What's new
What's new

Questions from a newbie about a new Vert Mill (BP clone). Easy stuff...with pictures

HokieMachinist

Plastic
Joined
Mar 21, 2007
Location
Christiansburg, VA
Hi everyone. I'm so glad I found this forum. Though it has been great searching the archived questions, I haven't found the quick, down and dirty answers I need. I have some very simple questions for everyone, and I'll even include some pictures.

I have machined quite a few things in classroom settings where a staff kept the machines in working order. Therefore, owning and maintaining a machine is all new for me, but I am up to the task.


First, here is my new BP clone.
newmill.jpg

I've been cleaning all the gunk off and hope to dial it all in once my indicator is delivered.
The Quill Feed is slightly tight during the first 1 inch of lowering. Will this break in and loosen up in time? It seems to ease up after I move it a while adn while running the motor. When extended far, it is very smooth.


I needed help wiring up my phase-a-matic static phase converter and found all my answers here on this forum. Here is a picture as a way to say THANKS!
phaseamatic.jpg



First, I read that I should clean all the grease and gunk off the ways. Does this also include the red grease that covers the lead screws? Should I just get the large portion off? Or clean it all off and re-lube it with new product?
grease.jpg

The manual said to use Sunoco waylube #80 or equivalent. What is considered equivalent, and can i buy it at Advanced Auto Parts or Home Depot?
Is the way-lube grease the same stuff I use on the screws?


Next, the piece came with a One Shot lube system seen below. What lube do I use in this and can I buy it at Advanced Auto as well?
oneshot.jpg

Any tips for using the one shot?


Next, the Mill came with an articulating nozzle for coolant spray as seen below. Can you point me in the right direction for a product to attach to the free-hose for this?
coolant.jpg

I won't be doing heavy milling, but would like the capacity and WILL be doing Stainless work. I have compressed air available if that is the means of delivering the coolant.


Next, the grate seen below. Is this intended to catch grease and oil? IT looks like it just flows into the base. How in the world do you clean the gunk out of it?!
grate.jpg

I figured you all would get a kick out of a newbie asking about this.


I feel kinda silly asking such simple things. I guess all this would be answered really quickly if there was a book or manual out there that detailed all these things. Any recommendations?

Thanks for all your help. I will be sure to asked more advanced questions in the future if I can't find the answers readily in the past posts. I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

-Eddie

If you are curious about what I do:
www.EddiesMind.com
 
Eddie, First welcome to the forum! The answers you seek are most likely in the machinery manuals section titled " Bridgeport, student manuals and others". No you probably shouldn't use oil from the auto parts store but you can easily purchase Vactra 2 way oil from Enco, McMaster or others for the ways and lube pump. The coolant nozzle and the drain in the base is probably for a built in coolant system that is/was optional for your machine. You can probably find a mound of pro/cons in the archives on using coolant. Without the pump and tank they're just conversation pieces.

The red grease won't hurt anything if the chips cant get to it and will eventually be flushed off by the oil in your lube system. -Mike
 
Eddie-
I remember watching Sesame Street growing up, and they always ran a short segment of a rolling ball coaster. It was my favorite, and being 5-8 years old, it fascinated me! I have never seen one since Sesame Street. Wierd thing I remember, after the ball ran, it dropped the ball into a meat grinder, and a crank was turned, and the ball came out as powder. Good way to destroy a ball, but perhaps it was symbolic for some reason.
Sorry... Anyhow, sweet BP mill. Welcome to the forum.
Oh... Have you ever thought of putting a motion sensor on the lift motor, to turn it on only when people come up to the display? Like the kind they put on outdoor flood lights, avaliable at home depot?
--Doozer
 
Eddie-
Congrats on picking up a brand new toy! You'll have loads of fun with it.

Here's something very important (just one of the many important things about maintaining machinery): use the correct way lube and never motor oil. Way lube is sticky and it wants to stay stuck to something it's touched. Motor oil isn't as tacky and will eventually seep away. What this means is that way lube is specially formulated to keep everything coated with a light film of oil, even after a long time of non-use. This is especially important for vertical surfaces where oils needs to 'defy' gravity and stay put. Motor oil will 'lube', but it's effects are short term compared to way oil.

And sorry, I don't know the Sunuco #80 equivalent but any standard waylube #2 equivlant should work. Vactra #2 used to be the standard for all tools, but they've slightly altered their formula. Do a search on Vactra in the General (old) Forum and you'll find more than you want to know.
 
Also, here are two major suppliers of oils, bits, endmills, collets, etc., etc., etc.

MSC: www.mscdirect.com

McMaster-Carr: www.mcmaster.com

Each has their pros and cons and you'll find much opinion on this board concerning them.

Good luck on not spending more on stuff for the machine than the machine itself! :D
 
Mike: Thanks for the info. I found the Bridgeport manual to be very helpful. I should have looked harder in the forum. Thanks

For the coolant nozzle, I was thinking that for the time being, I could hook up an air nozzle to it to blow light chips away at like 20 psi (light stuff) and use a spray bottle for any heavy cooling. I'll get a pump later.

Thanks again
 
Doozer: I slightly remember the Sesame street thing too. I seem to remember the flags going up as the balls rolled by. As for the motion activation thing... I actually have a partially finished sculpture in my shop that has three activation points in it. You wave your hand in front of the glass to release balls onto the tracks on the sculpture inside the diaplay case. Very fun.
 
