How's it going,
I've been on a semester long journey to attain a mill that fits in a small space but can easily mill ferrous metals. Recently I picked up a steel base that supports a Bridgeport J head and was given a ENCO J-head to attach to base (See Pictures). There's no z-axis other than the quill so a buddy of mine helped me weld a table together to bring the XY-Table closer to the spindle. My question is the following: Was this base custom built by someone who wanted a benchtop Bridgeport or was this some sort of option that you could get with a Bridgeport clone. If it helps, the original head on the mill was a MillPort. Also before anyone bashes on the current progress of this machine, I will be making a more rigid motor mount for the 1.5HP DC motor and I will be adding more supports to the table to reduce the maximum deflection to around 0.0004". I will also be replacing the cheap Chinese XY table with a Gilman cross slide which should eliminate the deflection problems I was having with the current XY table. Any other suggestions are well appreciated.
I've been on a semester long journey to attain a mill that fits in a small space but can easily mill ferrous metals. Recently I picked up a steel base that supports a Bridgeport J head and was given a ENCO J-head to attach to base (See Pictures). There's no z-axis other than the quill so a buddy of mine helped me weld a table together to bring the XY-Table closer to the spindle. My question is the following: Was this base custom built by someone who wanted a benchtop Bridgeport or was this some sort of option that you could get with a Bridgeport clone. If it helps, the original head on the mill was a MillPort. Also before anyone bashes on the current progress of this machine, I will be making a more rigid motor mount for the 1.5HP DC motor and I will be adding more supports to the table to reduce the maximum deflection to around 0.0004". I will also be replacing the cheap Chinese XY table with a Gilman cross slide which should eliminate the deflection problems I was having with the current XY table. Any other suggestions are well appreciated.