Bridgeport Series 1 mill, opinions?

[Spook2]

I'm looking at a 9"x30" series 1 bridgeport in my area. It looks to be in decent shape and I'm waiting for a response concerning backlash numbers and the condition of the ways. I'm just looking for something to put in my little hobby room and just like with my lathe, I'm not looking to make parts for the space shuttle. Based on that I'm curious about the usability and worth of this particular model. I think the only extra feature is a powerfeed for the X. If any other info is needed I'd be more than happy to provide it if possible.

As an aside, I made my first parts on my dirt cheap lathe. I managed to reproduce some parts for my custom made welding manipulators that I've been shelling out $400 each for. I figure I've got maybe $30 in material and about 3 hours time (each). I made 5 of them and figure the lathe already pretty much paid for itself.

[MXtras]

Well, not really enough info to give any opinion but a mill is an awesome thing to have at your disposal.

Backlash in the screws is easily resolved through either adjustment or replacement of the screws and nuts. The ways are a bit more difficult to re-do. Backlash comes from worn ways, too - not just the screws. If it is an older, used BP it is going to be worn. How much is the determining factor. Chrome ways are a bonus and reduce wear on one of the sliding parts, but the mating surface is not chromed and will be worn. They are typically worn in the middles of travel which makes it tough to eliminate B/L and still be able to run to the edges of travel. Having the machine re-scraped is not really all that much money - maybe $1000 and you will be back to factory specs.

Even a pretty worn out mill is far more useful than a drill press.

Post some more info when you get it.

Scott

[FarmallMan]

Bridgeport made the series 1 alongside the series 2. The series 2 is a little too heavy for the hobbiest, IMHO.

There are several things to look for... Have you seen it yet? Make sure the table isn't a piece of swiss cheese from too many drill holes.

Take a close look at the ways. Bridgeports' scrapers applied "frosting" to the ways to help hold the way oil, if they're there but slightly worn the machine is probably in good shape. If the frosting is pristine across the ways, be very cautious because people often do this to cover up the fact that the machine is whooped. Lateral scratches are bad news as well. If it's an earlier mill, the ways will have zerk fittings....they are NOT for grease, they are for way oil. Many folks miss this point and load the ways up with grease which makes them VERY stiff. It can be cleaned up, but its a bit messy.

Is it a step pulley head or varispeed? Bridgeport called these 1J and 2J heads respectively. Both are good, but I tend to favor the step pulley (1J) head because its simplicity tends to be more rugged than the more complex varispeed head.

Check the taper in the spindle. You really want to get a machine with an R8 taper, not Morse or B&S. You can get these other types of tooling if you look hard enough, but its a pain.

The machine should be 3 phase, unless it's been converted. If you don't have any experience with 3 phase, don't be scared away by it. Phase conversion can be done fairly inexpensively and we can chat about that further if you're interested.

Reply with any questions if you have any....

Nick :cool:

[Corm]

Something else to consider is any tooling that may come with the mill. Tooling can easily cost you more than the machine. If the machine is real well tooled up, and the asking price is in line with average costs for your area, sometimes it is worth it to buy the machine just for the tooling. If the machine proves out to be not in as good a shape as you wanted/needed, you could replace it with another and be dollars ahead.

[vicegrip]

I'm looking at a 9"x30" series 1 bridgeport in my area. ................. If any other info is needed I'd be more than happy to provide it if possible.

As an aside, ........ I managed to reproduce some parts for my custom made welding manipulators that I've been shelling out $400 each for. I figure I've got maybe $30 in material and about 3 hours time (each). I made 5 of them and figure the lathe already pretty much paid for itself.

Glad to here of the Lathe news.:cool:


Both are good, but I tend to favor the step pulley (1J) head because its simplicity tends to be more rugged than the more complex varispeed head.

.............
Reply with any questions if you have any....

Nick :cool:

There are several plusses to the step-pully head.
Quieter, smoother, avoids the costly parts of the variable.
And you can power-tap with the belt loose, to avoid brakage,
if you do an OOps.:o

Look for cracks from the bottum of the base going upward,
just at the front of the column Face.
Rare damage but a hard fix.

vg

[Spook2]

Great info from all. I've yet to pull the trigger on anything but I've still got my eyes open.

I haven't noticed anything with a cracked base but I did spot a few where the table power feeds were busted. I'm assuming from the tool running into something it shouldn't have. Busted mounts and cracked motor cases, etc. That and a whole slew of outright beat up junk.

[FarmallMan]

I haven't noticed anything with a cracked base but I did spot a few where the table power feeds were busted. I'm assuming from the tool running into something it shouldn't have.

