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Bridgeport Maintenance Funny Time

texasgeartrain

Titanium
Joined
Feb 23, 2016
Location
Houston, TX
Bought an old J head several years ago. With other projects I've been using as is, though I know its needed some love. In fact the seller who sold to me, told me the adjuster for table gib was stuck when I bought it. So on certain heavier cuts the table might chatter or jump. The thought at the time, was gib was probably wore so bad that adjuster was bottomed out.

Anyway, I'm not getting into a rebuild yet, but I have a particular project I want to do where I want this machine a little tighter. Decided I wanted to clean, lube and tighten this a bit before beginning the project.

The gib adjuster simply would not come out with table on. The slot for screw driver was pretty well whipped. So I yanked table off, and popped gib out to access the adjuster. Well good news, adjuster was not bottomed out. It was bent ! :D

I had to sneak in with a cut off wheel and cut notches to pry on it assisting to get it unscrewed.

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To give an idea, here in the saddle is where I slipped in with cutting wheel:

12.jpg

With that squared away I wanted to clean and adjust backlash on cross and long feed nuts. Whoever installed them never cut the nuts all the way through :D. Which defeats any of their respective adjusting screws. They need to be cut all the way through and a gap maintained between them to be able to adjust backlash toward zero.

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One of my favorites though. Oil line to the nuts carrier. . . One in particular feeds lube to long feed threads. Line was hooked up, but no one drilled the nut to allow oil in :D. The oil line was going to a dead blind hole.

Note the circle tattoo on bronze just above my thumb, also circled in red. That should be a drilled hole, and lines up to the oil line port in carrier above that:

14.jpg
 
If there is not a separate line for the crossfeed, drill thru via the hole in the top of the casting after the nuts are installed.
John
 
If there is not a separate line for the crossfeed, drill thru via the hole in the top of the casting after the nuts are installed.
John

Appreciate that, but if you look at the pic with the red circle, you'll see an oil trench on OD of nut. That trench does line up with top oil hole, and the lower hidden oil hole leading to crossfeed threads. So oil could circumnavigate that.

However I did forget to mention, that oil passage between both nuts was 100% clogged :D. It was like someone had used a grease gun on it, the machine does have a Bijur set up on it, but I dont know all its history either. Cleaned out now anyway.
 
I didn't want to get too involved with having this machine down for too long. But with table and saddle off I started cleaning out the Bijur lube system. Then I started doing a little scraping of way surfaces. . . Then I was thinking. . . :D, maybe I should paint before assembling and getting the machine slimed with oil. With other major projects waiting, I probably won't tear into this machine again for several years.

The spindle head was irritating to look at. Besides old, oil stained paint, it looked like it was painted with a wide, course brush last go around. I didn't think to take a before pic, so I just have this several years old pic:

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Well just tapping with a small hammer the old paint just fell off the spindle.

I do think machine gray looks good on some machines, but not all. Bridgeports I think look really nice in gray, and had always been my intention to use a high gloss light/medium gray. Recently however I had been messing around, and mixing green colors. The main spindle housing I used a green which I posted about here:
Patrick Black's Paint Recipe

Florescent lights and my camera are playing a little havoc with my pics. But what looks like black in the pics, is actually a dark gloss green. That's the color just above spindle, and in the "Bridgeport" logo of aluminum housing. That color is better seen here:
Patrick Black's Paint Recipe

I had just painted spindle as a bit of a test run to see if I liked it, and I do.

16.jpg 17.jpg 18.jpg

Started to prep the rest of machine. Its decent prep work, but not to the level that I might do on a full machine rebuild. I intend on using the very dark green on the motor cover, overarm, and overarm saddle. With the rest of machine the same color as spindle housing.

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Finished prep. Then primed. I had set up a bunch of drop cloths to prevent over-spraying the rest of the shop. I also have a fan set up to suck the air outside, with a 24"x24" home A/C filter on suction side of fan, so as not to over-spray the world. :D

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Bought an old J head several years ago. With other projects I've been using as is, though I know its needed some love. In fact the seller who sold to me, told me the adjuster for table gib was stuck when I bought it. So on certain heavier cuts the table might chatter or jump. The thought at the time, was gib was probably wore so bad that adjuster was bottomed out.

Anyway, I'm not getting into a rebuild yet, but I have a particular project I want to do where I want this machine a little tighter. Decided I wanted to clean, lube and tighten this a bit before beginning the project.

The gib adjuster simply would not come out with table on. The slot for screw driver was pretty well whipped. So I yanked table off, and popped gib out to access the adjuster. Well good news, adjuster was not bottomed out. It was bent ! :D

I had to sneak in with a cut off wheel and cut notches to pry on it assisting to get it unscrewed.

