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What's a hardinge dv 59 used for?

Forrest Silas

Aluminum
Joined
Mar 31, 2005
Location
Clanton Alabama
I bought a dv 59 several years ago because It came with a ton of 5c collets and tooling, cheap. I wanted the collets for anther lathe. I played with it some because it was new, and it has been collecting dust ever since. What are these lathes actually used for?
 
Since you have not posted pictures of what you have, I will present a thumb nail sketch for you.

A DV-59 comes with a compound and a tail stock.
Very useful for low volumes of smaller parts, Second op work following a CNC first op etc.

Now if you have the lever cross slide and 6 position turret, you now have a small turret lathe a DSM-59.

These machines are very versatile.
It is common to find the machine with the other tooling from the model badge, as in DSM tooling on a machine with a DV-59 label.

I posted a bunch of links in post #14 in this thread, covering tooling and setups for the DSM-59 and it's clones.

Bill
 
Thanks. I actually tried to post a pic but I couldn't figure out how. I have the cross slide and tail stock. I understand how a turret would be useful. I wish I had one with tooling. I don't understand what advantage the cross slide model has over a regular lathe with a collet closer. My other lathes will do anything that this one will, and a lot more. I know these lathes were very expensive when new, and hardinge sold a lot of them, so they must be good for something. I'm trying to figure out what I'm missing.
 
The short answer is that they do manual turning, facing and boring with greater precision than the average engine lathe. When in good condition, they can do a surface finish that you could mistake for grinding. The spindle speed goes from 230 to 3500 RPM, much higher than larger engine lathes, so it is suited for fairly small work. And the spindle and bearings are much more precise than most engine lathes, and have the advantage of the 5C collets riding directly in that precision spindle, with no adapter to add runout.

Larry
 
What are these lathes actually used for?

These days, "discussion" mostly.

"BC(NC)" - when Hardinge was still king.... if a firm needed 500,000 itty-bitty spacers or bushings a year, they sent-off for "Swiss screw machine" or a B&S "Automatic" quote. Then waited.

If they only needed 50,000, and/or SOON? They bought one of these, tooled it, sat a bored min-wage housewife or HS kid at it, and made the whole lot in a week or three, then idled it and re-assigned the operator to, for example, soldering transistors into PCB's. Or re-tooled and made 10,000 to 50,000 of some other wee widget.

Not all the jobs that went to CNC, China, or Mexico are actually MISSED, BTW..

DAMHIKT, but, "Oh, BTW", min-wage for that s**t was 88 cents an hour, so management liked Hardinge a great deal more than we did.
 
L Vanice, indeed, I have noticed the great finish with this machine. The few times that I have used it were when I needed high rpm for turning small parts.

Thermite, I suspected it was something like that. I won't be making 50,000 of anything. I don't think this machine has done production work. I disassembled the slides for cleaning and did not see any wear.

I was thinking I ought to get rid of it since I don't use it. Now I'm getting interested in it. I'll try to figure out a use for it. Maybe a precision brass trimmer for reloading rifle rounds.

Thanks for the replies.
 
Thermite, I suspected it was something like that. I won't be making 50,000 of anything. I don't think this machine has done production work. I disassembled the slides for cleaning and did not see any wear.
It might have done in an earlier life. That Aloris-type QCTP instead of the VAST selection in the "Hardinge system" hints it was re-purposed by a hobbyist or a small biz with a limited-range of needs.

Picture it with lever-operated cross and TS tooling - including a geometric die-head for making and threading tiny #000-124 screws off stainless steel rod @ 5,000 - 5,500 RPM (special-ordered with an 8,000 RPM max..).

Operator BARELY flicks the wrist for turning each part, then operates the front-lever collet, repeat until the quitting bell sounds-off... or madness sets in. That was late 1950's / early 1960's "Automated production" - run off the sweaty hands of a "CNC" machine made of repetition-conditioned MEAT.

I'll try to figure out a use for it. Maybe a precision brass trimmer for reloading rifle rounds.

A bespoke case trimmer is better for case trimming, and takes up less space.

Two ways to go on one of these;

- sell it to he who actually has at least part-time work for it as what it is, and buy something you need more.

- Convert it to a general-purpose "instrument" lathe by going onto - just one example, Ebay, searching on "Hardinge" no other modifiers, and sort out what goodies you can use to increase it's features. You CAN end-up with a bitchin' nice and far more flexible platform for all sorts of small odds and sods. It will still not be it's bigger cousin, a real "toolroom" lathe, though.

