Hardinge files for Chapter 11

[Here's Johnny!]

https://www.wmtxlaw.com/machine-toolmaker-hardinge-files-ch-11-with-plans-to-sell-law/#:~:text=New%20York%2Dbased%20metal%2Dcutting,to%20pursue%20a%20bankruptcy%20sale.

[ghuns]

Wow. Since 1890.

Helluva run.

Nobody made a better small lathe.

[YoDoug]

When I first started working for the Okuma Dist there was a partnership between the Okuma dist base in America and Hardinge. If you were an Okuma dist you got access to all Hardinge machines, American made and imported Taiwan machines.  The big three Dist ordered like 100+ import machines at one time to stock inventory. Hardinge went crazy. All kinds of promotions and expansion. They thought this was going to be their new norm. Sadly, when I left 8 years later there were still some of those machines in stock. They over estimated their ability to compete with Haas in the cheap machine market.

As for the American machines, they were too niche of product. The super precision machines were just that. They tried to market them as grinder capable hard turning machines but in truth they were just not quite what a grinder could do. Then the price/tolerance were too high for most users. Likewise, the small gang and turret style CHNC were outdated. When I first started at the dist, probably 50% of our lathe sales were single spindle 2 axis. By the time I left it was probably less than 10%. The CHNC/GT machines are not what people are looking for. Likewise chucking Swiss machines can rival them but get a part done in one op. The market changed but Hardinge didn't

I always got a very overly prideful, big ego attitude from Hardinge people when working with them. The longer they worked there the greater that attitude. It really felt like they thought the market should do what Hardinge says, not the other way around.

[gcode]

I spent a lot of time on one of those little manual Hardinge toolroom lathes ( no idea what it's model name was)
5C collet nose or a 6" 3 jaw chuck.
My partner called it a Hardinge chucker.
He was 20 years older than me and had raised 3 kids running one of those little lathes.

I remember looking at their small CNC lathes when it was time to get our first CNC.
They were way out of our price range, talking about hard turning and holding microns and stuff.
We just needed a turn and burn CNC chucker.., We ended up buying a Takisawa 8" chucker.
It was a great machine and we made a bunch of money with it.
We had owned that machine about 6 months when a little Japanese man with a translator in tow showed up unannounced one morning.
He was the President of Takisawa Japan and he was stopping by to make sure we were satisfied with his machine.
That impressed the hell out of me. I knew right then that the Japanese were going to kick our ass in the machine tool industry... and they certainly did that.

 

[Newbeeee™]

GT plattens and T42 were great machines and the GT's would hold 5 microns all day without breaking a sweat.
As Doug said their mistake was staying commodity - and just buying it in designed and made by someone else.

[neurosis]

I spent a lot of time on one of those little manual Hardinge toolroom lathes ( no idea what it's model name was)
5C collet nose or a 6" 3 jaw chuck.
My partner called it a Hardinge chucker.

We still have two of these at our shop. We use them all the time.

[CADCAM396]

started out my machining career on a hardinge chucker 39 years ago. love hate relationship making 100 parts a day on that thing.
what i would give to have one in my home shop now.
very sad piece of history going down. more sad that many will have no idea what to do with the machine i started on in the near future. it has its place.

[Here's Johnny!]

Sharp makes a decent copy of the Hardinge HLV dovetail bed lathe.

We still have a Hardinge HLV and a Taiwan clone. Use them daily.

[DUM1]

second machining job 25 years ago running those great hardinge laths , great machines! wish we had one now I could have used it a bunch of times , instead of chucking up a piece of material in the spindle and an end mill in a vise to turn down a pin or ... a plug ? 

[Here's Johnny!]

On the topic of the Hardinge dovetail bed lathes.... The carriage is lined with 0.015" Teflon sheet, that is what makes it move so smoothly. We replaced the Teflon on ours here a couple of years ago.

[gcode]

We've got one here in our tooling department, but no one who knows how to run it.
We can't hire a toolmaker. There aren't any.
They don't teach machining in high school anymore.
We had a really good one, but he was killed in a motorcycle accident.
We recruited another to come out of retirement, but he quit because he was bored.

[Here's Johnny!]

We've got one here in our tooling department, but no one who knows how to run it.
We can't hire a toolmaker. There aren't any.
They don't teach machining in high school anymore.
We had a really good one, but he was killed in a motorcycle accident.
We recruited another to come out of retirement, but he quit because he was bored.

We are hiring an apprentice machinist currently (job was just posted), we found the same problem that no one has any manual machining experience. The person that gets hired will be formally trained in manual machining before moving on to CNC machining. We want to build foundational skills that will hopefully create a well rounded tradesperson. 

[mkd]

I've told this story enough, but i'll say it again just the same.
 Went on a factory tour in Elmira NY in 1992. very interesting tour. They had a brass spherical sample part. Chaperone said not to touch it because the fingerprints would throw off the measurements. The college class proceeded to rub it like their wang.
 Anyways, pretty cool polymer concrete base lathes.

I seem to remember the Hardinge 480 twin pallet mill that got lots of excitement upon release.... then how the things ran, sunk that ship. That's just a hell of a leadership failure.

[Incogneeto]

Every , Every , ok Not Every.

Shop had a Hardinge chucker some with variable speed and Feed. They are Priceless.

Two minute set up slap and Hit. Drill a hole , cut a Diameter, Tap and Thread.

You can't beat em.

Finishing Parts , sand and deburr.

Phenomenal speed. When I walked in for an interview it told me all I needed to know.

Got One??

You could put in an endmill in the tailstock chuck and drill out a broken Bolt.

Then re-tap in seconds.

Plus you could use it as a standard Lathe. Not a lot of Power. But Priceless.

When things went to shit I walked over to that machine. Sorry But I Love Them.

[Incogneeto]

Not to mention but I always had a 1/2" by 12" piece of stock and would Lock the Chuck to Change Heads.

3 and 4 jaws or to Collet. about 30 seconds.