Member postings for Barry Stone 1

Hi Richard Hussey, I am Barry, a former Hardinge Mach. Tools apprenticed fitter.

I'm interested in your m/c serial number before I make any further comments. This is stamped in various places, dependant on the precise model. For an HLV (up to early 1960's, this can be found around the spindle lock plunger at the rear of the headstock, on an HLV-H (from 1963 to 1977) or KL-1 (from 1978 onwards) it is on the back of the bed casting at the tailstock end of the m/c.

I have a parts catalogue for the HLV-H (very similar to KL-1) and somewhere I believe, even an operator's manual!

Hi Julian taylor. As confirmed above, your Hardinge is an HLV (no -H) and was superceded before I left school in 1965 to become a Hardinge apprentice. The serial number is stamped around the spindle lock plunger at the rear of the headstock, the spindle speed is increased/decreased with the winding handle in the motor cabinet door.

A few of this model were rebuilt in Exeter (I personally rebuilt one in 1967, under the strict watching eyes of the inspection department). It was replaced by the improved model HLV-H around 1963, which itself was then redesigned into the KL1 with a totally new pedestal base unit in 1978. Hardinge lathe manufacture ceased in UK around the mid 1990's (but I had left in early 1979)

I wish you loads of luck (you will need it!) with modifying your m/c into a CNC one, you face an uphill struggle I fear.

Hi to everyone, especially Paul Rayner.

I am Barry, I started my apprenticeship at Hardinge Machine Tools, Exeter in 1966, ending in 1971. There was a factory in Hanworth Road, Feltham, Middx, but that closed a couple of years after I started. The head company base was Hardinge Brothers in Elmira, New York, USA. I continued to work as a Hardinge fitter building HLV-H centre lathes, a few HC turret lathes, but mainly the DV/DSM 59 range of centre and capstan lathes, as well as all accessories. Finally, I worked in the Drawing/Design Office and left in early 1979 to become a SkillCentre Bench Engineering Instructor. Before I left, I worked on redesigning the American KL pedestal unit to fit the English HLV-H to become "our" KL and updated HC models.

Your pictures show very different designs of 5C collet (known in English factories as a PH92 collet), going by the face engraving/stamping. The top one (5/32" looks correct but the lower one, 9/32" was not made in UK, in my opinion. It may be an American one, the circular collet design with Hardinge stamped through it is not an English factory 'thing'. It has added stampings "O" and "B" - I'm not familiar with this, it could have been made as elsewhere as a copy (Hardinge lathes were copied by a few foreign companies, including a Taiwan company called Feeler but their parts would not fit the genuine factory built machine). The spindle back bearing diameter is nominally 1.2500" with an exceptionally tight tolerance of +0.0001" if I remember correctly. Collet back bearing (you describe as just before the thread), I believe, has a diameter of 1.2498" tolerance of only -0.0003". The body length measures from the 10 degree head angle. Bore diameter max runout is 0.001" at a point 1" from the front face. The spindle collet key entering the back bearing is locked in place with a short, #10-32 UNF, grub screw, and is set for depth of engagement against a special gauge.

Pete Rimmer sounds to be very familiar with Hardinge, I'm sure his opinions are reliable too.