Renovating a Hardinge HLV-H

**BillTodd** · 14-03-2009

Managed to assemble the apron today. It was a lot more work than I had thought, but got there in the end.

I used Loctite 5922 to seal the apron to the carriage (looks and smells just like hermatite but is black instead of red), seems to work well; no oil leaks so far :)

I have yet to find or make a core-plug to cover the carriage gear, but I have a novell idea based on the fact the hole is 1 1/8" - If it works, it'll raise a smile or two...

**BillTodd** · 16-03-2009

Cleaned and mounted the cross slide and compound slides yesterday & today.

Made a new cover for the coolant sump (the old one was missing) and primed a few parts for spraying tommorrow (if I get the time)

**BillTodd** · 17-03-2009

Sprayed, assembled and fitted the Coolant pump (had to make a new filter from some purf sheet) .

Sprayed and fitted the sump cover. The orignal one fitted to HLV's had a cover for the drain. I'm not sure if I'll bother with one, the holes in the drain are ~1/8" - I doubt I'll lose anything that small.

**BillTodd** · 18-03-2009

The spare Bijur oil metering unit arrived today from Central Surplus in the US. They turned out to be the wrong type but I was able to remove the little steel collar to replace the one I broke on my units.

With the metering unit repaired I could replace the Oiler distribution block. This was badly corroded by coolant, so I milled it flat on all sides.

I made a new knob for the oil pump from a cupboard door handle (I may make a better one later).

Hopefully, tomorrow I'll have another go at spraying the tail stock and control box.

**Robin Hewitt** · 19-03-2009

I am amazed at the speed this is all happenning at, do you have nothing else to do?

**BillTodd** · 19-03-2009

Originally Posted by Robin Hewitt

I am amazed at the speed this is all happenning at, do you have nothing else to do?

Things are a little quiet on the jobs front (only a couple of PA amps to fix :(), so I might as well use my time to increase the value of my assets.

Plus, it's stuck right in the middle of my workshop which is stopping work on the drill/mill cnc conversion.

And, I have a motorcycle parked in the conservatory which is generating a certain amount of "haven't you done that yet" pressure.

**Robin Hewitt** · 19-03-2009

Originally Posted by BillTodd

Plus, it's stuck right in the middle of my workshop which is stopping work on the drill/mill cnc conversion.

I had much the same problem with an injection moulder, I could move it with a pallet truck but I couldn't shift it sideways to tuck it up against the wall and under some shelving.

Ended up putting it on castors, Draper do fixed wheel castors rated 250kg apiece and you can get them at around £7.50 each if you shop around.

May not be best suited to a lathe, it could end up chasing you around the workshop if you went off centre, but as a temporary measure while fixing it up perhaps?

OTOH if it did chase you I'd want to see the video :D

**BillTodd** · 20-03-2009

Ended up putting it on castors

I'm going to have to do something similar; I found while rebuilding that access to the rear of the bed is essential, and almost impossible from the from front. I definiatly need to be able to roll it away from the wall easily.

**BillTodd** · 20-03-2009

I painted the control box and and (for the third time) the tail stock and power feed box. This time the paint looks OK :)

I had time to test the DRO (having mounted the Cross slide scale) and much to my disappointment found a fault - It was counting to 0.0004" then displaying 'Error'. A quick email to Richard at Axis returned some basic ohm-meter test routines.

After finding a small amount of corrosion in the scale-end connector I worked my up the lead to the 'water-proof' quick connect. It was solid with corrosion (see picture) I had to pick at it with a needle just to get the connector apart. The coolant has eaten the copper from the braided screen and a couple of the wires, leaving empty plastic sleeves ! I stripped back the cable to find it in the same condition, all but a inch or two from the scale end.

I bodged the connector back together soldering the last two inches of cable to the pins of the plug. Now the scale is working again.

Richard says Axis have spares, I am steeling my self for the price.

Tomorrow, I'll reassemble the tail-stock and collect closer.

**BillTodd** · 21-03-2009

Lovely day today, almost Spring like...:p

Assembled and fitted the collet closer.

Assembled and fitted the tailstock - Now I know why the power feed box is so massive; The tailstock is so heavy I had to rest it on the power feed box to be able to align it with the bed ('cos there's no way I could lift it at arm's length)

I don't like the handle on the tail stock it's not a Hardinge wheel (it looks someone knocked it up in an afternoon). I doubt I'll get a proper replacement anytime soon' so I've been looking at the Myford spares that RDG are selling. I think the largest one will do the job with only a small amount of re-jigging - It'll look a lot better then the current one.

Repainted the DRO mount. It looked heavy in matt black so I thought i'd try silver instead (it's OK I suppose )

Tomorrow I'll have a go at mounting the carriage DRO scale on the front of the bed.