New Tool for Mixedgas

[mixedgas]

My milling machine being professionally moved out of its former home...
It's former owner did not wish to pay the costs of having it professionally moved.
So I got it for a reasonable price. But they kept the tooling and DRO.
I have enough of my own R8 tooling to make most things I need.
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Moral of the story, don't build a cinder block wall around your milling machine.
This required some specialized tiny fork lifts used for tool moving, to get it around a protruding wall. Very expensive.
Then a truck at 120$ an hour... Not for the timid.. God was kind and stopped the snow just long enough for us to get it to it's new home.
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Came with 14" rotary table and a big Kurt Vise..
I just picked up a power tapper for baseplate work..
If you want to do really cool laser and instrument stuff, you need one of these, or access to a CNC..
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Its primary use is non-laser, however.. I got it hooked to the three phase and she's running. Waiting on a few parts to get here for a tune-up.
In my case I'm lucky, it was really only ever used on simple aluminum molds, so not much wear and near zero spindle run-out.


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Woot!
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See attached...

Steve

[dnar]

I wished I had your problems.

[andy_con]

look forward to seeing some results

[kitatit]

Hi Steve,

What a score! I can't quiet tell from the pic. Is that a J head Bridgeport?
If so, the mounting holes in the base are clearance for 5/8. I tapped them M20 (you might be able to tape them 3/4) and that allowed me to fab up some brackets for castors. You can then jack the castors down which will lift it off the ground about 10mm. You can then push it around by hand.

Have fun.
Kit

[mixedgas]

It's a 1988 Bridgeport Clone sold by Enco, a 100-1527... Made in China by NT Machinery.
Before you cringe at China, look at the date, pre cheap junk revolution, they are actually fairly well made...
I'm seriously considering your wheel mod.. There are bolt-holes there that have adjustable studs as feet in them now...
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And thank you for teaching me that I have a "J" head clone... I Didn't know which Bridgeport it was copied or licensed off of...
I've looked at several pictures and I'm pretty sure its modeled off an older J..

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Thanks Kit,
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Steve

[kitatit]

You are right, Some decent stuff can come from China. Like you said, they refocused on cheap in recent years and it shows. Taiwan seem to have the right idea for affordable quality machines these days.

Mine is a 1980 model Bridgeport but it was made in Singapore with an Italian DC motor for the X axis power feed and the spindle motor is from the UK. Unfortunately. Mine wasn't in that fantastic condition. I've fixed most of its problems and have machined parts with good accuracy.



These guys are great http://www.machinerypartsdepot.com/
They are in Indiana. They have most parts you might need.

This book is worth buying. http://www.machinerypartsdepot.com/product/BRM-J
It has most of the relevant info for repairing/servicing a J head. It also has drawings and parts lists. It with help you identify which model it's cloned off too.

I highly recommend addition of a VFD motor controller for the spindle motor. It saves you a lot of time not having to change belts all the time. There are a few how to threads on www.practicalmachinist.com It's a relatively cheap mod in the States as you shouldn't need to change your motor(probably). I was a bit of a challenge for me but you would find it easy.

The guys at H&W Machine Repair and rebuilding (The website above) are real helpful but if you want reassurance that any parts will fit your machine, give me a yell and I can measure parts off mine. A good thing about the. J heads is that they are
A bit simpler and cheaper to fix than the mechanically variable speed series II models while also usually being quieter too.

Cheers Kit

[danielbriggs]

A machine for life! Good work.

Suggested shopping list:
X-axis power feed, or if you've £, something like an EZ-TRAK conversion for 2D CNC

[Draco]

yeah that's a lucky find, one thing i have always wish for was access to such a machine, my hunk of crap is a drill press with a hand adjustable X/Y vice and one end mill bit, for this stuff it makes for a poor mans lathe but far far far from ideal