Let's See Your Lathe

[TomG]

Here are some pics of my baby, a Hardinge HLV-H toolroom lathe. I bought it new around 1980 and took on general machining jobs to pay it off. My wife and I had just bought our first house and the payment on the lathe was nearly as much as the mortgage payment. It's still pretty much as new except for a few cosmetic issues from being stored for a year while we were building a new house.

It has a taper attachment, an Aloris quick change tool post, a six jaw Buck chuck, a full set of 5C collets. I never got around to adding a DRO, but maybe some day...after the kids get out of college...

The Hardinge is a joy to use. Turning diameters to within .001" is routine and with it's rigidity, surface finishes are excellent. Threading is a lot of fun as well because it has a quick lift lever for the tool. No need to undercut a thread.

Everything about this lathe is massive, which is why it's capable of holding such tight tolerances. It actually weighs more than a Bridgeport mill, around 2200 pounds.

Tom