Have a care! Hardinge tooling can be addictive!

Even when hanging "Hardinge System" goodies onto a Monarch 10EE (guilty!) one can buy multiple THOUSANDS of dollars worth of such neat and clever-handy treasures.
 
These days, "discussion" mostly.

"BC(NC)" - when Hardinge was still king.... if a firm needed 500,000 itty-bitty spacers or bushings a year, they sent-off for "Swiss screw machine" or a B&S "Automatic" quote. Then waited.

If they only needed 50,000, and/or SOON? They bought one of these, tooled it, sat a bored min-wage housewife or HS kid at it, and made the whole lot in a week or three, then idled it and re-assigned the operator to, for example, soldering transistors into PCB's. Or re-tooled and made 10,000 to 50,000 of some other wee widget.

Not all the jobs that went to CNC, China, or Mexico are actually MISSED, BTW..

DAMHIKT, but, "Oh, BTW", min-wage for that s**t was 88 cents an hour, so management liked Hardinge a great deal more than we did.

The above is probably quite accurate if in reference to a DSM-59 turret lathe. I have an ESM-59, the WWII-era previous model turret lathe and have enjoyed making a few thousand assorted neat little parts for a local gun factory. Some of the parts were complex, with knurling and both internal and external threads. I think I might have averaged around 300 parts an hour on most of the parts. You also have to shove in a fresh bar occasionally, you know. But I have put the turret and lever cross slide on a shelf and have only used the slide rest and crank tailstock for the last few decades. No way could I make 10,000 parts turning cranks by hand for a week, and it would be a very simple small part that I could make that fast with the turret.

Larry
 
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Dv 59

I bought a dv 59 several years ago because It came with a ton of 5c collets and tooling, cheap. I wanted the collets for anther lathe. I played with it some because it was new, and it has been collecting dust ever since. What are these lathes actually used for?

usually model or hobbyist work or protoype work. an excellent lathe but no single point threading as you are aware.. Once had one also and would have loved to keep but ran out of shop space. Had to have room for the more productive models. in my one man shop i have 2 DSM 59s. 1 HC chucker w/thd., 1 AHC auto w/thd (thats my moneymaker), 2 late HLV-H, 1 HLV-H I/M. But now I need to let go of one of the HLV-H due to semi retirement.
 
Have a care! Hardinge tooling can be addictive!

Ha no kidding, this came with some tooling but it seems to multiply out of control:

DSM4.jpg


DSM3.jpg


ESM59_4.jpg


hardinge_tp2.JPG


Purchased almost sight unseen from a local factory, this had all kinds of cool stuff including
both the toolmakers compound and the ordinary tailstock, both in original cosmoline. Right
hand shelves had all kinds of items.
 
Since you have not posted pictures of what you have, I will present a thumb nail sketch for you.

A DV-59 comes with a compound and a tail stock.
Very useful for low volumes of smaller parts, Second op work following a CNC first op etc.

Now if you have the lever cross slide and 6 position turret, you now have a small turret lathe a DSM-59.

These machines are very versatile.
It is common to find the machine with the other tooling from the model badge, as in DSM tooling on a machine with a DV-59 label.

I posted a bunch of links in post #14 in this thread, covering tooling and setups for the DSM-59 and it's clones.

Bill

During the latter part of my apprenticeship and later as a fully skilled Hardinge UK fitter I made about 340 of these delightful machines. I considered them to be my 'bread and butter'. They were a delight to use for small batch production as a DSM 59, or 2nd operation, or one-off specials as a stand alone DV 59. I was so happy with them that I copied the basic design and made my own version in later life from solid bits of cast iron, steel bar/section etc, but with a fully operating carriage like the HLV-H/KL-1. Pity I never got as far as to make a gearbox etc for screw threading, or a variable speed mechanism, mine turns 125 to 3000rpm by stepped speed pulleys from a small single phase reversing motor, but it does most of what I want to do with reliable precision.
 
...
Picture it with lever-operated cross and TS tooling - including a geometric die-head for making and threading tiny #000-124 screws off stainless steel rod @ 5,000 - 5,500 RPM (special-ordered with an 8,000 RPM max..).
....

Looks like this (OK, this is a split-bed, not a dovetail bed machine):

DSM1.jpg


The same lathe, set up as the one shown above:

ESM59_1.jpg


The hardinge spindles are nice. The tailstock in particular, has slop between the ram and the TS casting, that requires a tenths-reading indicator to just *barely* see.
 








 
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