Help ID strange early '80s Bridgeport Factory CNC + oiling question.

Gravelbar · Sep 17, 2014

A young man near St. Louis found this machine for me and fitted a brand new Machmotion control system with existing steppers, then he took his payment and went AWOL.

It was still on the original pallet; likely a spare that was never used; very little wear. Serial number is "CNC 375". I can't find anything like it on the web, I'm not even sure what it was called.

Would be nice to date is and get a proper manual, and also I'm confused about lubrication (I'm a scientist who also machines things, not a pro by any stretch.)

See photos; there is a one-shot lube system that appears to be working, but also a plate on the belt housing that seems to refer to things that don't exist and contradicts the "DO NOT OIL" plate on the front. I have old Series I manuals and such but can't find anything on this beast.

Works great, by the way, my first CNC machine and after years of prototyping by hand I love it!

Outdoor photo shows it as found; red label on the left has "Bridgeport Textron" on it.

WILLEO6709 · Sep 17, 2014

They are telling you not to lubricate the vari-drive belt on top. read the plate carefully. Every 2j head has this plate( even the 1.5 hp ones). Its telling you to put some lubriplate into the back gear housing through a provided set screw at specified intervals. The bijur takes care of ways and screws, the backgear is lubed manually, the vari drive is not lubed at all. The quill may have an oil cup as well.

Gravelbar · Sep 17, 2014

Thanks Willeo6709. And how about a right side up photo? Sorry about the sideways attachments.

Joec@westminster · Sep 17, 2014

Wow, What a blast from the past. I used to run a Boss 4 back in the mid 80's and this looks even earlier. Is there a tape drive in the electrics cabinet? The spindle looks to have the cam ring to lock the tool in place rather than a draw bar as well.

What are you using to program it? Was it difficult to convert?

swatkins · Sep 17, 2014

Read up on Bridgeport Boss machines.. They had different models Boss 1-9 ( I think ) with the later models 9,8 and maybe 7 having servos instead of the steppers.

The Bosses were made especially for CNC control with factory ball screws and controls. The table is deceptive because of it's size. The Bosses were made with large tables that were designed NOT to overhang and tip like a standard Bridgeport mill table. Yours looks just like mine does and should have a table workspace of X= 18" and Y= 12". Mine is a Boss 5.

I am rebuilding my machine and getting rid of both the rear and side cabinet. Right now it is cutting with a Mach3 program controlling the servos and the original 3 phase power supply running the spindle. Soon I will rip off the power cabinet and install a VFD to control the spindle with the computer program. My spindle has a UNIVERSAL ENGINEERING KWIK-SWITCH 200 master and I have a small selection of tooling that came with it. Tooling is easy to find and there are deals on Ebay....

Anything else you need to know ?

Steve

Gravelbar · Sep 17, 2014

Joe, the guy who converted it to Machmotion trashed all the original electronics; saved only the stepper motors, so I don't know about that. He said it was very easy to convert, no modification, actually -- Mach 3 with new motor driver. The spindle is Erickson Quick Change 30 taper, yes, no drawbar.

Gravelbar · Sep 17, 2014

Thanks, Steve. I may have other questions later. I would like to know when it was made. Also any service/use manuals, I can't find anything on the web or at Hardinge. Because it's not my main gig (I have to do 50 jobs+owner/boss) I can only spend so much time learning about it and of course don't want to abuse or wreck it.

What's the s/n on yours? Mine is "CNC 375". As I mentioned elsewhere here it's Erickson Quick Change 30 taper; not too hard to find, though I have got only worn out collet chucks from Ebay so far, ended up buying new to get decent ones ; not bad, $150 new.

Now I have to find all those oil cups, first look I didn't see anything like what the plaque mentioned on the head.

swatkins · Sep 17, 2014

Gravelbar said:
Now I have to find all those oil cups, first look I didn't see anything like what the plaque mentioned on the head.

Good luck! ( Hint... There are none)

You have a one shot oiler on the machine that takes care of the head lubrication. There should be a small oil tube entering the rear of the spindle. My oiler is electrically controlled and pumps a shot of oil to all the lube points about every 5 minutes. Your oiler looks to be the same as mine, see the electric wire going into the rear cabinet? That is supposed to be connected to 110 volts and used to be controlled by the control cabinet. When I ripped my control cabinet off I had to rewire the pump to 110 for it to work. You really need to check out that and make sure the oiler is working. Also built into that oiler is a oil level safety switch, no oil = no motor run. Turn on your mill and watch the rod on the left top of the oiler. As the motor timer turns that rod will rise and then fall.. It's very slow so you need to watch and measure it over 5 minutes.

Seeing as how your machine is almost new you might have all the metering ports in good working order. You really need to check because they could be clogged. Check now before you mess up your machine! Here are the instructions for looking under the table... I just changed out all 11 on mine so I know it's getting oiled correctly.

Gravelbar · Sep 17, 2014

Swatkins, OK, glad to hear I'm not crazy; I could not find any, but poster above says they're there. Did Bridgeport just put the dumb plaque on top anyway? Oiler is working, I've been checking and I have oil dripping from the quill, and I did spot the tube going into the head of course -- but how can I be sure the spindle bearings are getting lubed? Ways and screws are good, too, I think the rebuilder took care of all that, though he's AWOL now (something about merging with somebody else and then won't return calls...he was supposed to run through all this with me) so I can't ask him questions.

He did specifically mention wiring and setting up the one-shot and I've been checking that.

And I ain't complaining much about AWOL because this is a really sweet machine and I love old American Iron.

