Hardinge HLV-H abandoned project

Dudemanrod

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500.00 this person tried to cnc this lathe and gave up on it. He has a new spindle bearings and two spindles with a bunch of new and old parts. Is this a viable project? Or a boat anchor. The price is right
 

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Basket cases require good knowledge of the machine to see if everything is there and usable. Upside is that the parts are available for easy inspection -- but not while running. The down side of a Hardinge lathe is that they are expensive to find parts for if any are bad or missing. I do not see many parts in the pics, only the big pieces. The owner may have been attempting to sell the parts, and some may be missing or in poor condition. Those lathes are VERY nice when complete, adjusted, and running smoothly in original condition, or sensibly modified. As with most machinery, basket cases are not worth much. There is also the question of what the current owner has done to try to CNC the machine. It may no longer be usable for a manual lathe (if that is what you want), and may have modifications that will not let it return to being a manual lathe again without excessive work and money and time. Be careful, and take someone along who is familiar with that lathe to look at it if at all possible.
 
Hi Bob he said its complete but I wont be able to tell if I go see it. I'm going to check out a endo 12x36 for 1199.00 he said the price is flexable down the street from the hardinge so I'm thinking the enco may be better for a new guy like me
 

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Talk about opposite ends of the pool! "I'm looking at this disassembled Ferrari F40, and a used Prius." Decisions, decisions!
 
Yeah you are right I really like the hardinge to be honest and am fairly confident I could get it going but unknown costs and having to really figure the the thing out. I don't want a pos sitting in my back yard for ever. I'm new to machining so I really want to learn the basics of machining. That Hardinge could take a long time before I can learn to use it. The wiring is torn out to so maybe a project for a hardinge owner. This lathe is on craigslist in Berkeley Ca if anyone reading this can use it.
 
IMHO you are on the right track. I've seen many basket cases in the Bay Area. Don't know why. Some were restores that got halted, others not sure. But I've learned the hard way just because the owner says it's all there doesn't mean it's true. There is nothing more frustrating than finding you can't get the thing back together because of missing parts.
 
500.00 this person tried to cnc this lathe and gave up on it. He has a new spindle bearings and two spindles with a bunch of new and old parts. Is this a viable project? Or a boat anchor. The price is right

It depends on whether you want a project or a lathe. If it was local to me, for $500 I would drag it home........ if it has all or most of the original parts with it. For me, I'm not sure it's worth a road trip to the Bay Area to get it. To put it back into its original operating condition might be a lot of work. Why somebody would do that to a HLV-H is beyond me.

If you want a lathe, the Enco might be a better choice.
 
Thanks for the replies guys I'm going to listen to experience. I'm pretty handy with machines but that seems like it's better for parts for someone. I'm going to learn on the 12x36 and if I feel I need to upgrade then I will.
 
IMHO you are on the right track. I've seen many basket cases in the Bay Area. Don't know why. Some were restores that got halted, others not sure. But I've learned the hard way just because the owner says it's all there doesn't mean it's true. There is nothing more frustrating than finding you can't get the thing back together because of missing parts.

I couldn't agree more. Back in the 1980's GM made the infamous 350 diesel engine and installed in everything from a pickup truck to a Cadillac. When they started falling like flies a customer came into my shop with one in tow. Apparently he had taken it to another shop for repair, but things didn't work out. The stripped engine block was in the back of the tow truck, along with 5 boxes of parts. The trunk of the car and back seat were also full of parts.

He wanted me to take on the job of rebuilding and reinstalling the engine insisting that all the parts were there. He also wanted it done for half the price of R&R and rebuilding the engine since it was already out of the car and disassembled. I did take on the job, but as a fill in for slow times, but it would be at a "Time and Material" rate rather than half the flat rate.

As it turned out the customer would probably have been better off to just abandon the project. The previous garage had lost or broken over $1,000.00 worth of parts. When the job was completed the cost was close to a factory rebuild, plus the cost of all the missing parts. I got paid the amount we agreed on, and he went back to the previous shop to try and recover some of the cost. I don't know how things turned out between him and the other shop, but I learned to NEVER take on a job like that again.
 
Yup, you learn fast folks will say anything to dump something on somebody else. And once you are committed it's hard to walk away. And I don't think there's anything worse for me than trying to get rid of a basket case. I have a hard enough time selling anything.
 
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