View attachment 320942

To give an idea, here in the saddle is where I slipped in with cutting wheel:

View attachment 320943

With that squared away I wanted to clean and adjust backlash on cross and long feed nuts. Whoever installed them never cut the nuts all the way through :D. Which defeats any of their respective adjusting screws. They need to be cut all the way through and a gap maintained between them to be able to adjust backlash toward zero.

View attachment 320944

One of my favorites though. Oil line to the nuts carrier. . . One in particular feeds lube to long feed threads. Line was hooked up, but no one drilled the nut to allow oil in :D. The oil line was going to a dead blind hole.

Note the circle tattoo on bronze just above my thumb, also circled in red. That should be a drilled hole, and lines up to the oil line port in carrier above that:

View attachment 320946

The "whoever Installed the feed nuts" was Bridgeport. That is the way they come from the factory.
 
Yep, one piece with the split. Hot tip in years gone by was to take a worn nut and make it 2 piece so you could get a good adjustment again. Now you can buy them as a 2 piece or the old one piece orignal style. Sure would like to know how the hell that adjuster was bent!
 
The "whoever Installed the feed nuts" was Bridgeport. That is the way they come from the factory.

Could be that Bridgeport left the nuts half way cut through on a new build, I don't really know. But it would defeat their own design of adjusting backlash, with adjusting screw and lock screw for holding adjusting screw in position.

If you look at a Monarch 10ee, crossfeed nut slop can be adjusted out by using adjusting screw to distort and bend the nut, it may work but I don't like that. With Bridgeport however, the entire nut fits into a bore, you are not going to distort the same way. For it to work correct, the nut must be cut all the way through.

I don't know all the history of this particular machine, but someone had it apart and upgraded or rebuilt it somewhere along the way. All the oil feed lines are more modern black plastic type. That wasn't factory, and they missed drilling the oil passage through nut.
 
Could be that Bridgeport left the nuts half way cut through on a new build, I don't really know. But it would defeat their own design of adjusting backlash, with adjusting screw and lock screw for holding adjusting screw in position.

If you look at a Monarch 10ee, crossfeed nut slop can be adjusted out by using adjusting screw to distort and bend the nut, it may work but I don't like that. With Bridgeport however, the entire nut fits into a bore, you are not going to distort the same way. For it to work correct, the nut must be cut all the way through.

I don't know all the history of this particular machine, but someone had it apart and upgraded or rebuilt it somewhere along the way. All the oil feed lines are more modern black plastic type. That wasn't factory, and they missed drilling the oil passage through nut.

Monarch used more than one way on feed nuts. They were not the only ones.

The one I DO appreciate on a 10EE is the ability - all from "up top" - to temporarily "yaw" the nut at an angle to the screw's axis. That lets you tighten it up for a demanding tasking where pull-forward could be a problem - then set it back right on-axis, slop and all, for lower friction and lesser ADDED wear.

Perfect? No. But what ever IS?
Kinda handy at least.

Not to worry. A new nut should outlast your sight of it.

You, me, Cal, and Don - just for starters - are not meant to have long to live anyway. Been a real treat in life knowing y'all. May one and all enjoy our last Sunday, then!
 
Sure would like to know how the hell that adjuster was bent!

Not sure, as I bought the machine that way, with seller informing me it was stuck prior to purchase. When I got it apart, my first thought was someone bumped the table with a forklift, or the like. But later I was wondering, if no one adjusted gib for years, maybe the gib over time worked like a hammer that continuously tapped the adjuster in the same location and harder for whatever reason in one particular direction.

I don't know the outcome yet, but I suspect another fella has the same issue on a Cincinnati mill:
1938 Cincinnati 2MH - handles don't move the table anymore
 
Could be that Bridgeport left the nuts half way cut through on a new build, I don't really know. But it would defeat their own design of adjusting backlash, with adjusting screw and lock screw for holding adjusting screw in position.

With Bridgeport however, the entire nut fits into a bore, you are not going to distort the same way. For it to work correct, the nut must be cut all the way through.[End Quote}

Do a little research RE stock BP nut design. Check out M&W they offer both the orignal saw cut one piece and the 2 piece style. The one piece does offer limited adjustment range . I have over the years split oh! a half a dozen one piece nuts to regain ajustabilty on used BP's.
 
Got some painting done. Again, with the paint gloss, florescent lights, and my camera, I feel the pics look a little different than what I see in person.

Also I know these two green colors need a couple days to cure, for paint color to settle in a bit. Sounds odd, but I swear the lighter green darkens, while the darker green lightens after a few days.

