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Refurbishing a couple of HLV-EM lathes...

CaryC

Aluminum
Joined
Sep 22, 2020
I have decided that I am going to refurbish both of my EM lathes.

I will start by saying that they are both in really good mechanical condition, they cut nice, run smooth and are quiet. The beds are literally perfect, you cannot feel any grooves or wear with your fingernail or see any gouges. Everything moves nice without play. One of the machines was missing the carriage motor when I bought it, so I got another from Babin Machine.

There are a few small things that need to be addressed, such as the tailstock on one of them sticks occasionally when dialing it in or out and the paint is worn on both machines. One of them had an "ok" paint job in the past which is not peeling or chipping, just not up to the quality that I want.

The goal is not to replace every component, it is to go through the machine and anything that is worn, broken, or missing get it replaced. Break it down to the major components so that I can do a proper paint job. New labels, belts etc to bring it close to "factory fresh" without spending a year and more money than they are worth.

I am doing this out of an already crowded 3-car garage, and my wife wants her parking space back, so I will be investing a lot of time over the next month!

I thought I would post this so hopefully it helps someone in the future who is working on their machine. I am simply following the Hardinge Maintenance manual so there are no secrets here, so for the most part I will just show pics, but I will try to explain any areas that were not clear to me in the manual.

With that said, here I go!

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I started by tearing down both tailstocks, I figured this was an easy thing to start with.


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A broken key for the handle that needs to be replaced.

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Pretty sure this was the tailstock sticking issue, the key on the right is badly worn.

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Due to a lack of space, all of the parts that don't need repainting will be stored in drawers and bagged. I will attend to them during the reassembly process. This will leave me more garage space for the bigger items.

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Now for the gearboxes

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For removing them there is a screw deep in the box that you access through a hole. The manual says you need a piece of barstock (Which I couldn't find) or a long hex key...I looked and didn't see one at any of my local stores.

I cut an Allen wrench and hot glued it into a socket that was small enough to go through the hole, used an extension and it worked great.

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The manual says you need to remove this locknut...you don't. I bought a spanner tool to take it off, but in the end everything comes apart with it in place.

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Gearboxes off

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This is the one that was repainted...Did these come in green from the factory or is this a primer?

Or green over the factory grey?

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Time for the headstock...there are quite a few steps to removing it, but pretty much straight forward.

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The carriage power feed was next.

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Then the rear bracket was removed so that I could remove the feed screw.

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Now for the carriage removal...for some reason this is not in the manual.

Not knowing how heavy it is I didn't want to just pull it off causing possible damage. I threaded eye bolts through the wiper screw locations, them put a piece of 7/16 all thread through the eyes. Added some nuts and washers to keep the straps from slipping. I loosened the gib screw so that the carriage moves easily. After running it off of the rack it can be pulled to the end.

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I can get the carriage 75% of the way off the bed then it sticks and won't budge, I can't see what holding it up. I did try to adjust the gib but that did not help. I also tried different amounts of lifting with the straps to make sure it was not binding by being too high or too low.

Any suggestions? Am I missing something?:confused:
 
My guess it is imperfect alignment. I would have pulled everything off the carriage to get the weight down plus the gib to make it slide easier and prevent alignment binding.

This operation is not covered in the maintenance manual?
 
My guess it is imperfect alignment. I would have pulled everything off the carriage to get the weight down plus the gib to make it slide easier and prevent alignment binding.

This operation is not covered in the maintenance manual?

I'll go that route. For some reason this is not covered in the manual...but strangely even the gearbox rebuild is. Once the parts are off, is it manageable by hand?
 
Never done it on an HLVH, but on other stuff getting the excess weight off is an important part of getting apart in the first place and reassembling later without damaging stuff. Making room by pulling the gib just makes things easier, again without damage.
 
I have decided that I am going to refurbish both of my EM lathes.

I will start by saying that they are both in really good mechanical condition, they cut nice, run smooth and are quiet. The beds are literally perfect, you cannot feel any grooves or wear with your fingernail or see any gouges. Everything moves nice without play. One of the machines was missing the carriage motor when I bought it, so I got another from Babin Machine.
]

So why the need to take them apart? I don't see what your going to accomplish. You risk damaging the teflon on the carriage, you'll have to realign the headstock, etc etc, and assuming your dissambling both lathes your without an HLV for the forseeable future.
 
So why the need to take them apart? I don't see what your going to accomplish. You risk damaging the teflon on the carriage, you'll have to realign the headstock, etc etc, and assuming your dissambling both lathes your without an HLV for the forseeable future.


ideally, it would be to do a complete inspection, repair and rebuild. I have an idea that the OP is planning to do a grey-paint rebuild...
 
My guess it is imperfect alignment. I would have pulled everything off the carriage to get the weight down plus the gib to make it slide easier and prevent alignment binding.

This operation is not covered in the maintenance manual?


I agree. Remove as much as possible and lighten it up.
The carriage is probably tilting and wedging
Tear it all down first, most of which is covered in the maintenance manual.
 








 
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