Hello there. This is my first post but I have been lurking on this site for years. I am currently a grad student in a small design program. There is a decent metal shop with a Bridgeport and a Wilton lathe (think its Taiwanese rebrand?). Anywhoo, right before I started the program they lost their only shop manager who knows ANYTHING about these machines. There is literally not one person at this school qualified to teach or maintain the machines at this point. I have taught myself quite a bit but I am an amateur with no formal training, so I apologize if I use terms incorrectly. This summer the mill and lathe took quite a bit of abuse from someone, tons of broken tools, broken rotary table, broken pin in the quill, everything misaligned... etc. I tried to get the school to do something about a tune up or something but i don't expect much because most students are not interested in the metal shop.
Its driving me crazy to watch these machines be run into the ground, and the inaccuracy on the lathe has made it useless except for non-critical parts. So I am going to start performing the maintenance even though that is technically against school policy. I have trammed the mill head and squared the vice. I have been following the oiling schedule written on the side. The mill is in OK shape but I'm sure there is room for improvement.
TLDR
I'm looking for a list/order of operations of things I can do to get the most out of these machines.
so far the problems i have identified with the Wilton lathe are;
headstock misaligned
tailstock misaligned
X & Y cranks do not hold position when auto-feed is engaged, they wander
quite a bit of backlash in both the x and y
The remaining problems I have identified with the Bridgeport are;
the ways locks don't lock very well anymore.
there is fair bit of backlash (.045") in the X and Y
the lever for the auto-feed on the quill is sticky and won't disengage once it hits the depth stop.
is there a guide to a general tune up procedure? It seems a bit overwhelming at this moment.
thanks
-Vic
Its driving me crazy to watch these machines be run into the ground, and the inaccuracy on the lathe has made it useless except for non-critical parts. So I am going to start performing the maintenance even though that is technically against school policy. I have trammed the mill head and squared the vice. I have been following the oiling schedule written on the side. The mill is in OK shape but I'm sure there is room for improvement.
TLDR
I'm looking for a list/order of operations of things I can do to get the most out of these machines.
so far the problems i have identified with the Wilton lathe are;
headstock misaligned
tailstock misaligned
X & Y cranks do not hold position when auto-feed is engaged, they wander
quite a bit of backlash in both the x and y
The remaining problems I have identified with the Bridgeport are;
the ways locks don't lock very well anymore.
there is fair bit of backlash (.045") in the X and Y
the lever for the auto-feed on the quill is sticky and won't disengage once it hits the depth stop.
is there a guide to a general tune up procedure? It seems a bit overwhelming at this moment.
thanks
-Vic