Lca078: Thanks for the info you gave. I have become very familiar with mcmaster over the years. They even sent me a big yellow catalog out of the blue. Did I finally spend enough?

As for MSCdirect. I found that site just last week. I've already plunked quite a lot of money into their account too. I haven't been lucky though. I've already had to send back two indicators. The first one was the wrong product, the second indicator looked like someone took a baseball bat to the box. UPS was kind enough to repackage the indicator, which was the size of an index card box, in a box the sixe of a microwave. They tossed in a handfull of styrofoam peanuts for good measure. Very laughable. Anyway, it hasn't soured my opinion though. I'll give them more chances.

Thanks-
 
Don't forget to order a gallon of spindle oil as well, and keep all of those oil cups up top filled daily!

A oil squirt can is best for this.

Welcome to the forums :cool:
 
doozer, i'm glad that i'm not the only one scarred by sesame street, i must admit the'count' had a similar effect, even if i was 20+ at the time.
Eddie, nice machine, enjoy, we only get to borrow them.
mark
 
Your mill looks like it has never been used much with coolant. It's nice.
If you do use coolant, you should make sure you have proper splash guards in place.
Make your own and experiment with what works best for you.
It will be a pain in the neck if you fire it up und have coolant dripping back on the cross way and the DRO encoder.
I use a 5 Gallon bucket with a centrifugal pump hanging on the edge. Simple and cheap.
Put an elbow and hose from the table to bucket.
I don't know whats under the grate. Yank it off and see.
Have fun.
SM
 
Do NOT go blowing the chips off the machine.they will get into everything.Get some rubber covers for the crossfeed ways before you get chips imbedded under the saddle.Does your machine have these covers,and you just haven't put them on yet? Have you loosened the little handle that locks the spindle up and down motion? The grating in the base is just a reservoir to recirculate the coolant.If you do not know anything about coolants,you'd better be very careful,or you could end up with rust under the vise,and elsewhere,or a very bad smell that you cannot get out of the hollow base.I just put cutting oil on with a brush,or spray it at the top of the endmills and let it flow downwards to the cutting edges.I do not do production work,and personally prefer to not use coolants.That's just my opinion.others may differ.Keep the brush from being sucked in by the cutter,and your fingers too!If the brush gets away from you,LET it go!Your machine looks brand new.You need to find out for sure if that static phase converter will be o.k.,or if you need to get a rotary one,before you damage the motor.
 
Hokie- www.use-enco.com carries machinist supplies and tooling and is generally cheaper than mscdirect.com on the same items. One thing to be careful about Enco is that they lean towards more low end import stuff, but even on the US made stuff there prices are pretty good.

Paul T.
 
I second the Enco recommendation...it's a great way to tool up inexpensively on lots of stuff...especially if exacting tolerances aren't a big issue. Get on their mailing list and wait for their free shipping offers in their monthly catalogs to buy heavy tools like machine vises etc. and put together bulk orders to take advantage of the free shipping when they offer it.

As an aside, I had the opportunity a few years back to repair some kinetic sculpture (a fountain) of George Rhoads...it was really fun stuff and a challenge to restore and repair back to working condition...

http://www.georgerhoads.com/

and here's a neat video of another kinetic piece of machinery...Finsrud's Perpetuum

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=553061720631716456&q=finsrud

Best of luck with your new machine and with your art too.

Regards,

John M ;)
 
Thanks for all the replies everyone.

The Mill is new and I have not installed the way covers. I have also loosened the spindle lock... I'll just use it more and I think it will loosen up. It feels like thick grease.

Good point about the coolant Gwilson. I wouldn't want my shop smelling bad. I will just us the simple bruch on methods like I've been doing with the drill press. I do have a gallon of coolant, which I think will be more helpful when I buy a horizontal bandsaw.

Enco... never heard of it, but I will definatley look into it. Thanks.

I have seen the George Rhoads site years ago John. I still have yet to see one of his big ones in person. The trick for me is to all together avoid other peoples artwork, for the sake of not subconsiously adding it into mine.


-Eddie
 
I wonder why the series 1 bridgeport is still made, you would think since series II clones are available they would be the better machine to buy...

Mine is a hybrid of sorts, it has square X ways but dovetail Z ways and a bigger table but still has a step pulley head but with 3 hp motor...
 
Eddie,
There's a large nut in the bottom of the quill that holds the spindle in place. It's not a hex nut; it (probably) has two holes for a pin spanner. The quill might be sticky because the setscrew that locks that nut in place is too tight. On a Bridgeport, the setscrew is located on the back side of the quill, near the bottom. When it's overtightened, it'll bulge the quill and make it stick when it's retracted most of the way.

Andrew
 
hokie,i once bought a nice little horizontal mill,a Douglas.It had a hollow base,and smelled strongly of garlic loaded Italian salad dressing.There was no way to get rid of the smell,except to pour a little clorox in it once in a while.this was not something i wanted to do,either.Sooner or later it would rust or corrode something.I sold that mill because of the smell.So,do be careful.
 
I think I have seen in the J&L catalogue some 'coolant mints' which are supposed to reduce the smell of manky suds. I don't know if they work but might be an idea if using a coolant tank from scratch and alleviate any future problem before it starts. I don't think they were too spendy either.

As regards using removing chips you could use a vacuum and suck rather than blow them, that way you know where they're going and there's less sweeping involved. Might work if you're not using much liquid.
 








 
Back
Top