aschafer14
Plastic
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2018
So I came across on older Hardinge HLV at an auction and decided to pull the trigger. I got it for $750 which I felt was too good to pass up and now I am trying to decide if its worth bringing back to life.
The good news
The bad news
So as it stands I have a full manual machine that I know was up and running at an aerospace shop. However it looks like it was pretty poorly taken care of, lots of little knobs and bolts that have been crudely replaced.
I have a feeling finding the power feed carriage parts are going to be next to impossible unless the newer HLV-H parts are cross-compatible.
I should know more once I get it in my garage Friday but wanted to get this up to see if anyone else might see something I didn't or has any suggestions on other things to dive into and check on Friday.
The good news
- I saw it run fwd/rev high low speed (didn't see it cut chips though).
- It came with a full set of collets plus extra tooling, centers, drill chucks and some hex collets.
- It came with the taper attachment and the steady rest.
- Carriage moves nicely in working area started to get tight towards the end of the bed though, crossing my fingers its more due to the surface rust/grime than needing a re-grind.
The bad news
- Carriage feed motor and cross slide clutch lever/housing lever were nowhere to be found.
- Collet closer has been rigged with some tape and zip ties - not sure what the issue is here.
- Headstock has some sort of repair, also not sure what they did there.
- Carriage lock not functioning, can pull straight out.
So as it stands I have a full manual machine that I know was up and running at an aerospace shop. However it looks like it was pretty poorly taken care of, lots of little knobs and bolts that have been crudely replaced.
I have a feeling finding the power feed carriage parts are going to be next to impossible unless the newer HLV-H parts are cross-compatible.
I should know more once I get it in my garage Friday but wanted to get this up to see if anyone else might see something I didn't or has any suggestions on other things to dive into and check on Friday.