[BobWarfield]

Looking good, Vince!

I love your paint and body work. Did you ever consider powder coat for more durability? Seems readily available, though it won't shine like your paint does.

Are you sticking with the turret changer, or are considering a gang plate?

Best,

BW

[N4NV]

Looking good, Vince!
I love your paint and body work. Did you ever consider powder coat for more durability? Seems readily available, though it won't shine like your paint does.
Are you sticking with the turret changer, or are considering a gang plate?
Best,
BW

You can't powder coat it because the spindle has permanently sealed bearings. I have read and been told you can't take the spindle apart and get it back together. It takes special tooling. The 400 degree bake for the powder coat would certainly ruin the lubrication of the bearings.

The CHNC I have only has a 4 1/2" X travel. That is not much for gang tooling. I really hope I can get the turret working.

Vince

[BobWarfield]

Vince, unless there is something peculiar about this particular Hardinge, you can definitely take the spindle apart. See Gunner's article, for example:

http://aafradio.org/garajmahal/Hardi...eplacement.htm

I've read several accounts of folks who were 100% successful following his approach.

With that said, the paint looks great, you're past that point, pray continue.

WRT gang tooling, there's might be more gang tooled Hardinge conversions that anything else. If I were going to attempt it, I would create an AccuSlide-like axis. What they did is to build a linear-slide + ballscrew stage that just clamped to the Hardinge ways. The dovetail ways are perfect for it. In this case, you don't need 2 axes (I assume), so you'd build it to attach to the saddle. Pretty simple to construct, the linear slides give good performance, and you get the extremely fast tool changes inherent in a gang lathe without the complexity of an automated turret.

I have some information on this on my site:

http://www.cnccookbook.com/CCLatheCNCGangSlide.html

I know the manuals for the Accuslide are available somewhere on the net and have exploded diagrams, but I don't recall where.

Just an idea to consider.

Cheers,

BW

[N4NV]

I looked at the site for replacing the spindle bearings, but it does not sound like what I see in my CHNC.

I stripped off the masking tape today. Don't go cheap like I did and use regular masking tape, spring for the blue stuff. The tape was a pain to get off cleanly. After removing the tape, I installed the carriage. I might even be able to mount the lathe to the stand this weekend.

In the cross slide there are various studs and holes. I figured out what they all are but two. In the picture below, the one with the question mark looks like a broken stud. The other one is a stud that had an Allen head underneath and is accessed from the bottom gear bolt hole. Does anyone know what they are for?

When I was removing the center carriage ballnut housing, one of the alignment studs broke. These studs are threaded 10/32 so they can be removed by threading in a long 10/32 screw and pulling them out from above. Anyway, I broke one off. It broke slightly below the sruface. I tried drilling it out but it was hardened. I ended up tig welding a 10/32 screw to it and pulling it out. There was absolutely no damage to the housing from the operation as you can see in the picture below.

Vince

[N4NV]

I got a chance to try my Caswell black oxide kit today. The covers for the carriage ballscrews were originally a black oxide finish. On some of the covers it was completely worn away, others not much. I ran them all through the process which consists of a dip in the black oxide solution (at room temperature, and actually an aqua blue color), then a rinse, followed by the fixing solution. The kit came with two cans of fixing solutions. I also ran several of the bearing blocks through. I want most everything to have paint or black oxide to cut down on corrosion. In the pictures below are the buckets of solutions and the finished parts that are still drying.

Speaking of paint, I did some more of that as well. I really can't say enough about the airbrush for these parts. It has been putting down a very nice coat of paint. I spent way to much time looking for loose parts. I should have been much more meticulous when I was taking things apart, like bagging and labeling everything. Just going through all the screws is going to take time. I did start bagging a little more than half way through.

I found 5 more parts that need paint, covers plate, end plates etc. I need to get them cleaned up and prepped. The cross slide bellows are pretty gunked up as well. I started them soaking today. Maybe by tomorrow I can get them cleaned up.

Vince

[Runner4404spd]

Most of the older CHNCs run straight oil as coolant and not the watersoluable stuff. i would contact hardinge as there was a change somewhere around production number 4300 that allowed the use of soluable coolant. previous to this production number all lathes use oil as a coolant and lubricant and i hope your planning on doing the same.

[N4NV]

use oil as a coolant and lubricant and i hope your planning on doing the same.

Yes, I plan on using oil. With the amount of use my machines get, I have had a terrible time with water soluable oil.

Vince