Hardinge HLV-H abandoned project

The working Enco is hands down better BUT for a Hardinge guy, who wouldn't mid parting it out if it is short too many parts, it might be a challenge worth taking. There *will* be missing parts, some others will be broken or unusable - because - someone had to disassemble it for *some reason*...

Now it becomes a detective's job to figure out just what's wrong . Disassembled it is almost impossible, so the sequence will be:

1) reassemble, document all the missing/broken parts.
2)disassemble. obtain parts.
3) reassemble. find out why it doesn't work. get the parts to fix the problem.
4) disassemble, fix
5) reassemble.

I'm afraid it's only good for parts.

I've been there on the bad side of this. never again.
 
Dabbler said:
The working Enco is hands down better BUT for a Hardinge guy, who wouldn't mid parting it out if it is short too many parts, it might be a challenge worth taking. There *will* be missing parts, some others will be broken or unusable - because - someone had to disassemble it for *some reason*...

Now it becomes a detective's job to figure out just what's wrong . Disassembled it is almost impossible, so the sequence will be:

1) reassemble, document all the missing/broken parts.
2)disassemble. obtain parts.
3) reassemble. find out why it doesn't work. get the parts to fix the problem.
4) disassemble, fix
5) reassemble.

I'm afraid it's only good for parts.

I've been there on the bad side of this. never again.
Click to expand...
Once again I agree, but add to Dabblers list is maybe fix or make parts. But like I was warned about and found too true,you often need a lathe to make or fix parts for a lathe. This is why many have more than one lathe. If the Enco is ok, and you get an hankering for the Hardinge, keep an eye on it and I wouldn't be surprised if you can get it even cheaper.
 
Enco and OK rarely fit the same sentence, same for Jet, Rong Fu and many others. They'll work for any user not accustomed to real machinery.
And to "why any one would do all that to get a HLV", yet publishes a yard long list of possessions, maybe forgot how he got there. Users appreciate them quickly [and few have stood equal time at a EE.] Used HLV's running or not, pull more cash per pound than anything short of Deckel.
Must be a reason.
Price a new MB, then a Subaru. Then go to craigs and see what the market says about resale.
Must be a reason.
 
I've obviously never spent time working with a HLV or a EE. I get they are "serious" machines and often are priced way out of most hobbyist means. I have no problem with that. It's going to take a long time for me to even fathom what I would be doing that would merit me having a HLV or EE as a hobbyist, in my garage, doing my little projects.

But I spend every morning while I wake up and drink my coffee cruising CL. And I see Hardinge lathes quite often and sometimes they are $1,000 (and times less!) and other times they are multiples of that. Being a noob I can no sooner fathom why one is a $k and the other is $10k. They look so simple as to be from another planet. And the descriptions often don't help. It's like what they say about buying a MB, if you have to ask you can't afford it. The EE is more conventional and I see how that relates to my present joke lathe.

But when you start talking about MB and Subaru now you're in my wheelhouse. No doubt Benz makes some nice cars and my wife's CLK 320 was fun to drive and was surprisingly easy to maintain. She bought it when it was 5yrs old 60,000mi. Paid $24k, new I thin was $60k. But like every other car when it got 160,000mi on it stuff started to go schwangle. And when you start having to start talking about $100+hr dealer time you can QUICKLY outstrip the "worth". A trans rebuild is min $5k. Used Subaru's depreciate slower here than a Benz, especially when you look at the original price. My neighbor sold his '99 Benz SUV w/160,000mi for $4,500. I couldn't find a Subaru w/that few miles and the few I found were around that price.

So TM51, I get you're a professional and you have worked on professional machinery and you know and appreciate good machinery. But I know of very few mechanics who would have taken my wife's car as a basket case because I took it all apart because I wanted to chop and lower it and just tired, but it's all there!!!! Much less somebody just getting into the field and just wants to have a functional driver.

I think Jim nailed it when he said "you want a lathe or a project?" And he admitted if he didn't have brave the BA traffic to get it he would haul it home. But he and you TM51 have the chops to fix it and appreciate it.
 
I think you can take it to the bank that if someone's selling a lathe like the Hardinge cheap, there's usually a good reason. Once in a blue moon it is a fine machine but there's a moving deadline looming, or something, but usually not

(I got a $12000 mill, lightly used, so worth about $5000 for $2200 last year because of a lease running out)

You can do decent hobby work on the enco, and will be able to get most of the value out of it if/when you desire a more capable machine.
 
I've NEVER seen a HLV-H for anywhere near a grand . Usually start out around $6000 and head north from there .
 
To be clear, like I said I don't understand the letter designations so I see the pic of a Hardinge and the price. I've seen several for a grand and one was right here in town. It was the same place that sold a complete Maxmill for $500. The Maxmill sold in about a week and the Hardinge took over a month. Is there someplace on the net that can explain the different model Hardinge?
 
Toolmaker51 said:
And to "why any one would do all that to get a HLV", yet publishes a yard long list of possessions, maybe forgot how he got there.
Click to expand...

You misunderstood my statement there. :) The actual quote is: ''Why somebody would do that to a HLV-H is beyond me.'' Meaning: I don't understand why someone would pretty much destroy a HLV-H like that. If I wanted to convert a manual lathe to CNC a HLV-H would not be my first choice. If I had room for another project, I would be tempted to make a road trip and drag the HLV-H home to restore just because I don't have one.
 
C-Bag said:
To be clear, like I said I don't understand the letter designations so I see the pic of a Hardinge and the price. I've seen several for a grand and one was right here in town. It was the same place that sold a complete Maxmill for $500. The Maxmill sold in about a week and the Hardinge took over a month. Is there someplace on the net that can explain the different model Hardinge?
Click to expand...

http://www.lathes.co.uk/hardinge/ Here is a pretty good writeup.
 
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