On Sat, 21 Aug 2010 21:33:21 -0500, Ignoramus25139
wrote:

On 2010-08-21, Gunner Asch wrote:
On Sat, 21 Aug 2010 10:45:46 -0500, Karl Townsend
wrote:


Karl, maybe next year, I still have a lot to do. So tell me, those
Hardinge HNCs, which I also saw selling for $1k, can be refitted with
a new control easily? (easily, to me, means, not harder than my
Bridgeport). Docs available? Do they have an indexable turret?

Hardinge has great docs, and gunner has forgot more about them than
you'll ever need to know.

FWIW, I'd start looking now. You get better deals with a long time
frame. And machinery is on fire sale now.

Look at gunner's video. That's called gang tooling, no turret. For an
omni refit of a hardinge they pull the turret off. Refitting a
hardinge to gang tool would be a smaller job than your mill.

To do a full retrofit, from an unstripped machine to a fully functional
machine ready to make parts...is about 8-10 hours. About 4 hours
stripping the machine, pulling the 1.5hp motor and sticking in a 5hp,
adding the control, coolant pump controls etc etc..is about 5-6 hours.

Course Ive only done a couple hundred...shrug.

What control?

OmniTurn of course.

A kit includes a 5hp motor, spindle encoder (based on machine type), the
slide/ways/servos, control and all cabling and associated Stuff needed
to install one on a carcass. Typically Hardinge, HC, AHC, DV-59, DSMA,
etc etc. But Ive installed them on Pratt and Whitney turret machines,
old Hitachi lathes, A couple Hardinge HLV-H tool room lathes..including
one that came as a crated BRAND NEW HLV-H tool room lathe, that I
stripped all the gear off, and installed a OmniTurn on. For the engineer
at Guidant. He was making heart transducer couplings on it. Taking a
secret metal, . 50" in diameter and turning ..in a single pass..down to
a .020 needle 3" long..then drilling a hole in the needle..length wise.
..005 in diameter. 3" deep.

We finally changed the order of process though..we drilled a .005"
diameter hole in the center of that .50 metal bore, then turned it down
to .20

We kept bending the secret metal needle the other way.

I spent a half day (on my own time) taking all the brand new HLV-H parts
off gently, wrapping them up and putting them in storage, before doing
the retrofit. The lathe cost $40,000 and they were simply going to
chuck the slide and tailstock and whatnot in the trash.

Brrrrrrrr.....

Then I installed 2 at RockShox factory.

Busy week that week

Gunner


I am the Sword of my Family
and the Shield of my Nation.
If sent, I will crush everything you have built,
burn everything you love,
and kill every one of you.
(Hebrew quote)