New to the forum and hobby. Looking at a Bridgeport mill and would appreciate your comments. Here are a few pics.
Thanks,
Doug
Thanks,
Doug
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Price is still negotiable.
That tells us nothing, he could be asking 10k..... I'm guessing there are not a lot of mills for sale in Montana, maybe I'm wrong. Prices vary by region, you could probably buy the same machine for less elsewhere, but spend just as much/more to transport it.
I purchased a really nice Gorton a few months back, had to haul it out of CA, by the time it was in my shop I was into it for about 3K, purchasing local was not an option in my community.
With respect, asking the OP the asking price isn’t relevant as we don’t know his budget or reqts. If the answer was $5000, would that be too much or too little? Really depends on the OP.
Here are my thoughts: that looks to be as nice a mill as one would want or expect. It’s a newer model. For someone just wanting to noodle around, it could be more than required. Despite what the curmudgeons who used to rule around here said, you don’t need a mill this nice to do good work.
As to its condition, I would go look at it and see if everything works, just like you would with a used car. Test drive it. You have to expect wear, but not abuse. I’d inspect the precision surfaces.
From what I can see, it looks like it’s in good shape.Remember, parts are available and everything can be fixed for the right price.
For a home shop machine, I feel like the old pulley heads have a slight advantage over the variable speed head if a VFD is to be used. I feel like it’s simpler.
Also think it odd that a newer mill like this is lacking a DRO. That’s a big negative to me and a head scratcher. That might be a reason for selling it, if there are 2 and the other has a DRO fitted.
Last, people are weird and do weird things for weird reasons. I bought my 1967 BP for $500 from a machine shop owner (machinist?) who didn’t bother trying to figure out why the table didn’t move when he cranked the y axis. So not to be disrespectful or disagreeable, I don’t think asking why it’s being sold is relevant as that assumes the seller is like us. He or she simply may not be. Could be the wrong color for his shop.
Everything you've said makes sense. The seller is an honest person. He's owned this machine shop in this town for many, many years and is well respected. The reason he's selling this machine is that he has another one just like this one that he rebuilt the head (amateur terminology) with new bearings to the tune of ~$2,500 so he's keeping it, even though the table is not as long. Doesn't need two milling machines now.
Someone mentioned the price and shipping. Although I'm a novice on Bridgeport mills I'm not a novice on buying and shipping large items. In this region these machines are not readily available for midwest or east coast prices, UNLESS you get REAL lucky. Simple reason is population and industry. The east and midwest have been and are more industrialized, pure and simple.
And you're correct, this machine is probably overkill for my home shop purposes. A friend has a nice Jet with a much smaller footprint that does a nice job for him for small projects - maybe I should look around for a smaller machine. Open to suggestions from you here as to make and model # for candidates.
Price -he's only mentioned a range so far, $5-6K. Asked him if he was flexible and he said he was. This is not something I have to have, just a "want." Factoring in all the variables i.e. region of the country, availability, shipping costs, my needs and wants it could or could not be the machine for me. There's no doubt I could get by with much less. Just don't want to buy something I'll spend all my time repairing rather than working on projects.
Even thought about looking at a new and smaller Grizzly machine. Still open to your thoughts and suggestions.
Doug
Like the other folks said, check it out real good....it certainly looks like it's been maintained over the years, and parts are readily available.
Even if you only use it for hobby, you may use it later for paying jobs.
By the way, your state is beautiful! It's been some years since I've vacationed there, but hoping to come within 2 or 3 years to explore some ghost towns.
Machine shop owners typically, and sometimes quite regularly for re-building, would swap heads out on machines. I would question that he is just keeping the smaller table machine because he just re-built that head. If I owned those two machine and wanted to sell one, I'd swap heads around between the two machines (yes, it's simply a matter of taking one head off and putting the other on), keeping the re-built head on the larger table machine and selling the other.
I'm not saying he's pulling a fast one, but I CERTAINLLY question why he wouldn't do as I suggested swapping heads.
Ted
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