Bridgeport model question

Eng8499 · Feb 19, 2018

Wondering if you guys could give some feedback on a Bridgeport.
This particular Bridgeport is relatively new (2003) and was an early one built by Hardinge.
The head was manufactured in the USA, but the base was manufactured and the machine was assembled in Taiwan. I've read these machines may not be as robust as previous versions that were fully made in the USA.

Any thoughts on this?

rons · Feb 19, 2018

The base casting is what you probably mean. I have heard good and bad.

If the head was made in the US and shipped to Taiwan for assembly to the base, what a frickin waste of resources.

JRIowa · Feb 19, 2018

I'm going to guess that most people here couldn't tell them appart. If you're looking at buying, there are many other things to worry about than where it was cast or assembled. Besides, the very early Harding made mills were still using up the BP stock, wherever that came from.
JR

HWElecRepair · Feb 20, 2018

FWIW, when we do trade-ins for heads/mills, we don't accept Hardinge Bridgeports as a core for a Bridgeport that we send to them. To most of our customers, that is important.

*shrugs* Doesnt at all answer your question, but its my 2 cents.

Jon
H&W Machine Repair

bsg · Feb 20, 2018

Eng8499 said:
Wondering if you guys could give some feedback on a Bridgeport.
This particular Bridgeport is relatively new (2003) and was an early one built by Hardinge.
The head was manufactured in the USA, but the base was manufactured and the machine was assembled in Taiwan. I've read these machines may not be as robust as previous versions that were fully made in the USA.

Any thoughts on this?

I had one of the early Hardinge/Bridgeports 2005, it was every bit as good as the older ones!
The biggest difference was the flaking on the table top, and the knee locks were gone and replaced with adjustable screws......other than that, I didn't notice any difference in quality!

Now a few years ago, Hardinge changed the base design, it looks like any other Asian mill now?

I would not hesitate to buy one of the earlier models but the later ones, no way!

Post pictures of the mill when you get a chance!

Kevin

gustafson · Feb 20, 2018

HWElecRepair said:
FWIW, when we do trade-ins for heads/mills, we don't accept Hardinge Bridgeports as a core for a Bridgeport that we send to them. To most of our customers, that is important.

*shrugs* Doesnt at all answer your question, but its my 2 cents.

Jon
H&W Machine Repair

I would hope you don't have too many 10 year old bridgeports coming in as cores....

Is there a reason other than customer preference? subtle mechanical differences etc?

Only problem bridgeports in my memory were some mid 80's ones with IIRC Singapore built heads. Had one at a lab I worked at that sat until repaired or replaced cannot remember

Have had 2 british built interacts in my shop, both with somewhat noisy heads, where my US built R2C3 is quiet as a mouse. Shrug

jccaclimber · Feb 20, 2018

HWElecRepair said:
FWIW, when we do trade-ins for heads/mills, we don't accept Hardinge Bridgeports as a core for a Bridgeport that we send to them. To most of our customers, that is important.

*shrugs* Doesnt at all answer your question, but its my 2 cents.

Jon
H&W Machine Repair

Jon,
Can you expand on this a bit? Are there incompatible parts, harder to work on, just not as solid, or some other reason?

JRIowa · Feb 20, 2018

Guys, guys, you all need to get out more.

BP changed the base design serveal times through the years. One of them was to eliminate the dish. That went over like a fart in church. If nobody changed anything, we'd all be using round ram, M heads.

As fort the 10 year old cores, years ago, we kept a BP exactly 8 years. Every year we'd get a new machine. Trust me, they were ready to go when they went. If you're making money with a BP, the depreciation is going to be up in 7 years. You trade the mill and start again. It's the way business works.
JR

HWElecRepair · Feb 21, 2018

Just for the record, I am now trying to get my foot outta my mouth kind of.

Found out that when we do core trade-ins/returns, we do our best to send out the closest serial number head to the serial number that we are getting from the customer. So its not that we don't do it for the quality, we do it to keep the machine close to the age that the entire machine is.

The one thing we dont do (well, rarely, and it is quite costly) is accept a J head and send back like a 2HP head or something like that.

So, I wasnt totally wrong. However, it was not at all for the reason that I thought it was.

I will go sit in the corner now and think about my life decision.

Jon
H&W Machine Repair

PS - We have a customer that sends us machines about every 3 or 5 years for rebuild. They do no PM work and run those machines 3 shifts a day, 365 days a year with no lube, no nothing.

Zahnrad Kopf · Feb 21, 2018

HWElecRepair said:
I will go sit in the corner now and think about my life decision.

It's okay, John. I've kept the chair warm for you.

We can write dirty limericks on the wall together. Here's a crayon....

JRIowa · Feb 21, 2018

Zahnrad Kopf said:
It's okay, John. I've kept the chair warm for you. We can write dirty limericks on the wall together. Here's a crayon....

You guys get crayons! If I'm lucky, I get to take my Kindle with me.
Jon, if that's the worst you ever do, you're way, way better than me.
JR

HWElecRepair · Feb 22, 2018

Its never smart to give a Marine crayons, apparently we love to eat them...

I just hate giving out bad gouge, ya know. There are people out there that wont read the entire thread and will only see my bad info and then take it as gold.

JR, I am just gonna take that as you saying I am "way better" than you. It is clearly wrote in black and white.

Jon
H&W Machine Repair

JRIowa · Feb 22, 2018

HWElecRepair said:
JR, I am just gonna take that as you saying I am "way better" than you. It is clearly wrote in black and white.

I'll have that put on your participation trophy

JR

Zahnrad Kopf · Feb 22, 2018

HWElecRepair said:
Its never smart to give a Marine crayons, apparently we love to eat them...

Too funny...! I was THIS close to writing something similar, but thought better of igniting the old Soldier vs. Marine brotherly rivalry.

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