Many thanks. I could not run this little 10-person world-changing semi-profit without kind people like you guys on the web.

swatkins · Sep 18, 2014

I "think " everything in the head is pre loaded with grease so no worries there.. As long as you have oil dripping you should be in good shape there.

I would move the table over and make sure all the ways are getting oil and the sides of the rails have open drip holes. These oilers have one problem, if a metering unit is plugged you might miss it and all the rest of the lube points get more oil than their share. You should have 11 units on that machine. I suggest taking the outflow line off each unit one at a time and making sure oil is flowing through the unit. You can take off a hose and then pull up on the pump rod located on the left of the oil reservoir. A shot of oil should come out when the rod is pulled up. Should not take more than 30 minutes to check them all...

The SN on my knee is 1013 so it looks like your machine is a earlier machine than my boss 5.... Does not matter much as you have removed the original control..

And yes, Bridgeport just put the dumb plaque on top anyway... Should have the serial number of the j2 head imprinted there..

Gravelbar · Sep 18, 2014

Steve (swatkins). Many thanks, your advice is a huge help.

I have been checking the ways and they seem very liberally oiled, but I will follow your advice. I have pulled up the handle, is it normal for it to stay up and slowly work its way back down? (When you are not looking, like the refrigerator light.) Another mystery to me.

Odd that Bridgeport would leave a nonsensical warning plaque on there!

adama · Sep 18, 2014

Yeah thats how the oilers work, motor with cam lifts the plunger against spring, end of cam the plunger pumps under the spring pressure and is a nice slow steady squeeze of oil that the metering units divide up into all the different directions.

Its one of the nice things to see on any bridgeport, a auto oil thats in working condition and all the lube lines are flowing, chances are the machine will show little in the way of actual wear.

Peter.Steele · Mar 31, 2015

Looks like you and I have about the same machine. Mine is a little older - CNC 165, vice your 375 - but other than the speed control looking a little different I think they're almost identical.

Great machines.

QC30 tooling isn't that expensive. Get a couple of DA-180 collet holders. You can get actual Erickson stuff from Enco for ~$150, and they're really nice. Watch out when you're machining thin stuff, though - the vibration in the part can cause the QC nut to loosen up and spit out the tool holder. If I'm cutting on something really solid it's not a problem, only when it's thin stuff.

Modelman · Mar 31, 2015

I've been running a slightly newer version (CNC 3303) with a retrofit control for the last twenty years. The plate looks like Bridgeport was just using the standard 2J2 plate and adding the sealed bearing plate... when the machine came new from the factory it was obvious the paragraphs about the oil cups didn't apply, since the machine didn't have any.

My Bijur system has a line up into the head that just ends where the oil drips on the top of the quill and the large screw that runs the Z motion, drains down through the bearings, and spins out the bottom, like all Brideports do. If you get a shower the first time you turn the spindle on after it sat the weekend, you're OK.

In twenty years, I've never lost a toolholder out of the QC nut. The nut is adjustable, and it sounds like Peter's needs adjustment.

Dennis

Peter.Steele · Mar 31, 2015

Modelman said:
In twenty years, I've never lost a toolholder out of the QC nut. The nut is adjustable, and it sounds like Peter's needs adjustment.

Dennis

I'd love to adjust it ... except that I can't find any documentation ANYWERE on how to do it... and I've looked. Hard.

gustafson · Mar 31, 2015

On the kwik switch ones they get chips in them so the collar won't rotate far enough

try cleaning it out

swatkins · Mar 31, 2015

Here is the best place I've found for KS 200 nut parts.. The link is to the installation instructions for it...

My Master Nut has had some modifications to it and I think it's ruined.. I replaced the springs and had everything working right but now it can move too far, someone milled out the stop inside the nut, and the nut can rotate too far and let the tool holder slip out..

Modelman · Mar 31, 2015

Peter.Steele said:
I'd love to adjust it ... except that I can't find any documentation ANYWERE on how to do it... and I've looked. Hard.

We are talking Erickson QC-30 here, right? Because someone just introduced Universal Kwikswitch 200 into the discussion.

It's been a while since I've had to do this, but on the QC-30 nut you'll see three buttons, that are actually the heads of button head cap screws. As you remove them, you'll find that two are short, and the third longer with a point that looks like a dog point set screw. That acts as a stop. Mark the hole it came out of, and put it in the next hole over, so the nut can tighten a bit more, then replace the two short screws to keep chips out of the other holes. Actually, while the screws are out would be a good time to screw the nut all the way off and clean inside.

Dennis

Peter.Steele · Mar 31, 2015

Modelman said:
We are talking Erickson QC-30 here, right? Because someone just introduced Universal Kwikswitch 200 into the discussion.

It's been a while since I've had to do this, but on the QC-30 nut you'll see three buttons, that are actually the heads of button head cap screws. As you remove them, you'll find that two are short, and the third longer with a point that looks like a dog point set screw. That acts as a stop. Mark the hole it came out of, and put it in the next hole over, so the nut can tighten a bit more, then replace the two short screws to keep chips out of the other holes. Actually, while the screws are out would be a good time to screw the nut all the way off and clean inside.

Dennis

Well, this has turned out to be quite the threadjack ... I hadn't intended it, but I'm grateful for the information.

Sadly, it looks like the button head screws are all worn beyond the use of an allen wrench. Good news though is that the wear on the inside doesn't appear to be too bad. I'm contemplating looking for a source for replacement screws and then slotting these ones with a dremel so I can at least get them out.

(And yes, Erickson QC30.)

Help ID strange early '80s Bridgeport Factory CNC + oiling question.

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