The Shop > CNC
Thinking of getting a CNC mill, tell me about the bridgeport series 1 interacts
NeoTech:
So what is your budget? Its prob. easier to recommend a different machine if one knows how much its allowed to cost. =)
I sank like 5500 euro into my used machine. And know have to deal with a slowly failing spindle motor. :doh:
DMIOM:
--- Quote from: NeoTech on December 14, 2016, 04:03:00 AM ---So what is your budget? Its prob. easier to recommend a different machine if one knows how much its allowed to cost. =)....
--- End quote ---
Neo, in his original message, Steve said
--- Quote from: stvy on December 11, 2016, 11:50:20 AM ---...... I am looking to spend less than £1000....
--- End quote ---
Dave
NeoTech:
Oh, sorry.. Well that is not much in budget for a CNC machine guess it could be done if one looked long enough. I looked for 4 years before i found mine. :|
stvy:
Hi,
I was hoping to get a basic Series 1 MK II for around £1000, however thanks to your kind comments and further research I have decided at that price point I need a contingency budget of at least £1-2k to get the machine up and running. Later on I would be looking at mach3 or linuxcnc. The extra budget would be for new bearings, new (to me) servo motors etc. My primary goal is to get a machine with as little mechanical wear to items and areas I cannot easily fix as possible. Any working controller is a bonus. Plus later I think I would need significantly more to bring it up to par. If I read back what I have just written I would probably be better off saving up and having a budget of £3-5k, but for some strange reason I don't mind a project. :palm:
Regarding the "scraping" marks on the ways. Based on pictures of these series 1 MKII's and also my knowledge of how the manual machines were made. I think it is the case that the ways are ground and then bridgeport used their automated biax half moon scraping "NC" machine to break up the ground ways and create oil pockets. This is not a scraped bearing in the traditional sense. And as such they had to do this on the top sides of the bearings as well as the lower side, i.e. the top of the knee is half mooned whereas traditionally it would have simply been scraped and the underside of the saddle would have been the bearing with half moon oil pockets. Also I have learned that because the ways are ground if you do lose lubrication there is enormous "stick slip" and friction and the ways wear excessively.
From what I have seen with this approach broken/missing lubrication has a very very nasty consequence. Normally the chromed ways survive this problem better than the cast iron. So the column, back side of the knee, underside of the saddle, and the underside of the table are all areas that can have very nasty wear. This is not always easy to spot since they are the underside. For example on my manual bridgeport the chromed knee looked as new apart from one short but very deep score but the underside of the saddle was destroyed by stick slip friction welds. Until I took it apart to find the mess I had thought I had a reasonable machine.
stvy:
Hi,
Well I just got back from seeing a bridgeport interact 412H, 30 minutes drive from me. Not the machine type that I was originally planning for but it is not much more heavy than a series 2 at 2200Kg and its only a little bit bigger, and I just have enough electrical power for it. ..... :lol:
The machine is going for less than the series 1 and 2 interacts at the UK dealers google finds. Not much more than my initial budget. It has a BT40 spindle and 12 slot ATC. There was no rust but a pretty nasty filthy cabinet of gunk everywhere.
It has a TNC 355 control. It has been powered off for months. When I powered it on the langauge was German. Initially it complained about being off and then asked for i think the limits to be set. I couldn't get it to traverse the ways or get the spindle running. The table looked pristine, the ways that were exposed look pristine and there was a 3/4 full bijur oiler reservoir and all the oil pipes I could see had oil in them. I had a look inside the spindle and there was no scoring. I did not have access to compressed air but if I go back early next week the seller will have a compressor running.
It had a whole bunch of manuals with it but nothing I could see with the parameters written down. Any ideas what I am looking for?
Unless someone knows what to do and I could get the parameters am I correct to assume the controller is junk. The cabinets were all clean and tidy lots of lights flashing. The main CRT screen was on the blink with the text scrolling up. The seller has it from a bankruptcy and has no idea at all about the controller.
So are these machines a good idea? Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Steve
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