Running an endmill up against something solid will just crack it off. Unfortunately, I have done this a few times more than I would like to admit. Cracked castings are an awefully good indicator that you're gonna want to keep looking. They are usually the result of severe use/misuse and/or being hit with something like a forklift or pallet jack's load.

My powerfeed (the older style with two ranges and discrete gears) has a slip clutch incorporated into it. When it gets too much resistance, it will pop.

Nick :cool:

[Spook2]

Talk about digging my own thread out of the grave.

I finally got around to buying a mill, sight unseen unfortunately but it "looked" decent in the pictures. At least it didin't have that dupont rebuild a lot of sellers do trying to make it look barely used.

Anyway, it's a Bridgeport and I believe it's a Series 1 J-head. Not DIRT cheap but at under 1K probably not a bad deal for a Bridgeport.

With all that, can anyone tell me how tall one of these are? I have to go pick it up and I'd rather do it in my little box trailer but that's probably only a tad over 6 feet at best.

I don't have a bunch of info on it other than the photos in the ad, but it doesn't appear to have been beat on. Judging by the condition of the shop area it's in I'd say it probably saw infrequent lite duty use. Since it was being sold on site by a liquidator odds are the company owning it went bust.

[whateg0]

Somebody here pointed me over to Chaski.org when I bought my lathe. There is a lot of good machining and tool information there. There's also the Practical Machinist website, but I haven't been there much. Anyway, like here, most of the folks are pretty open about stuff, so if you're making a bad decision, they'll tell you so. Good encouragement, though, too. I think it makes a good forum to go along with Weld Talk.

http://www.chaski.org/homemachinist/index.php

Dave

[Wyoming]

[QUOTE=Spook2;374618]Talk about digging my own thread out of the grave.

With all that, can anyone tell me how tall one of these are? I have to go pick it up and I'd rather do it in my little box trailer but that's probably only a tad over 6 feet at best./QUOTE]

Check out the following link for manuals for the Series 1

http://kneemills.com/index.asp?html=Documentation.

The height listed for a vari-speed head version is 82". Old style J-head should be an inch or so shorter. That 82" was from the base to the top of the motor housing with the motor sitting bolt upright. You should be able to gain at least another 12"-14" by swinging the motor housing upside down toward the table...best to do so anyway as it lowers the center of gravity a tad.

Good luck on your purchase. You are gonna be one broke sunuvagun soon enough...

[fjk]

With all that, can anyone tell me how tall one of these are?

have you tried looking around at www.bpt.com?

frank

[MXtras]

Not sure on the exact height but with the head tilted down it will fit under a 7' garage door with room to spare. I would be more concerned with the weight - a standard J-head weighs in at 2204 pounds if I recall correctly.

Here's my $1200 find from a few years ago - it didn't look like this when I picked it up obviously.

Scott

[Spook2]

Not sure on the exact height but with the head tilted down it will fit under a 7' garage door with room to spare. I would be more concerned with the weight - a standard J-head weighs in at 2204 pounds if I recall correctly.

Here's my $1200 find from a few years ago - it didn't look like this when I picked it up obviously.

Scott



Did you buy stock in The Blue Paint Company? :) I love it. It looks great and is a nice departure from the standard boring Machinery Grey.

I think I'm probably SOL on the trailer. I know I have to duck a bit to get in the doors (forgot about that), so unless the mill tops out at about 5'6" with the head rotated down I don't imagine getting it in.

[whateg0]

According to this site (http://www.truetex.com/movebpt.htm)...

"The clearance height for the J-head model is 83-1/2"."

Here's a pic of a guy standing next to his as it is being loaded. It looks like it could be somewhere between 5' and 6' tall with the head tilted down.

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r27/drivadesl/MillMoving006.jpg

Dave

[Spook2]

According to this site (http://www.truetex.com/movebpt.htm)...

"The clearance height for the J-head model is 83-1/2"."

Dave


I found an overall height for the unit which is 6'8". It looks like I'd gain about a foot or so with the head rotated down. I'm heading out now to check the door opening on my trailer but I'm guessing it's going to be too close to call it good an be comfortable. I'll probably just end up taking my flatbed, a handful of tarps and a whole bunch of bungie cords.

[whateg0]

judging by the relative size of the mill vs. the 16" wheels on the trailer, I would guess the height with the head rotated down to be about 5'2.8".

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r27/drivadesl/MillMoving011.jpg

Dave

[Roger]

You will need more than bungie cords to tie it down to your tailer.

[Wyoming]

You will need more than bungie cords to tie it down to your tailer.

Yep, I'd recommend ratchet straps and lag bolting the base to the wood deck. Top heavy machines, remember to swivel the head upside down for a lower center of gravity.

