Hardinge HSL-59 Lathe rebuild

[DocsMachine]

About a month ago, I picked up a little Hardinge HSL-59. For those not familiar, they're little "speed" lathes (HSL= Hardinge Speed Lathe) also known as "second operation", "simple operation" or "single operation" lathes.



Basically for small factory operations that don't necessarily need to have an entire full-sized lathe dedicated to it. A very common use for these is in conjunction with a CNC turning center. The CNC turns the part and cuts it off with a parting tool. That usually leaves a little *** on the back/base of the part, which needs to be faced off.

Rather than dedicate another CNC machine, or resetting the same machine, to run them again, shops will set up a small lathe like this, that the operator can use to make that one clean-up pass in between cycles on the CNC.

And that's basically what I was after, using this thing in support of both my CNC and turret lathes.

They're rare in Alaska (no real manufacturing up here) so I picked this one up from a machinery dealer in the states, had it shipped up, and set out to freshen up the paintjob.



And, for the first time- and it shows - I decided to shoot it as a video, rather than my usual build-blog postings. Please don't laugh too hard, I'm still very much the green newbie when it comes to shooting and editing a video.

But I'd like to know what you think. Constructive criticism is always welcome.

Doc.

 

[ttpete]

subscribed

 

[DocsMachine]

For those that might want to skip to the end, since I'm not exactly "This Old Tony" when it comes to video production, the machine's already done, and put to work.



Handy little thing, but holy **** are Hardinge accessories and tools expensive...!

Doc.

 

[Oregon rock crusher]

Nice job cleaning up your Hardinge speed lathe Doc. Looks great now and I'm sure you'll find plenty of uses for it. Ed.

 

[DocsMachine]

Part 2:

Less bad music, perhaps slightly better editing, and hardly any gratuitous ******.

Let me know what you think!
Doc.

 

[tombell572]

Hi Doc--I've followed your other rebuilds on the PM Forum and always appreciated your photos, detail and writing style. Enjoyed the video as well, not a fan of music on technical or build type videos. Cute little machine, would be referred to as a chucker down here. Looks like it's found a good home.

Tom B.

 

[DocsMachine]

The music on the first one was because I'm an idiot. I was using an external mic on a Canon DSLR as a video camera- the video being better, but the factory mic being comparatively crappy.

And for much of the initial filming... I kept forgetting to turn it on.

Ambient noise is one thing... no noise at all is quite another. Hence I had to cover it with some bad music.

And technically, as far as Hardinge is concerned, a "chucker" is a type of turret lathe, with a flat, platform style turret. Could b whover you hard that from had been around a true chucker, and either he or the shop he was in basically just started calling anything Hardinge a "chucker". (A lot of them are very similar, and based off of often nearly-identical parts.)

Doc.

 

[tombell572]

Yup, your nomenclature would be correct, especially as defined by Hardinge. But I think at least in these parts "chucker" has indeed become somewhat generic, kinda like "kleenex" for any ultra short bed lathe with no tailstock. Whatever it's called, still a neat little machine.

Tom B.

 

[DocsMachine]

Part 3 is up!

Still learning the editing software, but I think I'm getting better.

And for those not completely bored yet, here's a pic of it set up for it's first payin' job:



Doc.

 

[DocsMachine]

And Part 4!

Doc.

 

[DocsMachine]

And for the three or four of you still reading, the penultimate Part 5!

Doc.

 

[dutchgray]

Nice work Doc

There was a pair of Hardinge turret lathes for sale near me a few months back, they were cheap and I was tempted but they would have needed a good going through and I didn't really have the space (well I did but I was saving it for a bigger lathe which now has a DSG in it) or the need for a turret really.

Hardinge are reasonably common over here, being that they built them over here as well as the states.

 

[DocsMachine]

There was a pair of Hardinge turret lathes for sale near me a few months back, they were cheap and I was tempted[...]

-Yep. Hardinge made a ton of the DV-59 style lathes, both in plain-turning and turret variations, so there's a bunch out there. But as they were basically made for industry, and to be set up for simple-operation production, few home-shop guys want them. You can't cut threads, there's no power feed, and even if you have the cross slide assembly, travels are limited.

This one I bought mainly for what it was designed for- to help support my turret lathe as a "second operation" lathe. But of course I tooled it up so it can do other work as well. It's already proven pretty handy.

Doc.

 

[dutchgray]

-Yep. Hardinge made a ton of the DV-59 style lathes, both in plain-turning and turret variations, so there's a bunch out there. But as they were basically made for industry, and to be set up for simple-operation production, few home-shop guys want them. You can't cut threads, there's no power feed, and even if you have the cross slide assembly, travels are limited.

