Renovating a Hardinge HLV-H

[BillTodd]

Go careful with that wire brush - it looks like you may have too large a wire diameter and it's gouging the surface. I used Scotchbrite on mine with WD-40.

Thanks for your concern but, those 'gouges' are where I waved a diamond hone over the top to see if anything would touch it at all (they are really very fine scratches - they've caught the camera flash))

Scotchbrite and WD sounds like the right combination :)

http://aafradio.org/garajmahal/hardinge.htm - Wow, If I could get it to look like yours, I'd be as pleased as Punch :)

You seem like a man who would know... Have you trying chemical blueing on any parts?

[aafradio]

Thanks for your concern but, those 'gouges' are where I waved a diamond hone over the top to see if anything would touch it at all (they are really very fine scratches - they've caught the camera flash))

Whew! Glad to hear that. They should polish out with the Scotchbrite, then.

Have you trying chemical blueing on any parts?

Yup, but on my Bridgeport, not on the Hardinge. Got it from a gunsmith supplier - Brownell's here in the US. They had a number of different types, including both cold and hot solutions, in small bottles. The cold solution works well if you don't rub it incessantly. Like yours, mine had the quick threading lever on the compound broken off, so I made a new one from 1/4" stainless rod. That didn't need blueing, though. Your carriage drive gear looks like mine did. I toyed with the idea of having the shaft flame sprayed and then grinding it to size, but I finally just bit the bullet and bought a new one and a new Oilite bushing from Hardinge. I don't recall how much it was...around $80USD sounds familiar.

In the feed motor control box, make sure someone has replaced the original selenium rectifiers with solid state diodes.

You're making great progress, BTW!

There are a few articles at http://aafradio.org/garajmahal/tool_restoration.html that might interest you as you get closer to completion.

- Mike