Old Bridgeport CNC Identification and Questions

Hi,so quick intro since I'm new here and somewhat new to machining,currently in college finishing up my first year in machine tool so still learning
tons but am familiar with basic manual machining but we don't learn CNC until the second year so I'm not familiar with all the CNC terms.

So I just bought a set of milling machines, a manual millport 9x42 bridgeport clone with feed and DRO which what was I wanted and the other is an old bridgeport textron cnc, I'm still in the process of moving it in so I haven't gotten a chance to completely look it over for a model but quick inspection didn't find anything and it looks like the name plate has been removed.

It has been sitting for about 10yrs with very little use as the previous owner bought it for mold work but after he bought it his machinist left and it never got much use. so besides how to jog it manually he wasn't able to show me how to run it.

So any help identifying it would be greatly appreciated and if you need a picture of a certain part let me know and I'll get some more but here's what I've got right now:
[/url]20171227_144346 by Joseph Snyder, on Flickr[/IMG]

20171227_142559 by Joseph Snyder, on Flickr

20180101_120004 by Joseph Snyder, on Flickr

20180101_120010 by Joseph Snyder, on Flickr



Where should I look for the serial number?
Can you identify the model and were I can get a manual for it?
And I'd also be interested in knowing what would be needed to convert it to a modernish CNC
My brother is a machinist graduate, computer technician, and has a bench top cnc that runs on mach 3 but I'm sure I could get training in what ever would work best.

And any other info you can give me about these machines, quirks things they did well.

Tried search the web and from what I can find it might be a Bridgeport series 2 but I've found some conflicting info so not really sure what I've got
Thanks any help or advice you can give me,
Joe

I'm not sure what model that is but for a low buck conversion its pretty easy to put a breakout board in there and run from a parallel port on a modern PC running mach 3 even using original drives and steppers. I only have the diagrams of how to do that on a boss 5 (which yours is definitely not) but I'm sure once you find out what model it is you'll be able to get the info you need with some googling.

I'd also say Series 2 (as evidenced by II on the control).
I ran an older one back in the '80s, but it ran off paper tape.

Sorry I can't be more help.

That brings back some memories !! looks like a mid 70's vintage series 2 Bridgeport NC like the ones I learned on way back then. ran them on punched paper tape using compact 2 programming language to program them. They had a screaming fast rapid traverse of 40 inches a minute as I recall. where I worked we would program using the compact 2 to describe the geometry on a teletype machine then hook up with a fast 300 baud modem to a main frame computer that would spit out the punched paper tape.

off the top of my head, it looks newer than a Boss 5, and older than a Boss 8.

tomjelly said:

I'm not sure what model that is but for a low buck conversion its pretty easy to put a breakout board in there and run from a parallel port on a modern PC running mach 3 even using original drives and steppers. I only have the diagrams of how to do that on a boss 5 (which yours is definitely not) but I'm sure once you find out what model it is you'll be able to get the info you need with some googling.

Click to expand...

Glad to here it should be possible to convert without spending a fortune, after getting it unloaded and looking it over in better lighting today, the machine really looks to be in excellent condition.

Thanks for everyone's input so far, when I get a chance this weekend I'll try and do some more digging and see about getting a manual for it.

Joe

Wow, where did you dig that dinosaur up from? Did you power it up, smoke or movement?

One thing that is good about these old machines, they are rigid, it'll eat all the chinese hobby mills for breakfast.
If she's not too worn, it will last you a long time.

If it's going to be production machine of any sort, I would stay clear of anything running microshit software.
There are more control options than mach.

Marko

MJPfin said:

Wow, where did you dig that dinosaur up from? Did you power it up, smoke or movement?

One thing that is good about these old machines, they are rigid, it'll eat all the chinese hobby mills for breakfast.
If she's not too worn, it will last you a long time.

If it's going to be production machine of any sort, I would stay clear of anything running microshit software.
There are more control options than mach.

Marko

Click to expand...

Found it at a injection molding company that bought it 10yrs ago when they had a machinist to be able to
do some of their own mold and plate work etc. but right after they got everything setup their machinist left,
so besides occasionally using it to thin large plates the machines has seen very little use for the last 10yrs.

The owner didn't know how to program it but he did show x,y, and z table/knee movement which went smoothly.
at first I only really got the machine because of the two for one deal but the longer I have it the more I'd like to get it up and going,
The table looks to be unused because of the plate that's been mounted on it.

Am open to other control options what would you suggest? I simply brought up mach because it was mentioned to work well in another conversion.
Its going to be used for hobbie work and small production runs of parts.

Here are some more pictures of the mills:

20180103_193723 by Joseph Snyder, on Flickr

20180103_193644 by Joseph Snyder, on Flickr

20180103_193651 by Joseph Snyder, on Flickr

20180103_193658_001 by Joseph Snyder, on Flickr

20180103_193708 by Joseph Snyder, on Flickr

Wow, that brings back memories. I'm a year late on this thread, but I found it looking for pictures of this exact machine:

My dad bought a machine just like this in the early 1970s. I was about 8 years old, and I wrote my first NC program for it in 6th grade. I later worked for the company that bought my dad's shop, and kept repairing/programming/operating the machine all the way up to 1994/1995 (yes, it was quite obsolete by then, but still used for some jobs). I still remember how to program it. CSF ASCII files on paper tape (Comma Separated Format) with no N,X,Y,Z,I,J,F,or M letters in the code. The machine figured out which register each number went into by it's place in the CSF line, and if each number had a decimal point or not (N,F & M did not have decimal points). No G-Code either. equivalent of G0,G1,G2,G3 were determined as follows: Feedrate of 0 indicated G0 (rapid). Any other feedrate was G1,G2,or G3 (lines and arcs). These were determined by presence of I & J and the sign of each. For this to work, a program line could only do an arc in 1 quadrant, so it would take 4 lines of code to do one complete circle. The machine could do X,Y,Z moves (3D ramps), but could not do X,Y,Z,I,J (helix) because Z & I shared the same register. If no J was present, then the machine knew the 3rd number with a decimal point was a Z. If 4 numbers with decimal points were present, then they would be X,Y,I,J.

All program moves were incremental, and no cutter offsets...you had to program the centerline of the toolpath. No homing of the machine either since it was all incremental anyway. For example, you might program to start at 1" above the upper left corner of your metal block. After positioning the machine there, you would start the program. The program should be written to finish at the exact same spot (so in other words, all X,Y & Z incremental moves for the whole program should add up to zero, so it ends up at the starting point). If you were .0005" off, then that error would accumulate each time the program ran. Fun stuff.

Did you ever get this machine running?