260 Spindle Nose

[cba_melbourne]

In the main forum it was recently reported that the Hercus 260 main spindle is hardened. I can however very easily file the spindle on my 260. It is definitely not hardened. And if it was hardened, the surfaces would have to have been ground after hardening, but instead they appear just turned and the gear end milled. If I compare to my other lathe (an EMCO) the same file can not even scratch the spindle surface anywhere, it is harder than my file.

I wonder if all Hercus 260 have soft spindles. Or if Hercus sometime down the track changed from hardened to soft spindles (or vise versa). My 260 was manufactured in 1987 or 1988 (it was bought new in 1988). Now I have the belt drive version - maybe only the geared head model had a hardened spindle?

Can anyone with a 260 confirm if there are indeed hardened spindles around?

Thanks, Chris

[scottyd]

My machine and all of the 260's Ive had in my care before (which covers a range of models as well, DGM and ATM's) all had soft spindles. I had to re-face the shoulder on a few in my last school, all cut like butter with HSS. Mine (a CTM) needed a face on the end of the thread, also cut nicely. Mine is 16xxx and the school ones were somewhere in the 19xxx range.