[calweld]

Reading Spook2's post, I would think the bungie cords he mentioned, were just to hold the tarps to protect from weather, bugs, etc. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

BTW, Spook2, I remember you posted up some of the biggest, baddest, welds ever on this board. You still doing the foundry repairs, or did you actually retire/semi-retire from this type of work, as you wished????

[Spook2]

Reading Spook2's post, I would think the bungie cords he mentioned, were just to hold the tarps to protect from weather, bugs, etc. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

What, you mean I can't just run some of them walmart bungies across the base and call it good? :)


BTW, Spook2, I remember you posted up some of the biggest, baddest, welds ever on this board. You still doing the foundry repairs, or did you actually retire/semi-retire from this type of work, as you wished????


I effectively retired after those jobs. Actually, I was effectively retired at the time. But..."whenever I think I'm OUT, they pullll me back IN!" Hehe.

I came out long enough to help with those jobs and then crawled back into my retirement shell. I can out again about 6 months or so ago to do a another one but MUCH smaller this time. My people are just finishing up another one right now but again, not a monster like those 2 you know of. I stayed out of that one so hopefully I've set a precedent and they'll stop calling me to help out. I still have the company, but I have someone else run the day to day.


Right now I'm up to my eyeballs in old Jeep, old Jeep trucks, and Unimog rebuilds. I have 1 79 CJ7 about 99% done, 1 1980 CJ5 about 70% done, 1 1983 (my baby) in the tear down stage, 1 '80 Jeep truck I'm in the process of dropping a Cummins diesel into, and 1 1966 Mercedes Unimog radio truck I have all tore to h3ll and back to put a new engine in and fix the body and radio box. PLENTY to keep me busy. Oh, and 3 and 4 year old little girls to keep me young. Yep, retirement, such a relaxing time. :)

[the forge]

If you have digital readouts on the machine, you do not have to worry about backlash. If you are going to transport a milling machine you need to raise the table all the way up and put a block of wood between the bottom of the quill, in its up position, and the table. A slight amount of pressure will do. This will stabilize the whole machine. Be sure to level the mill when you put it in its final location.:)

[Spook2]

If you have digital readouts on the machine, you do not have to worry about backlash. If you are going to transport a milling machine you need to raise the table all the way up and put a block of wood between the bottom of the quill, in its up position, and the table. A slight amount of pressure will do. This will stabilize the whole machine. Be sure to level the mill when you put it in its final location.:)



No digital unfortunately, but for what I paid I can't complain too much. Raising the knee and blocking the head is exactly what I did. I was going to rotate 180 to put the motor in the down position but frankly I didn't have the time to figure it out, and being Bridgeport stupid, the process wasn't readily apparent. Anyway, I just got it home yesterday and it's still on the trailer covered in plastic and tarps. I can't wait to dig into it and see what's there. I know there is a collection of collets, what looks to be about a 3" or so face mill in the quill, and a bunch of god knows what stuffed in the treasure box.

[MXtras]

Spook -

Take a peek at this thread:
http://www.toolandfab.com/forum/showthread.php?t=227&highlight=leveling

Scott

[vicegrip]

A knee-mill (Bridgeport) need not be level to function propperly.
But it does need to be sitting on firm points, to cary vibration
into the floor.
Levelling is important if you want to use leveling to aid in
set-up aligning.

The easy-est fastest-most-painless way is to do a "three-point".
Front right and left, and mid-point in the back under the column.

Set the mill on these three points.
Ballance the two front points first.
Then bring the back up or down till it is level.
Now support the weight of the mill on the back
two corners and remove the center-point.
Cheers
VG

[Spook2]

Spook -

Take a peek at this thread:
http://www.toolandfab.com/forum/showthread.php?t=227&highlight=leveling

Scott


Where did you pick up parts you needed? I'm thinking I might replace the screws and nuts, wipers, etc but then pretty much call that good. I don't expect to be building aerospace parts on it and doubt I'd ever even go so far as to CNC the thing, at least not in the immediate future.

I'm just guessing they need replaced. I know if I place the X or Y feed handles in say the 9 0'clock position and give them a twist they move to about the 11 o'clock position before the slack goes away and they firm up. I have no idea how many thousandths of backlash that equates to. This is just quick and dirty messing around. Right now it's still on the back of my trailer in my garage.

Couple shots....

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/tgreening/Bridgeport/IMG_0245.jpg

There's about 18 collets there if I remember correctly, and that big honkin face mill. I haven't inventoried anything but I'd imagine some of them are duplicates.

