It would be interesting to know how such an exact copy of the Hardinge HLV lathe came to be built - was it sanctioned in some way by Hardinge -or just cribbed ? The maker was the "Fair Friend Company Limited", of 11/F No. 665, Tun-Hwa South Road, Taipei, Taiwan with a factory at No. 805, Chung-Shan Road, Shen-Kang Shiang, Taichung-Hsien, Taiwan.  Also manufactured in Taiwan, by the Sharp company, was another beautifully-made copy sold as standard with a hardened bed and 5 h.p. Japanese Yaskawa drive. Sharp also made the "Acra", a lees well finished model with a soft bed and minor changes to cut production costs.  Another HLV-H copy was made or marketed by a company called ProMach who labelled their version the "Prolathe"  with sales continuing until at least 1995, and possibly later.
Whatever the reasons for the Feeler's manufacture it was certainly a very well executed machine with certain specification improvements over the Hardinge including the fitting as standard of dual metric and English micrometer dials and a combined metric and English screwcutting gearbox. One satisfied owner reports faultless performance and perfect accuracy - so, this might be one Taiwanese lathe well worth considering - if you can live without the cachet of the Hardinge name, that is.
The headstock spindle (which accepted standard 5C collets) had an infinitely-variable speed range of 135 to 2955 rpm, ran in precision preloaded ball bearings and the TIR (total indicated run-out) at the nose was guaranteed to be better than one hundred millionths of an inch (0.0001"). A lever-operated collet closer was fitted as standard and the spindle nose fitting replicated the well-designed "twist-on" bayonet type used by Hardinge for many years.
Like the Hardinge, the carriage was powered by a separate variable-speed motor, so allowing the spindle speed and tool-feed rate to be independently controlled. If the text-book setting for the particular combination of workpiece diameter, material and tool angles in use at the time did not produce perfect results then, by experimentation, adjustments could be instantly made to one or both of the controls until things improved. (Another important advantage of independent drives is that it reduces the number of gears involved in the transmission of power - gear drives are bad news for surface finish, they induce vibrations which, whilst usually hidden in the "roughness" of ordinary turning, become much more evident in the finer finishes that high-quality machines are able to produce.)
The saddle base was lined with Turcite B plastic to reduce friction and allow a more sensitive adjustment to be made to the gib strip; on the FTL-618E and 618-EM models pressure lubrication to all three slideways could be ordered as an optional extra.
The very heavy, double-walled oil-bath apron held power sliding and surfacing feed clutches (of a spring-loaded design first used long ago on top-class English CVA and American Monarch and some Rivett toolroom lathes). The clutches were a friction type, operated by a positive lever action and designed so that, should they slip, it would be an indication to the operator that the machine was being worked beyond its capacity. For more details, compare the lathe with the Hardinge original.