Old Milling Machine ID

[roja]

I'm hoping someone might be able to help ID this new project.....
See http://www.industrialartist.com/mill/mill.html
Says Bridgeport on the head, but I have done a little Bridgeport research and have not seen a model like this.
It seems to be some kind of universal machine that could convert to horizontal. The head is on a round slide and there is another head mounting point on the side of it.
The table moves for and aft via screw, but left and right via rack. There is a high speed table travel wheel on the front, and what I am hoping is a gear reduction table travel wheel on the left. Some pieces of this are missing.
Also it is missing the vertical knee lead screw.
Any good advice on where to get parts?
Thanks,Roger

[aboard_epsilon]

well looks like it aint no good as a horizontal anymore as all the gubins is missing ..

the top half of the head is a bridgeport M head ...the lower looks too short ...so maybe that bits off something else....unless your pic is squashed up that is ..
motor is also different .
about m-head from lathes.co.uk site

Model M Head
This was the head fitted to the first Bridgeport milling machines and had 3.5-inches of quill travel through both fine and quick-action feeds by hand operation only.
The spindle could be ordered with a No. 2 Morse, B & S No. 7 or a B-3 taper - and the maximum collet capacity was 0.5 inches

[Evan]

Looks like a Frankenmill to me.

[JCHannum]

It does look like a squished M head. Bridgeport originally made just the milling head for use in converting horizontal machines to vertical. The first head was the C head, which became the M head. Further perusal of Tony's site reveals Bridgeport made a shortened version of the C head for Hardinge, which had a serial number starting with a C. It is possible the head is one of these.

It is difficult to see the rest of the mill, but it is possibly a production mill with the B'port head added to convert. The rack table feed is typical of a hand production mill. It looks to be in reasonable condition, and possibly fixable, but parts are probably dificult to find, and would probably neeed to be fabricated.

[Alistair Hosie]

The main thing is if it works good luck to the user and hope he gets fun out of it .Alistair

[Ries]

Yeah, I dont think its momma would recognize it- its what they call in the music industry a "mashup"- two different machines borged together.

So its unlikely you will find parts for the base.
Hope it was cheap.

I like your tag, though- I have been calling myself an "industrial artist" since 1980 or so, its good to meet another one.
I also did metal art furniture for many years- well, I still do, occassionally, but I dont do it for a living any more like I did from 86 to 96 or so.

some of my old stuff on my website- www.riesniemi.com

[Rich Carlstedt]

No, it's a M head.
the photo is distorted fellows. sort of like the HDTV plasma screens you see at Best Buy.
The photo was stretched sideways.
Notice:
The dovetail ways are about 70 degrees ?
The motor is very wide ?
The electric drum switch is very very deep ?
The welding tanks are distorted
it's a M head alright, mounted on some old horizontal mill
rich

[roja]

Yes it was cheap.

And I got a box of chucks, HK tool posts, collets and other stuff which doesn't go to this machine, but any one of which would be worth what I paid.
Sorry about the image distortion. I fixed it.
Thanks for the input so far!
Roger

[roja]

Yes I got a good laugh from your opening line!
What have I done?
Your work is great, and you are doing very well with the public art commisions!
I did machine shop all through high school, worked at a small racing go kart factory (Hartman Engineering), a small british car high perf shop (Hollowell Engineering) and did pre production prototype for motorcycle headers and flying saucers for Supertrapp / Moller International as well as die and jig fabrication for production. I love industrial grade stuff so I try to bring that to everything i do..

[ARFF79]

The picture shows a Bridgeport M-head on a Fox #3 Horizontal mill. I have one and also have an M- head to put on it if I ever find the time. The gear box on the left end of the mill table should be geared so that 1 turn = .200 in travel using the shaft sticking out from the left side. the shaft from the front of the gear box works as a rapid feed. There should be a stub below the rack handle in the rear that was attached top the power feed shaft by a universal joint. This was in turn powered by the power feed pulley on the rear of the hoizontal spindle. The other parts that look to be missing from the gear box are the selector for rack or power/hand (fine) feed and the auto feed engage/trip out lever and trip rod. The mill came with a 9 B&S taper spindle with either a 4 speed cone drive or equipt with a back gear making it an 8 speed. The only way to find parts for the base mill would be to find another Fox mill as they have been out of business for some time. They show up on eBay from time to time. The advantage of the rack feed is in production slotting and secondary milling operations.