I recently ran into a company on eBay called Machine Manual Services
When I started looking through the manuals, I noticed that they did not match my machine. For example, my lathe has the wider carriage power feed box. I contacted Bradley and he told me that he sold me the correct manuals but that it looks like someone modified my machine. Then I saw several other HLV-H lathes on eBay with the exact same power feed box as mine. I told him I find it hard to believe that all these machines around the same model year being sold by different people were modified the same way. No response from Bradley.
I then noticed that the spindle control box in the manual is totally different than mine. The manuals that he is selling is for 1978 and newer machines because Hardinge changes those then. I contacted Bradley about this. No response from him.
I contacted Hardinge and they told me I can still get the manual for my machine from them. I ordered them and as one would think, they match my machine perfectly.
I finally contacted Bradley several days ago. All along I would say to him, "Either send me the correct manuals or refund my money". His response was, "We don't give refunds on manuals." I asked him to them send me the right manual. No response. He has totally stopped returning all my e-mails.
So, the moral of the story is, "Be careful or you'll get ripped off!" Both the service manual and the parts manual are completely wrong. I wish this self proclaimed Harding expert would just be honest enough and say he made a mistake. I was dumb enough to listen to a HLV owner who told me that Hardinge did not sell manuals for my machine any longer or I would have never bothered going this route.
If you want transcripts of the actual e-mails, contact me directly.
Kory