Hardinge lathe questions

[flyweightnate]

Saw this pop up locally and had questions. Looks like a different bed design than I'm used to, for starters. And what collets do these take, 5C?

Wondering approximately what it's worth and if there are specific pitfalls to check for.
DocsMachine you might be a good source of info on this...

Thanks!

[XEMON]

Does it have a gearbox for threading?

Also, It is difficult to mount a chuck on those, so if you ever need to mount a 4jaws or a back plate, you might not be able to do it on this lathe.

[flyweightnate]

Ah, I didn't think about single-point threading. Yeah, perhaps a dealbreaker, even for a 2nd op-er. Cheap enough I'll have to think about it, though.

[DocsMachine]

[cracks knuckles]

That is a pre-WW2 Hardinge DV-59, an early "split bed" model, I'd guess roughly 1930s. It's what's known as a "plain turning" lathe, it has no power feed or screwcutting ability.

They're essentially production machines- with the turret and some stops on the cross-slide assembly (or even a lever cross slide fixture) it's meant to be set up and then produce hundreds or even thousands of identical parts.

You can use it for day-to-day one-off parts, as that one has the X/Y slide, and you could even get a proper tailstock for it, to hold longer parts and for drilling (though a turret is excellent for drilling) but as I said, you won't have power surfacing or threadcutting.

As the tag says, top spindle speed is 3500 RPM, and that's a 4 degree Hardinge taper spindle. You can get taper-mount 3 and 4-jaw chucks, and the spindle nose will accept 5C collets directly.

They're handy machines, I have one very much like it, made by Rivett.

But, today, for any of us home-shop types, they're better as a second lathe, than a primary. Something like that is great for spinning small parts, polishing shafts, doing minor turning, etc. But if you want to do normal day-to-day machining, you need a full engine or screwcuting lathe.

Doc.

[flyweightnate]

Thanks - was specifically wondering if it was 5c or B&S collets, and I still need to look in to turret workflow. But a model number helps quite a bit, especially answering that first question.

[DocsMachine]

The nose for B&S 'dead length' collets for those machines is pretty distinctive: Pic on Tony's site.

I'm given to understand you could custom-order a DV with a wide range of collet options: 4C, 6C, B&S 21, even, I'm told, monsters like 2J and 3J. But the overwhelmingly vast majority of them were 5C.

Doc.

[Meglomachinist]

Watch out with hardinge lathes...like automags you'll get the bug. I've got an hc turret in my shop with the air powered auto threader, kind of a rube Goldberg sort of thing but man it is cool when it gets going.

[Frmrspec]

Any chance you have instructions on how to use the threader?

[Meglomachinist]

I actually have the factory manual. I ended up getting a total time capsule when I bought my threading unit and it came with the original manuals. Is there something specific you need I could take some shots of the instructions if you need them.

[Frmrspec]

A scan of that would be incredibly helpful. I have a unit that is outfitted with it and have all the parts for it but I have no idea how to make it work. There’s exactly one video on YouTube about it but not enough information… I haven’t had a whole lot of time to delve into figuring it out but literature never hurts.. I thought I set it up correctly but when I go to rotate the threading tool into position it seems to hit a solid stop of some sort.

[Meglomachinist]

I'll see if I can scan it this weekend. It's a pretty complicated process but once it's good it just goes.