all metric pitch threads. The parts for doing 10 TPI were included with the lathe when new but often get lost over time. There was a different, extra cost, bracket and gear set for cutting metric threads. I have the bracket and gear set for 10 TPI on the 1960 and later HLV-H (7" wide bed), but do not know if it fits the older model.

That is a Hardinge radius cutting attachment, but I cannot tell from the picture if it fits your lathe. The RTA for the DV-59 (3" wide bed) lathes looks the same from that angle.

The gray assembly is the follow rest for your lathe. The unpainted thing is shop made.

I understand that HLV lathes were made in the UK and have serial numbers in a separate series from the USA-built lathes. From about 1955 to 1960, the speed control was done with a pushbutton box above the headstock. In 1960, the new and improved HLV-H was introduced.

Did you look here? Early Hardinge HLV Lathe
Manual reprint here: Hardinge HLV Lathe Data Pack (Original version with narrower bed) | store.lathes.co.uk

Here is a picture of the 10 TPI set. You had to buy extra gears to cut unusual inch threads, but they fit the same bracket and gear studs.

View attachment 340280

Larry

Hi Larry,
thankyou for that, the radius cutter fits the lathe, so no worries there.The gears are my main worry you show a picture of the banjo with 2 gears but there must be other gears, or have I got this wrong..

Dick Streff · Jan 22, 2022

griff25-06 said:
Hi Larry,
thankyou for that, the radius cutter fits the lathe, so no worries there.The gears are my main worry you show a picture of the banjo with 2 gears but there must be other gears, or have I got this wrong..

You only need the banjo and supplementary gears to cut threads outside the range of what is indicated on your gearbox. Those are all taken care of internally.

Dick

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Peter. · Jan 22, 2022

You can use other gears to get different threads but if you want to cut metric threads the Hardinge way there is a different style of banjo. There are some solutions for doing it with the stock banjo which give very close pitches.

On the UK machines the gears are 22DP 20PA.

griff25-06 · Jan 22, 2022

Dick Streff said:
You only need the banjo and supplementary gears to cut threads outside the range of what is indicated on your gearbox. Those are all taken care of internally.

Dick

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi Dick,
you say supplementary gears,the banjo only has 2,as per the picture, does the right hand one drive the left hand one or visa versa, and do I only need the two gears on the banjo, as I have seen this picture.

Sorry dick didn't read your post properly, are you saying I can still cut threads without the gears on the picture?

L Vanice · Jan 22, 2022

griff25-06 said:
Hi Larry,
thankyou for that, the radius cutter fits the lathe, so no worries there.The gears are my main worry you show a picture of the banjo with 2 gears but there must be other gears, or have I got this wrong..

The standard bracket and gear set for cutting 10 TPI has three gears. There is a little one hiding behind one of the big ones.

Larry

Dick Streff · Jan 22, 2022

griff25-06 said:
Hi Dick,
you say supplementary gears,the banjo only has 2,as per the picture, does the right hand one drive the left hand one or visa versa, and do I only need the two gears on the banjo, as I have seen this picture.View attachment 340295

Sorry dick didn't read your post properly, are you saying I can still cut threads without the gears on the picture?

Anything that is on the placard on the gearbox doesn’t need supplementary gears on the outboard end.

And if you do have a banjo and gears to cut an imperial or metric thread outside the range shown on the placard, you take the 10 change selector lever out of gear and only use the 3 change selector knob.

Dick

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

rons · Jan 24, 2022

griff25-06 said:
View attachment 340295

This is a metric gear box. Hardinge sold these for $995 (US). The gears supplied would allow for common pitches. The banjo has to be removed if you want to cut English threads.

I also have a banjo for using gears so that I can get a lot of different not so standard threads. That means removing the metric box and then placing the English banjo
on the shaft with gears.

In more than 20 years that English banjo has been in a drawer. All the threads on the existing gear box have been adequate for my needs. If you get a older HLV/HLV-H
manual you will find gear charts to get at those not so common pitches. Again, it's a nice research project to find out how this stuff works but in real life I have
never used that English banjo. In fact, I remember that when I did buy the metric box kit the additional banjo (which I am calling English) came in the kit. I thought
the order folks made a mistake by adding the extra banjo. Still confused about that.

Billtodd · Jan 25, 2022

griff25-06 said:
Hi Dick,
you say supplementary gears,the banjo only has 2,as per the picture, does the right hand one drive the left hand one or visa versa, and do I only need the two gears on the banjo, as I have seen this picture.View attachment 340295

Sorry dick didn't read your post properly, are you saying I can still cut threads without the gears on the picture?

That's my lathe set up to cut some unholy thread so careful what you copy 8-) I use myford gears which although large dp fit the shatfs perfectly.

To add to the confusion or maybe clarify :you will don't need any banjo or gears to cut threads that are on the gear box. Any other threads will need gears and one of two types of banjo. So called metric and the normally suppied English or inch.

The banjo in the picture allows my inch lathe to cut metric, or as shown in the picture , cut a low tpi thread (whats happening in the picture is the upper left gear is driving the upper right via two idlers with a couple of spacers , it is using the 'metric banjo' because that's what was required to get the gears to fit and work). The metric banjo steps the change gears away from the plane of the input and output gears to allow a large 127 tooth to fit.

The inch banjo, uses four gears one output , one input and two idlers to connect them (the in and out rotate in opposite directions) .

One other oddity about the hlvh is that the output shaft is running at 5/4 s the spindle speed , so although the lead screw on my inch lathe is actually 8tpi , one calculates the gears as if it is a 10tpi screw , so careful how you calculate metric threads!.

Bill

Kiwi_007 · Feb 6, 2022

griff25-06 said:
Just bought a Hardinge lathe and need a bit of info:

There is no gears for threading, what do I need? see pics.View attachment 340271

Also there is a few attachments that I am not sure of:

View attachment 340273 I presume this is a radius cutter

View attachment 340274 bracket of some description, same colour as the lathe, so obviously Hardinge.

View attachment 340275

Any info would be much appreciated, would like to be able to cut both metric and imperial..

That is the first HLV I've seen with dials that look like what my HLV had, what is the serial number?

Kiwi

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Hardinge HLV lathe info needed.

griff25-06

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L Vanice

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Peter.

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L Vanice

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Peter.

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Peter.

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griff25-06

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Dick Streff

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Peter.

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griff25-06

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L Vanice

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Dick Streff

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rons

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Billtodd

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Kiwi_007

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