I recently purchased a used Bridgeport mill for my own garage, a dream of mine since using them in college. Still in the clean up process and addressing a few broken and missing parts. I came to wonder about the authenticity of parts of the mill noting that there were various clone units out for sale (not sure if there were any counterfeit units). Here is the mill, a j head. It shouldn't be lost that regardless, the mill seems solid, in decent shape and I am excited to get to using it!
The head unit has matching serial numbers that both align with manufacturer dates around 1968.
There are a few strange things that stand out though.
1. The knee does not have a stamped serial number.
2. The ram is missing emblems. It looks like this one had plastic emblems, which did not seem to be consistent with 1960s manufacturing dates.
3. The base appears to have a different style footprint than most I have seen in photos.
4. The rated speed of the head and motor are 5440 rpm and 1.5 hp, not a very common combination, but I think this was a real manufactured type.
Would appreciate any ideas and thoughts anyone may have!
The head unit has matching serial numbers that both align with manufacturer dates around 1968.
There are a few strange things that stand out though.
1. The knee does not have a stamped serial number.
2. The ram is missing emblems. It looks like this one had plastic emblems, which did not seem to be consistent with 1960s manufacturing dates.
3. The base appears to have a different style footprint than most I have seen in photos.
4. The rated speed of the head and motor are 5440 rpm and 1.5 hp, not a very common combination, but I think this was a real manufactured type.
Would appreciate any ideas and thoughts anyone may have!