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/tgreening/Bridgeport/IMG_0243.jpg

Not really sure how much you can tell from the picture but the ways don't seem to be "too" bad. There are some pits in them but mostly at the extreme end of travel away from the column. I doubt it makes that much difference that far out. Travel in that direction gets a bit tight at the extreme end but I'm not sure how much of that is gummi-ness and how much is wear.

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/tgreening/Bridgeport/IMG_0237.jpg


Shot of just the J-head. I know I'm missing some knobs but they shouldn't be that hard to find. Anybody has some they want to donate feel free. :)

http://i237.photobucket.com/albums/ff222/tgreening/Bridgeport/IMG_0248.jpg

Questions and comments are more than welcome!

[vicegrip]

Hmnnnnn, you might have a Frankenstien there,
but that can be a good thing.

Looks like the fine-wheel is gone but the rest of the "nobs" are there.
No-one uses the fine-wheel any-way. Many are missing.

How long is the table? Looks like it's the shortest one. Another good thing.
But LOOSE the riser, try to sell it. Target guys that still use a turn-table
(not a rotary).....like an Advance etc.
Trade the face-mill for one that belongs on a Bridgeport.
Or at least only use it for light finnish surfacing.

Got the best lube system. I dought the screws and nut are that bad.
Any thing in the collumn cubby?

You did good.!!
vg

[Spook2]

Hmnnnnn, you might have a Frankenstien there,
but that can be a good thing.

Looks like the fine-wheel is gone but the rest of the "nobs" are there.
No-one uses the fine-wheel any-way. Many are missing.

How long is the table? Looks like it's the shortest one. Another good thing.
But LOOSE the riser, try to sell it. Target guys that still use a turn-table
(not a rotary).....like an Advance etc.
Trade the face-mill for one that belongs on a Bridgeport.
Or at least only use it for light finnish surfacing.

Got the best lube system. I dought the screws and nut are that bad.
Any thing in the collumn cubby?

You did good.!!
vg


Not sure about Frankenstein. As far as I knew it's just all Bridgeport. All the quill feed knobs are gone, fine or otherwise. The Fwd/Rvs switch just has a bolt in it as do a couple other controls. They would work, but I just don't like it. I like factory parts to be in their proper places. The table is 36" which is fine with me. I don't expect to ever come anywhere near maxing it out. The riser I was mixed on. I didn't see a need for it, but in the back of my head was the memory that dang near every tool that I've NEVER used, I've needed the instant I sold it. :) Odds are I'll unload it and use the money to buy tooling I know I'll use. Probably another riser because I'll need one as soon as I sell the first. :rolleyes:

What's up about the face mill? Stuff in the treasure box was all the loose collets sitting on the table. Some misc. tooling bits that appear to be clamp/clamp parts of some sort, 3 or 4 complete sets chuck jaws. For a lathe maybe? And a whole bunch of gooey azz semi-rubberish gloves.

[vicegrip]

QUOTE=Spook2;375817]Not sure about Frankenstein. As far as I knew it's just all Bridgeport.
It's all BP, but the knee looks newer than the rest.....
I had a boss once have me combine the best of three BP's.
It's fine as long as compattable.
All the quill feed knobs are gone, fine or otherwise.
Ya don't want a three-handled quill-feed.
The kind that can be re-postioned is the ticket!
One handle only.
The Fwd/Rvs switch just has a bolt in it as do a couple other controls. They would work,
but I just don't like it. I like factory parts to be in their proper places. The table is 36" which is fine with me.
The longer the table the worse the ware on the 'Y' ways.
36" is best. They shouln't have offered the extra long table.
I don't expect to ever come anywhere near maxing it out. The riser I was mixed on. I didn't see a need for it, but in the back of my head was the memory that dang near every tool that I've NEVER used, I've needed the instant I sold it. :) Odds are I'll unload it and use the money to buy tooling I know I'll use. Probably another riser because I'll need one as soon as I sell the first. :rolleyes:

What's up about the face mill? Stuff in the treasure box was all the loose collets sitting on the table. Some misc. tooling bits that appear to be clamp/clamp parts of some sort, 3 or 4 complete sets chuck jaws. For a lathe maybe? And a whole bunch of gooey azz semi-rubberish gloves.[/QUOTE

[MXtras]

Spook -

That looks like it in about the same condition as mine was when I picked it up. I don't have digitals of it prior to the rebuild.

Here's a thread about the CNC conversion:
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10535

Here's a thread about replacement screws:
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16538

As far as the parts - I got most of the parts to rebuild the head from http://www.bptparts.com/ and some of the other parts were purchased off E-bay.

As far as your screws - replacements are out there. You can split the nut and adjust them, but if they are worn, the adjustment will make them tight at the not-so-worn areas.

That facemill is too big in my opinion - unless you run it lightly as mentioned by Mr. Grippy.

Scott