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The machine came with no draw bar. Is it safe to assume all Bridgeport j head copies take the same length draw bar?
Now that the head is off and in the shop I am going to clean off one of my work benches and start tearing down the head. I don't plan on taking it 100 percent apart. Just enough to replace the cracked belt housing, inspect the gears inside, and check spindle bearings. Unless I see rust inside or other concerns than I'll tear it completely down.Andy
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There's a 95% chance that mill takes a normal BP drawbar. If you want to run a 90 degree head, you will need the drawbar with the long hex on the top. There's a ring on top of the head, around the drawbar area that you move to go from low to high range. It has 2 special screws in the cam on the ring that need to be tight and solid. If they are worn or loose, they need to be tightened up or replaced.
To remove the spindle, move the quill down an inch or more, and you'll find a small setscrew on the back side of the quill. Sometimes there are 2 setscrews, one on top of the other. Take it/them out and use a pin spanner wrench to undo the big nut on the bottom of the quill. That nut usually has a left hand thread. Once that is off, you can tap the spindle out of the quill with a mallet and big (3/4") punch from the top. It comes out as a spindle cartridge, with all the bearings. Then you can relube or replace the bearings, as needed. I use Kluber NBU-15 bearing grease on all my spindle bearings. Clean out all old grease, then repack with Kluber. It's not cheap, but it beats every other spindle lube by a mile.Last edited by Toolguy; 05-15-2022, 12:16 PM.Kansas City area
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The threads on that bolt are stretched and it looks as though some of the threads from the nut were left behind on it as well. I will get a new nut and bolt to replace that one.
I tore down the head some today. Everything looks surprisingly good to me. The bearings all feel fine to me as well. I didn't see any rust at all and very little water was in the belt housing. The felt above the spindle bearings was soaked very well with oil. The quill looks to be in good shape. Over all I am pretty pleased with how things look so far! The cracked lower belt housing is a bit more broke than I thought it was. I wondering if the mill fell over or was hot hard with a fork lift. The spindle doesn't appear to be bent at all to the eye. I will check it in a lathe later on.
Andy
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Stray is coming along very nicely! I am very pleased yet with how things are looking with this mill. I wiped off the y axis ways and they are very clean. Not a spec of rust on them. I also wiped down the top end of the knee ways which also looked great! I moved the knee all the way up and the table.all the way forward to help get the ram back in. Everything moved nicely. All the ways that were exposed look nice as well. I don't think I will be pulling the table off or the knee. Just move things from one end to the other and clean up what I can get to.
I do need to get a dial assembly for the y and x axis. I also see one of the copper lines for the oiler system was smashed flat so I will need to replace that. Besides those couple things and that lower belt housing part that should be on the way I think that is all I need for stray.
Well I guess one other thing. I need to run power to strays location and hook up yet another vfd. LolAndy
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