Bought a bridgeport today

I have been shopping around for almost a year and finally pulled the trigger my first mill, it is a J-head, during my hunt I passed up a 2hp Famco, a bunch of M-heads, a couple of round column imports, and countless hours of craigslist calls and emails looking at clapped out parts machines.

The machine has a few more holes in the table than I would have liked (filled with epoxy), but they are all on the most forward part of the table, a couple of good posts here convinced me that it was something worth getting over. The mill came with a 140 servo power feed on the X, one shot lube, a kurt vise, an older DRO, a full set import R8 collets and a hold down kit...and the seller is going to deliver it for the asking price (which is where my forklift will complete the transaction).

I plan to install a VFD on it after a good clean-up and familiarization of the machine, I am sure I will have lots of questions

That looks like it has been taken care of... Heck of a lot better than most of the one I see around here..

Have fun and good luck with it

I wish my table looked like that; it will look a little closer to that once we have the Beast running In the end the holes don't matter much because the work or vice span them. Looks good.

Andy

Thanks for the vote of quality.....pricing bridgeports is soooo subjective, it is hard to tell sometimes if you got a good deal or not. The machine has a recent repaint, and the ways have been scraped recently (I was told the whole machine was recently rebuilt), I think it was a good job, as the scraping seemed significantly shallower where the saddle would have worn the ways heavily (least amount of material removed from the low point). I am excited to dig into it, with the extras that came with it, I think I got a good deal. Anyone that can point me toward a few useful links for a first time bridgeport owner (what to check, clean, lube), it would be much appreciated.

That looks nicer than the one I just got, how does it sound? Make sure oil comes out of all the metering valves, or at least drips from all the right places.

Good choice on skipping the import junk and picking a step head. I spend at least a couple of days a week fixing Bridgeport milling machines, the variable speed heads are the worst part of Bridgeport engineering in my estimation. The old step heads are far more reliable. I'm setting one up right now with a 3hp baldor motor, gates polychain cog belt system, and a vfd just to try it out.

Nice Bridgeport,

All it needs now is quickchange tooling
R8 Quick Change Tooling System Two Axis Complete kit

I was advised to stay away from M-heads and vari-speed heads if capacity and reliability was my end game....glad to hear I wasn't pointed in the wrong direction.
The motor / head sounded great, I didn't cut any chips with it.....but running under no load it was very quiet.
The lube system def. does not hold pressure, I can hear a hiss that doesn't seem to be coming out of the lube points, but I am hoping it is just a kinked line. The machine was suppose to have been rebuilt somewhat recently (but I still plan to do a thorough inspection once it is in the shop.

My plan was for a vfd, but I am thinking a phase converter will be beneficial, as I plan to continue to buy equipment that will need 3-phase, and having a phase converter will allow me to debug prior to investing in a VFD for each machine.

shelby987 said:

My plan was for a vfd, but I am thinking a phase converter will be beneficial, as I plan to continue to buy equipment that will need 3-phase, and having a phase converter will allow me to debug prior to investing in a VFD for each machine.

Click to expand...

I have one bridgeport on a vfd and another on the shop RPC so I'm a believer in both methods.

I had the RPC already but bought a vfd for the cnc bridgeport because I plan on using the computer to control the spindle someday. It works very well and is easy to use as a speed control as I bought a VFD that has a detachable head that is remote mounted on the head of my machine. I just turn a knob and adjust the speed easily..

That being said I find the RPC to be a better use of my limited funds as it can run any machine. I currently have a 10 Hp RPC powering 7 different machines. 3 phase machine are plentiful and with a RPC you can buy almost any machine you see for sale.

As I said I currently have a 10 hp in the shop now. Here is a picture of the install.



Just tonight I finished ordering a new 20 hp Phase-Craft control box to make another system for the shop. I am installing a big planner and need the larger size RPC just for it

I have about 400.00 in control panel, idler motor and fuse boxes invested in the 10 hp unit and 700.00 in the parts for the 20 hp unit. Soon there will be 14 different 3 phase machines working in the shop and I have provided power to all of them for 1100.00. VFD's would be a ton of money for most of those machines and two would not be able to run on a vfd.

You can order a control panel or make your own as there is a ton of help here on this forum. Used motors are harder to find but they are out there. My 10 HP was around 125.00 and my 20 HP was 300.00

Good luck!

You will want to get a hand wheel for the down feed. The standard size wheel does not fit on my machine due to a
indicator mount. So I made a smaller sized one.

The grinder is not the idler motor. It was just there when I was testing the grinder. The idler motor is on the second floor and can just be seen in the second picture with the conduit leading up to it...

You bought that in Burlington, NC didn't you? From a red-headed man named Randy? The shop in the backround looks very familiar. Pretty sure that's the same guy i bought my J-Head from! Gave me one hell of a deal!