The best single pic so far that captures the two colors I see in person is here:

31.jpg

The next best pics, and close to what I visualized and wanted are these two pics:

23.jpg 24.jpg

However, from my bar stool where I often sit, the lighting makes the right side look like this in pics and in person.

25.jpg 26.jpg

I'm going to give it a few days to cure. If the right side does not start to look less black, then I'll re-paint the overarm to match the rest.

Also I'm beginning to hate the dark green section directly above spindle housing. I'm going to atleast re-paint that section.
 
Could be that Bridgeport left the nuts half way cut through on a new build, I don't really know. But it would defeat their own design of adjusting backlash, with adjusting screw and lock screw for holding adjusting screw in position.

With Bridgeport however, the entire nut fits into a bore, you are not going to distort the same way. For it to work correct, the nut must be cut all the way through.[End Quote}


Do a little research RE stock BP nut design. Check out M&W they offer both the orignal saw cut one piece and the 2 piece style. The one piece does offer limited adjustment range . I have over the years split oh! a half a dozen one piece nuts to regain ajustabilty on used BP's.

might want to try H&W machine repair, LOL! (no judgment, made the same mistake myself and numerous others...)

I believe when I got my replacement lead screw nuts from them, they were two cut accordion style, not two piece as they appear to be now from their website (I believe they offered both styles).
 
I did re-paint the small section directly above spindle housing, using the same green as spindle housing. That looks more right to me. Bill did manage to talk me down off the ledge of re-painting overarm and motor cover. :D

It has grown on me more, but also I have more pressing projects, so should get on with it. How its looking:

34.jpg 35.jpg 36.jpg 37.jpg
 
I took the Bijur pump apart. The pump itself works, but I wanted to clean it out. Plus check or replace felt filter. The Bijur system is setup just like those offered from H & W, though I think this one is older. The tank is all aluminum, with a sight glass.

38.jpg

The sight glass was browned out, couldn't read it. But with plugs top and bottom side it can be removed for cleaning. There is a seal on top and bottom side of glass to keep tank from leaking.

Sight glass cleaned well and I can read it now. Some of the red, visual assist indicator is missing though.

39.jpg 40.jpg
 
I did re-paint the small section directly above spindle housing, using the same green as spindle housing. That looks more right to me. Bill did manage to talk me down off the ledge of re-painting overarm and motor cover. :D

It has grown on me more, but also I have more pressing projects, so should get on with it. How its looking:

View attachment 322744 View attachment 322745 View attachment 322746 View attachment 322747

Maybe it's just me, but I'd swear it still has a strking resemblance to a Bridgeport Mill?

Go figure there has to be SOMETHING left standing these days not all wound-up over skin colour?
 
Could be that Bridgeport left the nuts half way cut through on a new build, I don't really know. But it would defeat their own design of adjusting backlash, with adjusting screw and lock screw for holding adjusting screw in position.

If you look at a Monarch 10ee, crossfeed nut slop can be adjusted out by using adjusting screw to distort and bend the nut, it may work but I don't like that. With Bridgeport however, the entire nut fits into a bore, you are not going to distort the same way. For it to work correct, the nut must be cut all the way through.

I don't know all the history of this particular machine, but someone had it apart and upgraded or rebuilt it somewhere along the way. All the oil feed lines are more modern black plastic type. That wasn't factory, and they missed drilling the oil passage through nut.

Well I do know, BP installed 1 piece nuts, I have split several of them. I bought one of my BP's 2 years old from the original owner, it was never apart, it had a 1 piece nut cut part way through. It is now 2 piece.
 
I got all the lines and oil passages blown out and clear.

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Next is to do something about all the pop fittings. I truly can't stand them. I think they are maybe they greatest contributor to machine wear. When they quit working and/or don't pop at the same time its just going to wreck the section getting starved.

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Its my intention to gut them all. Then when pump is pumped all lines will see oil. My greater concern would be if volume were to dump to the shorter lines, or path of least resistance. But when you look at the ID of lines, they are rather small at a guess .020", they should act as a restrictor fitting by themselves.

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If you look at one end of the fitting, it has a black cap. Gently clamping that cap in a vice, you can work and pull fitting off it.

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Then using picks, and small drill bits you begin to work all the pieces out, plus the felt filter. The first couple take time till you get your system down, then its easy peasy. I finish by drilling straight though with about a 1/8" drill.

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With all pop fittings gutted, I assembled tree saddle and the splitter on knee.

46.jpg

I put the Bijur pump together and am using ATF to get system further cleaned out. Doing a temporary hook up of pump to both saddle and knee independently, I pumped through to ensure operation and clean them out.

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