This one I bought mainly for what it was designed for- to help support my turret lathe as a "second operation" lathe. But of course I tooled it up so it can do other work as well. It's already proven pretty handy.

Doc.

The ones I saw were the same base as a HLV-H, but with turrets and a bunch of hydraulic stuff.
One went for £350 ish the other about £500

 

[DocsMachine]

And done!

Complete and makin' chips!

Fun little project, both in the lathe itself and the video process, as opposed to my usual photo-blogs. I know most of you are out waiting at the gates for This Old Tony's triumphant return, but hopefully you enjoyed this a little, nonetheless.

Doc.

 

[segdoh65]

And done!

Complete and makin' chips!

Fun little project, both in the lathe itself and the video process, as opposed to my usual photo-blogs. I know most of you are out waiting at the gates for This Old Tony's triumphant return, but hopefully you enjoyed this a little, nonetheless.

Doc.

Very nice job Doc. I seem to be having a little problem with my Hardinge HSL59 It didn't have a motor on it when I bought it and I went to a 115v motor. I have a switch that seems to be the same as yours. Im wondering if this is a straight on off switch because when I switch mine to the on position it wont stay on it just springs back to the center position and the motor stops. Or do I just have it wired wrong? I added a couple of photos of my switch. Im only working with 2 wires coming from my motor. Black and white.

 

[DocsMachine]

The original switch is only momentary. The machine as originally set up, controlled latching relays. Turn the switch one way, the momentary signal 'latches' the relay on, running the 3-phase motor. Turn it the other way, and the 'latch' (essentially an electromagnet) is disabled, disconnecting power.

On the original motor, the loss of power also automatically engaged the brake on the motor, stopping the spindle quickly so parts could be swapped faster.

On mine, I disabled the brake, and I'm running it with a KB VFD. The VFD can be wired to use a momentary signal for on and off, the the factory switch works fine. It's just running signal voltage now, not main power voltage.

On yours, with a 110V single phase, you'll need an entirely different switch. I'd suggest something like one of these.

Doc.

 

[segdoh65]

The original switch is only momentary. The machine as originally set up, controlled latching relays. Turn the switch one way, the momentary signal 'latches' the relay on, running the 3-phase motor. Turn it the other way, and the 'latch' (essentially an electromagnet) is disabled, disconnecting power.

On the original motor, the loss of power also automatically engaged the brake on the motor, stopping the spindle quickly so parts could be swapped faster.

On mine, I disabled the brake, and I'm running it with a KB VFD. The VFD can be wired to use a momentary signal for on and off, the the factory switch works fine. It's just running signal voltage now, not main power voltage.

On yours, with a 110V single phase, you'll need an entirely different switch. I'd suggest something like one of these.

Doc.

Thanks for that info Doc. I actually just found one of those switches on ebay. Your description makes total sense. After looking closely at the switch and how it functions its the only way it could work seeing how no permeant connection can be made from the inner workings.I was also debating some kind of a on/off variable speed switch seeing how I do a lot of polishing with my lathe.

 

[Packard V8]

Always thought one of those would be perfect for an engine balancing shop. We have a couple of chucks with special jaws to hold pistons. We could leave one or the other mounted and just pop in the piston, take a skim cut, weigh, cut, weigh and never take the main lathe out of comission.

jack vines

 

[segdoh65]

Always thought one of those would be perfect for an engine balancing shop. We have a couple of chucks with special jaws to hold pistons. We could leave one or the other mounted and just pop in the piston, take a skim cut, weigh, cut, weigh and never take the main lathe out of comission.

jack vines

Sounds like a no brainer to me Jack.

 

[DocsMachine]

Always thought one of those would be perfect for an engine balancing shop. We have a couple of chucks with special jaws to hold pistons. We could leave one or the other mounted and just pop in the piston, take a skim cut, weigh, cut, weigh and never take the main lathe out of comission.

-Thing is, the bed is shorter than it seems, You'd be better off with a DV-59, which is very close to the same machine, but with a bed more than twice as long.

The other thing to remember is there's no power feed to the carriage. No big if you're just turning a little off the pin bosses, but if you wanted to try turning an OD (which you wouldn't want to do with anything but implement engines anyway) it'd get a little tedious to crank the handle that long.

But, there's thousands of these little speed lathes out there, and tens of thousands of DV-59s. The smaller ones often go for more than the larger, because they're still popular as second-op machines even in modern CNC shops.

Doc.