Long unused Bridgeport

Hi,

I have a chance to buy a bport series 1 manual J head mill which is from the early 1980's but has been totally unused for 27 years. Near as I can tell the bijur system plunger is frozen and some of the tubes look empty, some full of dark oil.

Other than that, and whatever that may mean for other lubrication in the head, etc., the wear on the machine is basically non-existent.

It has an old mituyoto DRO which works and hopefully the scales could be reused for a more modern display?

My question is-- how much am I signing myself up for in teardown to clean out the lube system and am I also likely to have to open up the head and clean out gelled oil, or felt filters that would likely be dried up with oil?

Thanks!
Phil

Phil,
Get a manual:
http://bridgeport.askmisterscience.com/bridgeportlit.htm
See what others have done:
http://neme-s.org/Shaper Books/Brid...g Machine Parts Diagrams Series IJ and 2J.htm
Biljur systems:
http://www.bijurlubrication.com/

Most machines are set aside for a reason.
The head is semi-sealed. Follow the manual, add oil and run it. Inexperienced disassembly may do more harm than good. Check for problems after oiling and powered up.

Oil turns ugly after years of metal contact. Clean out the Biljur tank and add light oil to flush the system. Motor oil is fine right now. Clean the ways and remove the way wipers. Pump the Biljur and watch for oil as the saddle is traversed in and out. Clean the table dovetails (under the table) and wipe oil on the ways.
Same for the knee.
That's a start.
The scales are married to the display and let no man put them asunder. The signal code is proprietary for that display. The wires and connectors are likely brittle with age so treat them gently. The price of a new kit will be more than the price of the mill.

From your description I would purchase the mill.
John

What John said.

You will have about as much tedium on cleaning and seeing to proper lubes as if you bought a junker. And you need to do it, and do ALL of it.

HOWEVER.. if your description is accurate, your PARTS cost will be near-zero, and you will not have to mill & scrape-in the ways on any part of the knee.

Nor even paint it, probably.

Buy a humongous tin of "Goop" non-abrasive hand-cleaner, a case of paper towels, and a bag of chip-brushes. It'll take crud off with no more damage to original paint than to your hands, and you won't have Kerosene, Acetone, etc, as a fire-hazard or staining the deck under the mill, nor "Purple wotever" (lye, mostly..) attacking anything at all.

If you've found some 37 year old mothballed, nearly unused Bridgeport mill with minimal wear and all it has is a plugged up Bijur? I'd snag it up and break the machine down into it's major components. Remove the table, remove the knee and IMO I'd break down the powerhead (just the power head part, not the more complicated quill and autofeed mechanism etc). I just bought my first Bridgeport a couple months ago and I didn't know anything about how they were put together (although I am mechanically inclined and I do have an extensive tool collection).

It's not that hard really, it's a pretty simple machine. I used my adjustable hydraulic motorcycle stand to support the weight of my table when sliding it on and off. I manually took the saddle off after that. Then I used my HF 2 ton hoist to elevate and remove the knee. Then I got into every nook and cranny and cleaned out all the trapped chips jammed into the various wear points, mostly between the ways (and you will probably find plenty, considering it was used for ten years before going into storage).

Then I tested the exposed Bijur system. It mostly worked, but it did have a plugged up port or two. I cleaned those out until I had full flow in all ports. I also noticed two of the Bijur lubricating lines under the table were disconnecting from the cross-nut. I reconnected them, thereby restoring full lubrication to all required locations. Before reassembly, I cleaned all the X, Y and Z leadscrews and nuts to shiny metal. Cleaned, adjusted and lubricated the 90 deg gearbox inside the knee (that's connected to the Z axis crank handle). Everything else was thoroughly cleaned and luricated. After reassembling the saddle and table, I replaced the felt wipers on the Y and Z axis (none for X) to keep chips out. I plan to get a piece of rubber sheet or a bellows arrangement to keep further chips from getting into the ways, I'd advise similar if you're lucky enough to have a minimal wear machine. You want to keep it that way if you plan on keeping the machine for a long time.

My machine had a noisy variable speed head so I decided to buy a rebuild kit from H&W and rebuild it. Again, it really wasn't that hard, and again I had no experience working on Bridgeports. H&W has excellent instructional videos on youtube that I watched that really help. And I'm glad I did go into the head, because the grease that lubricates the bullgear and pinion gear (i.e. the High/Low system) was all dried up. I cleaned out all the dried up goop and replaced it with fresh grease. I also had plugged up grease passageways in the head and cleaned them out with a wire and solvent. Had I not broken the head down, I never would have known that or been able to fix it.

