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American hmt lathe

kpotter

Diamond
Joined
Apr 30, 2001
Location
tucson arizona usa
Do any of you own the American lathe that was produced by the company hmt? It has a dial type gear selector are they trouble? The lathe was made in India I dont think they are very common in the US. Is the lathe any good. I was offered one it looks like a decent machine but it is not powered up and the gear selector concerns me I have worked on the hydroshift lathes and other oddball dreams of some rogue mechanical engineer, I want to avoid that I have enough work without messing with a bad design.
 
If you mean the American Pacesetter, I had one once. Never used it much (since it was for sale) and the all metric dials were slightly annoying, but it seemed well made and a pleasant overall design. I believe HMT stands for Hindu Machine Tool, which sounds ominous but my impression is their machines were probably ok in general.
 
Do any of you own the American lathe that was produced by the company hmt? It has a dial type gear selector are they trouble? The lathe was made in India I dont think they are very common in the US. Is the lathe any good. I was offered one it looks like a decent machine but it is not powered up and the gear selector concerns me I have worked on the hydroshift lathes and other oddball dreams of some rogue mechanical engineer, I want to avoid that I have enough work without messing with a bad design.


Ray Benher has a Pacecetter lathe made out of casting cast by HMT... Some photo's of it here http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/general/angle-cuts-manual-lathe-228282/

HMT also made their own copy of the Pacesetter.
 
HMT made a copy of the french Ernault Somua model Chollet
And they did a decent job

Peter from holland
17447_img_0004_1.jpg
 
Yup, RC is correct. I've got a 20 x 80. It's an absolutely accurate machine. In the ten years I've had it, the only problem was a bridge rectifier fritzed out on me. Don't know, but was told all the guts in the headstock were made in Cincinnati. They are big beautifullly done gears and clutches, so maybe so. All electrical is made in the states. One great thing is the dropouts for long and crossfeed. Dead accurate to the thou. Shift the electric clutches on the fly. Up or down. 1400 - 250 in hi, 180 - 32 in low. She is a noisy bitch, though. Couple of stupid things in my opinion are: The tailstock didn't have a crank...hand slide only. Plus the taper in the tailstock is only 4 MT. I could live with the 4 MT, but sliding 300+ pounds of TS really sucked. Very nice, in my opinion.
To bad you live so far from here. I'd be glad to show it to you. If you should decide that it's worth buying, let me know if you have any questions. I'd be glad to help.
 
I had one that I was going to rebuild. It had missing gears in the feed gear train and many numerous other problems. Ended up scraping it. I do have a copy of the manual. I would send it to you for postage.
Adam
 
To add: My American 'may' be called a "Pacesetter", but no where on it or in the manual does it state that. It's simply called: Model A24UP. Nor does it have the confusing metric dials that Milicron talks about. This one may be older or newer than that. This is a 1977 model. It has easy to understand gear change charts. Another excellent feature is the instantaneous electric braking. Great for the dreaded metric thread chasing. All controls are on the headstock, but I ran a cable to a box on the cross slide to control the brake and start switch. I know at least some of this lathe was assembled in Cinci, but don't know to what extent. It was somewhat made by: Hindustan Mach. Tools Ltd. in Bangalore, India. This lathe came from CEI. Cleveland Electric Illuminating, where it collected dust for 30 years. It's still new!
 
This lathe is far from new it has had a hard life in an industrial maintenance shop. I am real concerned about the gear shifting, handles make sense I can adjust and make new parts electric gizmos scare me. I cant see this thing run it is on a trailer and has not run for several years. The price is 1500 bucks probably close to scrap? I will take a close look at it and decide.
 
This lathe is far from new it has had a hard life in an industrial maintenance shop. I am real concerned about the gear shifting, handles make sense I can adjust and make new parts electric gizmos scare me. I cant see this thing run it is on a trailer and has not run for several years. The price is 1500 bucks probably close to scrap? I will take a close look at it and decide.
Yikes...I could sort of see buying it if it was pristine and ready to use...but another project...I don't get it...don't you have product to get out the door, m'man ?
 
HMT manual

Adam
I'm struggling at fixing a HMT lathe, Do you still have the manual? That would help me a lot.

here is a picture of the lathe... quite a beauty... just a bit tricky with all those electric clutches.

