Bridgeport EZ-Trak DX. First "CNC" machine. Can I convert this to G code?

xnewmanx · Mar 7, 2019

Hi. I've been a long time lurker here but I think this is my first post.

I build motorcycles. I do all of my machining manually. Lots of hand shaping and whatnot. Here are some picture. Basically everything shiny here was made from scratch on a manual brisgeport:

I got this Bridgeport EZ-Trak DX for essentially nothing. Allegedly the controls still work, but I was hoping to convert it to something that runs G code so I can more easily use it with autodesk HSM. Or is that something just out of the question? I'd just as soon take the controls off it and use the machine manually if it's going to be a nightmare.

It has a power drawbar, an acculube system, and there doesn't look to be any major scoring on the ways.

Here are some pictures of it. I just broke it down to move it to my shop.

winger · Mar 7, 2019

It does have conversational but should be able to run G code.you will probably need a floppy disk if programming off line, I don't remember them having a usp port.

Dave

xnewmanx · Mar 8, 2019

winger said:
It does have conversational but should be able to run G code.you will probably need a floppy disk if programming off line, I don't remember them having a usp port.

Dave

Yes, there is a floppy drive. Is it impractical to consider changing the machine to more modern control?

In some cursory investigation it seems like I can use linux OS to run it? What type of support hardware does that require... I know I'm in a bit over my head here, but I'm willing to learn if you can point me in the right direction...

Anyhow, I got the machine into my shop today.

mhajicek · Mar 8, 2019

I ran one of those for a couple years. I programmed in Mastercam, and had to use an older computer to transfer the files onto a floppy disk.

lastrada · Mar 8, 2019

Can those be converted to a Prototrak system?

endurorider334 · Mar 8, 2019

You can get a USB emulator that plugs into the floppy drive connectors and be able to transfer files to machine super easy but it is limited g-code programming. I have 2 machines I use all the time doing the same thing as you want to do but with limited capability. If the machine doesn’t like the program(error or something not right in the code) you go back to computer and fix and re-try. A lot of trial and error, but once you understand the machine and it’s code reading sky’s the limit.

cob · Mar 9, 2019

if this control works I would stick with it, it is very easy to use and really fast and good to do prototype stuff its conversation so not hard at all.

HWElecRepair · Mar 9, 2019

You can still get replacement parts for the controller and for the Bridgeport, so I don't see a need to change it over. I am not an operator, I fix these, but I know that there is a way to load G code. I believe it has something to do with taking the G code and loading it into a .txt file and itll run.

Lemme clarify one thing. You cant get any parts, unless you find them used, for your cantilever Z axis stuff.

Jon
H&W Machine Repair

ripperj · Mar 9, 2019

Bridgeport EZ-Trak DX. First "CNC" machine. Can I convert this to G code?

There tons of those out there, I can’t imagine you would struggle to find a post processor for Fusion 360 or most common CAM programs. Then you never have to worry about anything except your model. The cam program and the post processor will make the code for the machine.
I use a floppy disk on my Anilam machine, it’s easy and take hardly any time. Disks are cheap and easy to find. The programs you will use will be small.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

plastikdreams · Mar 9, 2019

Used to program one off mastercam... quirky at first but not bad once you figure out the nuances.

xnewmanx · Mar 11, 2019

I got the machine off of the skid with a floor jack and a chainfall. Was surprisingly easy.

A lot of people are telling me that I shouldn't mess with the controls. My concern with that is that I won't be able to make the type of parts I want to make with it.

Normally I make a lot of heavily contoured parts by hand by simply sawing and then welding and then carefully grinding them to final shape. For instance, that's how this headlight was made:

into

This is obviously super time consuming. Last year I was under a time crunch and needed a lever by the end of the day, so I talked to one of the machinists at my work. He said to give him an inventor file and he'd see what he could do. I sent him the file at 9am and by lunchtime he had roughed in the lever which gave me a few hours to smooth it out and to some final machining.

into

I watched him do it, and it looked very simple using the HSM interface right in autodesk inventor. I was hoping to be able to do things like that. I spoke with the former operator of this machine and he said I'd have to load about 50 programs onto the original bridgeport to do that.