The ram and the tilt head were very gummed up and had some rust on the ways. So I decided to also remove the ram using my HF hoist. This part was very easy to do. I cleaned everything up by vacuuming out all the chips everywhere. Then using WD40 and a scotchbrite pad to clean the ways, the rack and pinion gear system and also the nod-tilt head gear system. And again, once I had it apart it had all this dried up grease in the head rotation worm gear drive system (the system that allows you to rotate the head clockwise or counterclockwise and invert it by cranking on the nut on the side of the head). I cleaned out all the dried up grease and pack fresh grease in there. Oiled the now shiny clean ways and rack and pinion system on the ram with way oil, put it all back together and now everything works better than new. The ram now slides so easily I can move it with one finger and if I'm not careful it will slide off the turret part! (actually there is a stop, but it slides like glass now) Same for the nod and turret rotating part. Everything is clean, lubricated and adjusted to work perfectly. Much nicer than before.

Anyway, IMO that's what I would do. I thoroughly enjoyed breaking my machine down and learning all about it. And since I didn't go into the deep mechanical part of the head, all systems really were quite simple and easy to understand. And it didn't take that long either. Plus I fixed all the dried up grease problems, stuck Bijur valves and cleaned out all the deeply jammed chips packed deep into the ways (endlessly chafing my ways down with every table movement). Now my machine is all cleaned up, properly lubricated, properly adjusted, easy to use and set up to last the rest of my lifetime with minimal fuss.

Maschine said:

If you've found some 37 year old mothballed, nearly unused Bridgeport mill with minimal wear and all it has is a plugged up Bijur? I'd snag it up and break the machine down into it's major components.

Click to expand...

I agree with all points here. Just a few words about the Bijur. That system is like $600 new. I would not attempt to unstick the Bijur pump as it is.

I would remove the tank and clean it thoroughly, then replace the fluid with something like kerosene. Maybe remove the filters from the bottom of the pump first. Disconnect the hose that feeds the manifold, located on the underside of the saddle, and see if you can get the pump moving. Once that line is clean, I think you should remove the manifold and reconnect it to the hose. Use a flare nut wrench to remove all of the black plastic lines. You can strip these easily. Then pump and see if the metering valves are doing their job. Some of mine are clogged, some are free, so I will replace them all. Keep working your way up in this same manner, using kerosene or the like.

Once the system is fully working, I’d repeat the process using Vactra. Strongly recommend replacing the pump filters and maybe the metering valves if they are giving you any trouble. If you are not familiar with these, don't expect gobs of oil to pump thru them. They provide just a drip of oil each. And with Vactra, you pump once and the level s-l-o-w-l-y resets.


Manifold I'm talking about is at the top of the photo.

Monarchist said:

Buy a humongous tin of "Goop" non-abrasive hand-cleaner, a case of paper towels, and a bag of chip-brushes. It'll take crud off with no more damage to original paint than to your hands, and you won't have Kerosene, Acetone, etc, as a fire-hazard or staining the deck under the mill, nor "Purple wotever" (lye, mostly..) attacking anything at all.

Click to expand...

Ya know that is a great idea. Goop, the creamy white stuff. In all the years working I could have cleaned the parts and my hands at the same time
John

jhruska said:

Ya know that is a great idea. Goop, the creamy white stuff. In all the years working I could have cleaned the parts and my hands at the same time
John

Click to expand...

The best parts? It can be worked in 'time available' sized areas, cleaned up easily, doesn't flood the deck underfoot with the crap and solvent runoff as one proceeds, "fumigate" the area.

Effective without being overly aggressive, too!

Milacron's dealership photos of the HBX-360-BC show prior-owner's ID of "L3" in yellow.

Both of those came right off with minor scrubbing, ignorant dime-store "shoe polish dauber" brush, original paint unharmed.

Nonetheless, I do recommend disposable gloves.

Start with clean hands? Well.. the crud Goop is removing has to go SOMEWHERE!

All,

Thanks for your advice. I took another look at the machine today and took the plunge...
other than the head needing a tramming and the lubrication issues, it looks excellent.

Turns out chrome ways that are basically spotless.

I'll follow your advice cleaning up the lubrication system and see how it goes!

-Phil

Just in case you take a dive into lube system disassembly: I don't think anyone mentioned that there are different values for the metering valves/restrictors, depending on where they are located. This allows all parts of the machine to get roughly equivalent lube amounts. I don't know if the BPort manuals get into that detail, just be aware that the valves do have specific (and different) levels of functionality.

Hi,

Just a follow-up to say the mill cleaned up quite nicely and the lube system
flowing with only few hours of cleaning/purging.

Thanks!
-Phil