Bridgeport / Van Norman Hybrid – Please Help

Howdy Folks,
I just purchased this mill and hope ya’ll can help me out with some information. The door on the base says:

Van Norman Duplex Milling Machine #2
Patents Nov. 3, 1895 and mar 9th, 1897

The head is a small Bridgeport with an old 110V ½ horse motor and the serial # is M10655

Teh manage attachments does not seem to recognize this as a valid thread yet so I'll post picts as soon as this pops up.

I’ve wanted a mill since I apprenticed in a shop in high school. I’m 45 and teach Auto Shop and finally was able to pick this up for my shop at school. Yes I used my own money as the district will not purchase one for the school but I think it’s worth it to show the kids (as none of them have graduated knowing what a mill or lathe is) and to expand our shop capabilities.

The machine has a motorized traverse (x and y) and as you can see by the pictures, the top is missing something. Buy guess and by golly I figure this had two heads on it (hence the duplex). It almost seems like there was a horizontal spindle where the Bridgeport head is now and maybe a vertical spindle next to it (on the left), the missing head could pivot up and down (from the slots in the casting). The current Bridgeport head is mounted on a ram that can move in and out (not unusual) but the ram is mounted on another way that can also move in and out.

All 3 axis are movable but are sticky (not sticky actually, just hard to crank) and I’d like to make it work like it should. We have begun cleaning it up (mineral spirits & steel wool) and putting a fresh coat of oil on the cleaned ways to prevent rust (My auto shop has swamp coolers that ruin cast iron in minutes!).

As I teach Automotives and have a machining background I’m pretty mechanically adept but have never disassembled something like this before. Any hints or suggestions are very welcome and would be appreciated.

Questions like:
Should I disassemble this or can it be cleaned up assembled?
What was the original configuration of this mill and do you have any picts of what it was?
The patent dates are in the late 1890’s but is there a way to tell when this was actually made?
… are all ringing around my head.

Don’t be sparing with the info, I’ll not take offense if you figure I know nothing about this rig. Thanks in advance!

Mike

P.S. I’m going to post requests for the Bridgeport head information in the correct forum. Thanks again!

P.P.S. I thought I posted this in the VN forum. Moderators, please excuse this faux pas.

Picts of hybrid mill

I removed the picts from this thread so as not to duplicate and clog up bandwidth.

Here is the link to the antiques thread with the photos.

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...geport-hybrid-please-help-204831/#post1358811

I'll check back here if ya'll have some more infor on the Bridgeport head.

Thanks!

Mike

i'm sorry,

you need help. get rid of that hunker monday morning. look for bridgeport mill for sale on ebay. this morning there were about 30 machines, one was going for $800. and something. that m head is so old and does not use standart tooling. someone might want it for a musium and you can get some of your money back. find someone thats got a few years in the shop and let him help you set up a half decent used bridgeport and a little lathe. you might could get some equipment donated from the gang on pm. monday morning, okay!

Wow!

That's sure not what I wanted to hear. I'd love to take your advice but I'm afraid $ concerns will not allow it. I scraped up $400 to purchase this and that was a stretch.

I'm hoping to be able to chuck up a 1/2" endmill or a small fly-cutter. I know I'll be slightly limited but something is better than nothing.

Help on my hunker is still appreciated.

It's a Van Norman missing the original spindle & associated components that someone has quite cleverly attached a Bridgeport M-Head to. As you suspect there once was a spindle that swiveled to either horizontal or vertical (thus the "duplex"), on the fitting on the left side of the head. It's gone. It's unlikely that you could ever find the parts to replace it. Forget about it. It's strictly a vertical mill now.

The M-head is fine for small work. They took either B&S #9, Morse #2, or Bridgeport collets (I think B2, but certainly not R8). You've already got a drill chuck so you're ahead of the game. If you don't have any collets, take out the drill chuck and see what size spindle fitting it has on it. There's a site called "shopswarf" that lists most collet sizes, and you should be able to match it up. A company called "tools 4 cheap" sells new Chinese B&S #9 collets, and you should be able to get Morse #2 collets pretty easily. You just need to find out which ones you have. Don't be tempted to use tanged Morse tooling if it's a Morse #2 taper! The tooling will pull out because of side loading. Get Morse #2 collets with a drawbar fitting.

The M-head is limited to a 1/2" end mill so don't plan any heavy hogging. It has a pretty high minimum speed, too - no back gear. Milling aluminum or plastics should be no trouble. You'd need to use very small end mills in steel to keep the SFM under control.

The Van Norman base machine should be quite stoutly built. The power feed is original, it looks like it has a gear motor on it to get the slow speeds needed. Originally it would probably have been belt-driven off the main spindle.

Clean it up, steel wool, kerosene, and elbow grease will do wonders. It's probably full of dried up oil making it sticky. If it looks like it has zerk fittings, don't use grease! Those fittings are made for a high-pressure oil pump, not grease. If it has been greased, you'll need to take it apart and clean out all the grease before it will ever work again.

You might consider a post in the Antique Machinery forum, as well, there are some Van Norman experts over there.

I am sure that you'll get your money's worth out of the machine.

--
Aaron

Thanks Aaron!

That's exactly the type of info I'm looking for! I'll put it up in the antique forum.

Thanks again!

Mike