Hardinge CHNC Lathes

[JPMach]

I have the opportunity to get a CHNC 1 lathe with barfeeder for reasonable deal and I am trying to learn more about them. I have run a CHNC 3 + Super precision at another company and I know it will hold size all day long. My questions are these.

1. What is the difference between a CHNC 1 a 2 and a 3?
2. What does go wrong with them? I know from my past experince that they are good machines built to run 24/7 for alot of years but where are the most common problems.
3. The one I ran before had fapt on it which was really nice. Will this one have fapt? It is suppose to have a fanuc 0-T control on it but the guy wasn't sure about fapt.
4. How much does it weigh? I have a 7000lbs forklift to get it in my shop but will have to move it in to final posistion on pipes or something.
5. The machine that I ran before had a turret plate for 3/8" tools, I know they make some for 1/2" tools. Are these interchangeable so that I can run the bigger tools(I hated running the little 3/8" stuff to hard, afraid of breaking them)?

I am probably going to go and look at it some time next week but I am just trying to learn what I can ahead of time. I know it doesn't come with the part cutoff slide, but I had heard before that they were more of PITA than anything.

Any other thoughts or things to watch out for would be much appreciated.

JP

[Karl_T]

I'm refitting a CHNC. AFAIK, the 2 and 3 had larger collets than 5C and larger spindle motors. Plus a better control than the original AB. Otherwise the same.

The biggest thing to watch for is the dovetails and ball screws wore out from years of 24 hour day use. Also the servos have brushes, same thing. Of course spindle bearings also. Rebuilding all this = Big$

I moved mine around with a 5000 lb lift. May have been over the limit, but I did it. I removed every spare hunk of metal I could first.

The turrets are interchangable, I've bought four off Ebay and bunch of tooling to go along.

The Allan Bradely control on the 1 is useless these days, plan on a new control. That's the biggest problem. The 2 and 3 came with controls that can still be used today.

OK, what do you mean by fapt???

Karl

[Al_The_Man]

Originally Posted by JPMach 3. The one I ran before had fapt on it which was really nice. Will this one have fapt? It is suppose to have a fanuc 0-T control on it but the guy wasn't sure about fapt.

The keyboard will have a *FAPT key or a check of the board slots would show a FAPT board present, it was an expensive feature, so it was not added on a lot of low cost machines.
Al.
*FAPT Fanuc Automatic Programming Language Function (Conversational Programming)

[JPMach]

So then the 1 might only have a 5-c instead of the 16-c? Thats too bad the size of the 16-c is really nice for doing general purpose stuff, the 5-c is a little on the small end but I suppose I would just have to live with it. As far as I can tell from a couple pics the guy sent me the barfeeder is a Harmatic gatling style 12' length. I think he said they bought them new in the early '90s does this seem right. The 3+ lathe I ran before had the single tube style barfeeder on it, it seems like the gatling style would be a bit newer then that.

I will let you guys know what I find when I go and look at it as far as fapt or collet size and such. I kinda hope it at least has the larger collets, then I would feel better about getting it. I will also feel better about it if I can find a couple jobs to make on it right away, gotta keep looking for those.

JP

[JPMach]

Well I went and looked at the lathe yesterday. It is a '91 model with a 16C collet. From what the guy told me, whenever something went wrong they just put a new part in. He said it has new servos, Z ballscrew, collet closer, 1 or 2 boards, new keypad in it. Everything sounded good no bad vibrations and they still use it a little here and there. judging by the finish in the part that was in the collet the spindle bearings must still be pretty good. It has the 1/2" turret plate and will come with a couple of tool blocks. The hour meter on the back read just over 33000 hours. The barfeeder looked to be in excellent shape.

At this point I am seriously thinking about buying it. If I do get it I will be sure to post up a few pics.

Where is a good place to get more tool blocks from?

JP

[wdzhere]

i have about 50 tool holders for this machine plus 2 top plates and 2 air 16c collet closers if interested email me at wdzhere@hotmail.com

[JPMach]

They ended up putting them on the bay and getting alot more money than I was willing to pay. They were kinda knobs about the hole deal too so I wasn't to pleased with them.

JP