New Owner of a Bridgeport Mill - Now What?

[CCWKen]

Looks like I outbid a smarter person but I finally found a mill I could afford and it's close by. These machines are a rarity in this part of the country unless you buy new. After a L O N G time looking and being outbid, I finally got one. The picture below shows lots of rust but I think this is the camera and photo lighting. There was NO rust showing when I looked at it in person. The table is in good shape as well as the ways. Some wear but a very usable machine after some TLC. It has a 3-phase 1.5hp Baldor motor conversion which I intend to keep. I'll probably be picking it up Tuesday or Wednesday.

[CCWKen]

Wow! HSM photo hosting sucks!

How do you get a real picture instead of a thumbnail image?

How do you get anything?

[tom_d]

"New Owner of a Bridgeport Mill - Now What?"

Well........Use it to make stuff, silly!

Congratulations on finding your new machine.

[754]

Now find 2 K for some tooling. Vise, clamping kit, collet set, drill chuck, boring head....for starters.

[dalee100]

Now find 2 K for some tooling. Vise, clamping kit, collet set, drill chuck, boring head....for starters.

Hi,

First, congratulations on your long awaited purchase!

But yep, be prepared to spend at least twice the purchase price for tools and tooling to make chips. While a dollar's worth of HSS can make a lathe useful for a long time, mills tend to be on going money pits for tooling.

But a decent mill is sooooooo useful it's crazy.

[Danl]

Wow! HSM photo hosting sucks!

How do you get a real picture instead of a thumbnail image?

How do you get anything?

Maybe you were able to see a tiny version of the photo? When I tried to open it in a new tab, it returned, "Invalid photo specified".


hmmm.....

Dan L

[mattthemuppet]

Yay! Congrats Ken, so glad that you got it! I checked it before I went to work and it was up to $1200. Would you mind sharing how much you got it for (here or by pm)? The more data points the better

Looking forward to pics of it in your shop and making chips!

[CCWKen]

Yeah, I saw the invalid photo too. While setting up an album it says if the photo is not used in an hour, the photo will be deleted. There goes preloading for a discussion. The photo hosting here is a real mess. Well anyway, maybe you guys will see it on another forum--Like Facebook or something.

[CCWKen]

Matt, the hammer slammed at $1875 but there's tax, title and license on top of that. Out the door price was $2201.72. I'm happy with that as it's about half of what they normally bring in this area for worse. I guess the new ZTR will have to wait until the end of summer deals. Not much grass around here to cut anyway.

[mattthemuppet]

Very nice, that's a really good price for around here, you did great! I've seen mill drills on cl for $2000 and more plenty of times. If you need an extra pair of hands to move it, let me know.

[CCWKen]

Now find 2 K for some tooling. Vise, clamping kit, collet set, drill chuck, boring head....for starters.

Yeah, I went through that with the lathe years ago. I already have quite a bit of tooling as I was "milling" on the lathe. And I picked up some tooling along the way from other auction lots. The Mill has a vise on the table and X-power feed. I'll get there but first on the list is a bath, new frocks and lipstick.

[Forrest Addy]

Man! What a tragedy!

You bought a milling machine and now you have to clean it up, paint it, equip it. You'll spend nights and weekends out in the shop working on it or with it. Building mechanical models, car parts, more stuff for the milling machine. This is the first step of a terrible obsession called cast-ironitis an OCD behavior complex that lasts a lifetime. It's manifested by the patient's compulsion to acquire more and more machine tools, more equipment, shop space: it never ends. There is no cure once it gets established.

The best thing is to summon some golfers or fishermen to do an intervention, then ...

Oh! Wait! You have a lathe too? We're too late,guys. Ken is lost.

[OhioDesperado]

Well now what? Probably get it home. Figure out where it's going to sit and get it there. Then you need to level it.
Don't think that you can really level it with a 4 foot carpenter level. That ain't gonna cut it. If you have a machinists level great. If not a small piece of glass and a ball bearing is close. Clean the glass and lay it flat on the table. Set a ball bearing on it and see which way it rolls. Level the machine until the ball bearing doesn't move.

Then tram in the head. Watch a video or two on the way to do it and get that done.

After that, you can begin figuring out a vice, tooling and such.

[Dan_the_Chemist]

Best advice I got was to go buy a bunch of scraps and cut offs and then "waste metal". Make toe clamps and set up fixtures you might never need. Make some of Joe Py's angle blocks. Make some round stock into hex stock, make a pair of 123 blocks as accurate as you can get. Learn how to use the machine.

[Black Forest]

Man! What a tragedy!

You bought a milling machine and now you have to clean it up, paint it, equip it. You'll spend nights and weekends out in the shop working on it or with it. Building mechanical models, car parts, more stuff for the milling machine. This is the first step of a terrible obsession called cast-ironitis an OCD behavior complex that lasts a lifetime. It's manifested by the patient's compulsion to acquire more and more machine tools, more equipment, shop space: it never ends. There is no cure once it gets established.

The best thing is to summon some golfers or fishermen to do an intervention, then ...

Oh! Wait! You have a lathe too? We're too late,guys. Ken is lost.

Wait just a minute there Forrest. Golfers might be OK but fishing is way more expensive than machining as a hobby. Self caught fish is by far the most expensive food per pound on the planet.