Greetings, Could anyone advise me on converting my Hardinge HLV to CNC? Has anyone done this conversion?
I realize that you only get what you pay for, but I would still like to do the at a reasonable cost, baring in mind I live in South Africa,where the prices are horrific to say the least.
Your advise would really be appreciated.
Regards,
Kevin

I looked into it myself and the only conversion worth looking at is the one by centroid and it costs approx £20,000.
http://www.centroidcnc.com/hardingehlvhcnc.htm

Greetings, thank for the information, but at the price of the conversion I would be about half way into the cost of purchasing a new/ very good used machine. It would cost me approximately R28,000, with an exchange rate of R14 to the British pound.
Anyway thank .
Regards

Greetings, Could anyone advise me on converting my Hardinge HLV to CNC? Has anyone done this conversion?
I realize that you only get what you pay for, but I would still like to do the at a reasonable cost, baring in mind I live in South Africa,where the prices are horrific to say the least.
Your advise would really be appreciated.
Regards,
Kevin

I would suggest that you contact Dwayne Elrod at www.elrodmachine.com. I know he did 2 conversions for a local university.

Tim

I would suggest that you contact Dwayne Elrod at www.elrodmachine.com. I know he did 2 conversions for a local university.

Tim

So did you notice this guy's writing from South Africa? Sure, Dwayne might make the trip, but...

I have emailed Dwayne asking him for a quote to compare with the crazy high one I had from a UK consultant. It looks like Dwayne may also be using the centroid one but maybe his fitting costs are a bit more reasonable !
May mean some travel to the UK though for Dwayne...or shipping bits to US...mmm

I will keep thread in touch with progress as I think the HLV-Hs are real beaut lathes and would prefer to use this rather than go for say a new HAAS TL-1 say

HLV's have very high resale value. The HNC is little more than a CNC version of the HLV, yet it has terrible resale value. You could probably sell your HLV for enough to buy and upgrade three HNC's.

I have a practically unused HNC and I can't even get $1K for it. A HLV in equal condition here in the states would bring $15K.

Kevin-
If the parts you are planning on producing are small in diamater, you could add an additional XY stage onto the dovetail that has CNC Control. This way, you could retain all of the value and versatility of the HLV, while having CNC as well. I had seen someone on a 9" southbend yahoo group do this with what I think was an XY stage from an old second operation hardinge lathe. You could clamp it to the dovetail bed, and it should repeat and stay aligned well. You could even have a reference stop that touches the headstock casting so that they Z position repeats as well.

Keith

Just wanted to second Keith's suggestion and point you to Randy's very neat bed top cnc machine:

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75106

I intend to make something like it myself :)

Kevin,

Since a FSM-59 is similar your Hardinge you may find the following thread a good read.

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75106

Jeff...

I just noticed Bill Todd types much faster than I do!

Greeting gentlemen, Thank you for the information.I think I'll have a look at Keith suggestion.
Regards, Kevin