I am in the market for a small CNC lathe and came across a 1987 Hardinge CHNCII lathe. I plan on going to see it on Monday. I saw a video of it running and it appears to be in great shape.

- Built In 16C Collet Nose with A2-5 Mount
- 5000 RPM
- 1 7/8" Hole Through Spindle
- 7.4HP Spindle Motor
- 8" Max Turning Diameter
- Parts Catcher
- Full Enclosure
- FANUC 10TF Control with Color Monitor
- looks like a mist collector on the top left

I have never worked on one of these. Is the G-code Fanuc standard? What should I be looking for as I examine this machine?

$$$ How much is to much for the pricing?

Any information would be great!

i wouldn't spend more than about $2000 on this little gem. its old. its hard to find parts for, parts are expensive. does it come with any tooling? people who own these seem to think that tooling is gold. i have one in my shop and it ran for while, but then the servo motors burned out and a drive fried, and now one of the encoders is not getting a good signal back to the control, its on and on. the machine was probably good in its day, but by todays standards its old. the only reason i bought mine is that i got alot of tooling with it and i was starting my business on a shoe string budget. i spent more time fixing it than running it but it was all i could afford without putting my family in debt. would i buy it again? yup, but not now, that the business is established.

I saw the machine today. It is the super precision model, .00001 res. Looks like only oil machine since there isn't any sign of rust.

I really like the machine. The CRT has a continuous twitching that doesn't stop. The machine mechanic says it is worse when it first gets turned on and settles a bit to where I saw it. He also mentioned the first turret change of the day isn't perfect either. The turret doesn't seat properly. I little nudge and if falls into place the continues great the rest of the day. Kinda weird... I did find the original owners name and number on a piece of paper in the machine and called him. He replaced several boards and has had the servo rebuilt in the 9 years that he owned it.

They are asking $10K but I believe they are negotiable. It seems this is the going price on these machine. I have found others of the same, within a years or 2 around $10K. Since I am on a shoestring budget too, this machine might fit the ticket until I can afford something bigger.

if you like it great. ultimately, that machine like i said is worth about $2000-3000. i bought mine for $3700 with a ton of tooling and 4 turret plates and 3 jaw power chuck and a bar feeder. with the downturn in the economy there are tons of lathes for sale. don't look at ebay for going prices, the asking prices for these machines are grossly inflated, the selling prices are much lower. also for doing any kind of real work the tool turret in the position is a chip magnet. there is a reason most new machines are slant bed. slant bed machines let the chips fall away from the tools. also being an oil only machine has its drawbacks, cost of the oil is one of them. mine is oil only and it cost me $450 to fill the sump initially.

if you like it great. ultimately, that machine like i said is worth about $2000-3000. i bought mine for $3700 with a ton of tooling and 4 turret plates and 3 jaw power chuck and a bar feeder. with the downturn in the economy there are tons of lathes for sale. don't look at ebay for going prices, the asking prices for these machines are grossly inflated, the selling prices are much lower. also for doing any kind of real work the tool turret in the position is a chip magnet. there is a reason most new machines are slant bed. slant bed machines let the chips fall away from the tools. also being an oil only machine has its drawbacks, cost of the oil is one of them. mine is oil only and it cost me $450 to fill the sump initially.

I here what you are saying and I did see the ones on Ebay. $10K for a 22 year old machine with no tooling is too much. I hope that I can talk him down or I will have to continue looking around.

Sounds like you got a great deal. Does the power chuck work well since it clamping pressure uses air. Does the chuck open up and chuck parts fill you loose air pressure?

I know that the oil to fill up the sump will be pricey. I work where there are screw machines that use only oil and I have seen the oil cost to keep them filled.

Thanks for your feed back.

I would find out what the cost of a replacment crt is or if you can put an computer display in there.

I agree that in this economy, paying 10k for a machine that needs work is a little, troubling. I am not saying that it is not worth it, just don't get carried away and pay too much.
Even if you payed 5k, then it would be a good buy and you could afford to replace the monitior and repair the tool changer. Plus the sump fill would be easy to afford.

Mike

in order for that machine to be useful you have to talk him down alot. the machine realistically will have wiring issues, and drive issues possibly servor issues and maybe encoder issues. its just the way it is with older machines. unless your planning on doing a retrofit i would stay away from it, unless you get that bottom dollar price.

even still though you don't mention whether your shopping for a hobby or for business. if for business there are alot of other machines out there that are better suited and newer. this machine will be a project no matter what and hopefully you have the time to fiddle with it and don't mind it being down for a while.

even still though you don't mention whether your shopping for a hobby or for business.

Business..

Heed this warning... if this is for business, where you actually need to make money to support yourself this is not the machine for you. i've spent about 2500 dollars fixing my own machine with new motors, drives etc and its spent more time not running than running. the turret missing is really annoying and can screw up parts or time out in a hurry. about mid last year i bought a harding cobra 42 and a gang tooled CMS GTS lathe. although both were expensive and i had to get a loan, it was the best money spent as these machines are the work horses in my shop. other than periodic maintenance i haven't had any down time and they just keep making parts. also the cobra can use the 3/4 negative insert carbide tooling. the chncs are limited to either 3/8 or 1/2 square tool holders.

again not trying to discourage you but, as this is a business decision you need to look at this objectively. if i hadn't gotten mine so cheap i would have waited for something else.

I now have two CHNC machines. I refit the first to Camsoft and then i seen another on eBay just last month. I bought it for the tooling.

Mechanically the CHNC is super accurate. A worn out one will holder better tolerance than many new lathes.

I changed my machine over to toilet water (coolant). I'm not having oil in my shop. Ever seen what a shop running oil looks like?

Trouble with turret indexing is a constant on every CHNC. Its run by air motors and is sticky until warmed up.

Karl

P.S. I'd sell the one I just got for $2000 - no tooling

I work in a shop where there are screw machines that use oil. It can get real slick in a couple of minutes and the oil can get in the air...

I also have a line on an old Mori SL2 that is in great shape, supposedly. I am going to go look at it later this week, Lord willing.

I don't want to finance anything, it is just not in the plan right now. I am just starting out and don't need the added stress of machine payments. If there isn't any work I don't have to sweat it and it will also help keep my overhead down.