Knowing what I'm after, is this still something reasonable? I found a thread by Sparky_NY that seems in line with what I want to do, although it seems like the drivers he used are no longer available.

Page not found - Practical Machinist : Practical Machinist

brad_gambino · Feb 4, 2021

I own a personal EZ TRAK 2 and also run one at work, it does run G-Code. BUT....you have to call it up through a conversational program as a SUBPROGRAM or it does weird things....that way it is controlable

moonlight machine · Feb 4, 2021

xnewmanx said:
I got the machine off of the skid with a floor jack and a chainfall. Was surprisingly easy.

A lot of people are telling me that I shouldn't mess with the controls. My concern with that is that I won't be able to make the type of parts I want to make with it.

Normally I make a lot of heavily contoured parts by hand by simply sawing and then welding and then carefully grinding them to final shape. For instance, that's how this headlight was made:

into

This is obviously super time consuming. Last year I was under a time crunch and needed a lever by the end of the day, so I talked to one of the machinists at my work. He said to give him an inventor file and he'd see what he could do. I sent him the file at 9am and by lunchtime he had roughed in the lever which gave me a few hours to smooth it out and to some final machining.

into

I watched him do it, and it looked very simple using the HSM interface right in autodesk inventor. I was hoping to be able to do things like that. I spoke with the former operator of this machine and he said I'd have to load about 50 programs onto the original bridgeport to do that.

Knowing what I'm after, is this still something reasonable? I found a thread by Sparky_NY that seems in line with what I want to do, although it seems like the drivers he used are no longer available.

Page not found - Practical Machinist : Practical Machinist

I'd say that is BS. When I still had the original control on my Bridgeport i was making some very complex molds with it. I used EZ Cam. Pretty easy for sure. I have since converted it to a Centroid M 400 control. Making that headlight from one piece with EZ Cam and your machine would be pretty easy.

hahn_rossman · Feb 5, 2021

Did you get some sample programs with the machine? It's pretty easy to tweak a post processor for fusion 360/HSM to work with a specific control as long as you know what it's looking for.
John Saunders has some good videos about post processor editing to check out.

In terms of the 3d surfaces that you want to make and the age of the controller, you will run into the problem of your programs being too long/big to load (especially if your post isn't optimized). This can be worked around by breaking them into chunks and loading and running them sequentially. Some of the fancier high speed machining strategies aren't going to work as well with that control because it's a lot slower than current stuff, but with some tweaking you will figure out what works.
All of this will be way faster and better than the way you have been doing it so far!
I would just get the machine cleaned up and adjusted and run it. Pretty soon you will want something with a tool changer and an enclosure and it will be faster, and you will pass this machine down the line to someone else.
Hahn Rossman

TwoWheeler · Feb 5, 2021

I used to use a V2XT for mold work. I never messed with the conversational programming end because we very, very quickly realized that for any 3D work, offline programming was the only real solution.

We started with Bridgeport's EZMill3D and went through a few iterations of that before we started running into our customers giving us solid models. We went to FeatureCAM after that and I haven't looked back.

For 2D contours and hole drilling, G-code is doable, but painful, conversational programming is ….ok... but CADCAM software is really the way to go. Fortunately, with Bridgeport being such a common machine, I'm sure there are postprocessors out there that either will work right out of the box or work with a bit of tweaking.

With CADCAM and a fair bit of knowledge, you should be able to turn out stuff that only needs polishing - even organic, non-geometric shapes like the brake lever,

As far as the hardware end, we were able to upgrade the PC part of the machine with off-the-shelf PC parts....to a point. Further upgrades required replacing some of the proprietary Bridgeport stuff. (FMDC board?). We have a machine here that had a similar controller to yours and it died about two years ago, so we upgraded it to a Centroid controller system and it works pretty sweet, now.

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Bridgeport EZ-Trak DX. First "CNC" machine. Can I convert this to G code?

xnewmanx

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lastrada

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cob

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