Renovating a Hardinge HLV-H

[BillTodd]

Well one week after I started scraping and brushing the dirt off... I'm still scraping and brushing off dirt! Everytime I remove a badge or cover, there's congealed muck behind it.

I spent an hour Saturday freeing up the spindle lock microswitch mechanism (stops the spindle motor running while the spindle lock is engaged)

I can't make up my mind whether to strip the gearbox, headstock and bed off of the stand for painting. On the one hand it would be the proper way to do it. On the other, it would take an enourmous amount of extra effort for little gain.

As much as I would like to, I'm not trying to get this thing back to pristine condition, that would take more money and time than I have available right now So, the target is a clean, painted lathe in useable condition.

I'm investigating ways to power the various motors ATM Mike's step-up transformer into a 415v VFD looks favourite. The main motor is not easily replaced; it is dual speed 1480/480 rpm and balanced to 0.0003" (peak-peak)!

[Edit] At one point I was conviced there was a casting fault in the rear T slot. The muck was so solid I had to hammer at my T slot scraper to remove the stuff. I ought to report the previous users to the RSPCH