Thanks
Jose


I had one that I was going to rebuild. It had missing gears in the feed gear train and many numerous other problems. Ended up scraping it. I do have a copy of the manual. I would send it to you for postage.
Adam

trp-213.JPG
 
That is the same on I have.American from HMT model A24-UP they are great lathes you can change speed while spindle is running but not from high gear to low gear while running.You can get support from Jayna HMT in troy,Ohio 937-339-4680.The speed slector uses electrical clutch if the sensor goes out they are not cheap but it's an easy fix.My lathe is a 20hp and goes thru steel like butter.I can't get pictures to attach.He it is cutting nylon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUxi7mxyMRA
 
That is the same on I have.American from HMT model A24-UP they are great lathes you can change speed while spindle is running but not from high gear to low gear while running.You can get support from Jayna HMT in troy,Ohio 937-339-4680.The speed slector uses electrical clutch if the sensor goes out they are not cheap but it's an easy fix.My lathe is a 20hp and goes thru steel like butter.I can't get pictures to attach.He it is cutting nylon.
MVI 3840 - YouTube

Your's looks to be the 60"er. I've got the 80" with center leg. Great machine as far as I'm concerned. Glad to hear how noisy your's is. So's mine, but they sure are accurate and lotsa guts. I expecially like the kickouts in long and crossfeed.
 
Datum Tool, Thanks!... I got the manual from JAYNA Inc. I made it Digital, if anybody else needs it just let me know... Thanks again to everyone!
 
Very good lathe.

Your's looks to be the 60"er. I've got the 80" with center leg. Great machine as far as I'm concerned. Glad to hear how noisy your's is. So's mine, but they sure are accurate and lotsa guts. I expecially like the kickouts in long and crossfeed.

Yes I definitely agree that this a good lathe, it is accurate, it can accomodate large diameters (large swing), but best of all, I found that it could handle intermittent cutting much better than the normal geared head lathes due to having the main drive gearbox mounted low down and driving the headstock spindle by 4 v belts ( to handle the torque) from the gearbox. giving it much better shock absorbing qualities than the normal arrangement of geared headstock.
However, (from distant memory) the one I used then may have had a gap bed, giving it the large swing I mentioned.
 
sidnpeg, If it's same as mine (please check the picture in my post above) send me a PM with your mail and I'll send you a copy. If it's different I had good luck with JAYNA Inc (post above). perhaps they have yours...
 
Hmt lathe and kirloskar lathe machine parts

Do any of you own the American lathe that was produced by the company hmt? It has a dial type gear selector are they trouble? The lathe was made in India I dont think they are very common in the US. Is the lathe any good. I was offered one it looks like a decent machine but it is not powered up and the gear selector concerns me I have worked on the hydroshift lathes and other oddball dreams of some rogue mechanical engineer, I want to avoid that I have enough work without messing with a bad design.

DEAR SIR
WE ARE SUPPLYING SPARE FOR HMT MACHINE AND KIRLOSKAR LATHE MACHINE,
PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE

Lathe Machine Spare Parts, Drilling Machine Spare Parts, Milling Machine Spare Parts, Harihar, Davangere, Karnataka, India. - Kshipra Engineering.
 
Hmt a24-up

To add: My American 'may' be called a "Pacesetter", but no where on it or in the manual does it state that. It's simply called: Model A24UP. Nor does it have the confusing metric dials that Milicron talks about. This one may be older or newer than that. This is a 1977 model. It has easy to understand gear change charts. Another excellent feature is the instantaneous electric braking. Great for the dreaded metric thread chasing. All controls are on the headstock, but I ran a cable to a box on the cross slide to control the brake and start switch. I know at least some of this lathe was assembled in Cinci, but don't know to what extent. It was somewhat made by: Hindustan Mach. Tools Ltd. in Bangalore, India. This lathe came from CEI. Cleveland Electric Illuminating, where it collected dust for 30 years. It's still new!

Hi Ray, I have a HMT A24-UP lathe 1500 between centres.

I am after a copy of Manual if you can help me it would be much appreciated.

Rgds,
Richard
 








 
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