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HLV-H 5C spindle wear

Veebee

Plastic
Joined
Oct 27, 2017
I've noticed that when I run my finger along the inside of the 5C taper, I can feel deformation that would line up with where the slots in the collet are. This strikes me as a decidedly bad thing. The collet alignment screw makes it so that the collets at least all sit where they should to hopefully negate most of it, but it's something that's begun to get under my skin over time. Just wondering if anyone ever encountered the same in a used Hardinge.

Victor
 
My HSL is like that and the ridges are pretty obvious. Looking at the front of the spindle nose I’m pretty sure it was used a lot for polishing in a former life.


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You can turn the taper with a PCD insert. A UK Hardinge rebuilder had a spare saddle with cross slide and compound set up for the job. It had a pair of jacking screws to fine-adjust the angle.
 
Yes, I have seen the three raised ridges in well-used spindles. Many Hardinge lathes were used in mass production, so it should not be surprising that some are worn. I suppose polishing would get more grit into the spindle than turning. Another common wear pattern is the rounded corner on the spindle nose, again from careless polishing.

I had one ESM59 (WWII-era turret lathe, precursor of the DSM59) headstock that had a spindle nose with three carbide inserts in the collet closing cone to prevent that sort of wear. I wonder if they made very many like that.

Larry
 
You can turn the taper with a PCD insert. A UK Hardinge rebuilder had a spare saddle with cross slide and compound set up for the job. It had a pair of jacking screws to fine-adjust the angle.

I have heard of folks using a small ID grinder used for cleaning up spindles like that. Also PCD inserts really should not be used on steel.
 
Well after you remove the ridges by grinding or turning get some collets with 4 slots into the mix (5ST).
On my production machines I always lube the collet taper with moly grease. It took years for the grinding marks to disappear in our purchased new Hardinge GT.

On the HLV-H we only make a couple of parts at a time and do not bother with lube on the collet taper.

We do have an old Tsugami that we added an Omniturn to it. I do not think its spindle is as hard as Hardinge's. It had very pronounced ridges. I took them (ridges only) out with a Foredom hand grinder when we replaced the spindle bearings. The untouched portion of the spindle taper is reasonably accurate and the touch up has lasted for 20+ years. The original wear may have been from polishing, who knows when you buy a used machine.
 
"I had one ESM59 (WWII-era turret lathe, precursor of the DSM59) headstock that had a spindle nose with three carbide inserts in the collet closing cone to prevent that sort of wear. I wonder if they made very many like that."

That is interesting, I had 2 HC chuckers, one had the ridges and wouldnt hold good run out.
The one I kept, had a pot chuck on it, and there were no ridges.

I used the chucker for Harley Davidson cylinder head parts, valve guides, shaping valve seat inserts, and more. A good spindle nose is important there.
 








 
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