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| For the last couple of years I've been kicking around the idea of getting an old manual "bridgeport style" mill for my shop. The ole' Craftsman drill press leaves much to be desired for precision, strength, and power when it comes to drilling large holes in steel. There are many on ebay like this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bridgeport-9x42-Variable-Speed-Mill-w-Tooling-/110990041605?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19d785a205 There are almost always a bunch to choose from, but they are almost always a long distance from Nebraska, so buying on ebay might not be the best idea for something that you pretty much should inspect before purchase(for wear or other problems that can't be fixed). Are there any reputable dealers for this kind of equipment that anybody would recommend? |
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| If your main use is for drilling, by a large drill press. Drilling large holes are hard on a mill, and not what the machine was designed to do. For holes 1/2 inch and smaller a mill is hard to beat. |
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Central Il Morton | But with a Bridgeport you can bore out a hole to as big as your machine. Even starting with a hole saw and finishing to size with a boring tool. |
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Seaford, Delaware | That milling machine is worth every bit of $7500 bucks!
Alan
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Seaford, Delaware | Maybe deduct $1500 off as it does not have a digital read out.
Alan
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Ohio | Have you considered a mag drill for large holes ? |
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| There may be machine tool dealers in Sioux City or Sioux Falls. Almost sure to be in Council Bluffs or Omaha. I was shopping in St. Louis years ago and most of the Bridgeports then were worn really bad with more than 3/4 turn backlash on the table feed screw. Most of that was the nut, but some was the screw because it always is looser at mid table than at the ends. They needed lots of work because they were available from being used hard and long and then put away wet. Refugees from industrial production. Every mill will have some backlash, to the point that for getting to a particular location its important to always approach from the same direction.
Besides Bridgeports there are many mill/drill, some table top coming in new from China. Sometimes they need their manufacturing finished to get them squared up and their motors can be marginal.
I don't think a mill is poor a drilling, I've been using a little Clausing vertical mill for both tasks for probably 30 years and I swing a pretty big drill in steel at times. Its handy to have a ball bearing chuck to get a better grip on the 3/4" drill with 1/2" shank, even better to buy the drill with three flats on the shank, and to buy the drill with 135 degree split point so you don't need a pilot drill. Then I find far fewer times the drill grabs compared to opening up a smaller hole. And drilling a large hole in milling feed mode where the spindle is locked and you slowly raise the table helps keep the drill from grabbing. And all the time the mill, even my little Clausing (which is bigger by a hair than most of the current Chinese imports) is stiffer than all but the most solid drill presses. Having dovetail knee guides on a post more than a foot square makes it a lot stiffer than a table cantilevered from a 3" tube. The table and knee assembly from my Clausing is ALL two good moving men want to carry.
Gerald J. |
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Beresford SD | http://www.greenwayassoc.com/ |
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| Then there's Erickson machinery at Story City, and Smith machinery just west of Ames. I found a lot more in Iowa and Nebraska with this google search:
http://www.google.com/search?q=used+machine+tools+iowa+OR+nebraska\
Like: http://machine-tools.regionaldirectory.us/iowa.htm
Not all the so called directories seem to have listed all the sellers.
Gerald J. |
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ecmn | just got an old J series bridgeport. love it, for the farm now that i have it i cant imagine making things without it. doing custom projects the thing is priceless.
for drilling the only down fall is that by the time i put in the 5/8chuck and adaptor there isnt a lot of room between the drill bit and work. not like a drill press anyhow. |
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Sourthern WI | A mill is certainly good for drilling larger than 1/2". I comfortably drill out to 1 1/2 on mine and throughout school and in the shops I've worked at, that was pretty common. If you are getting up in the 2" and spade drill arena's, then a radial drill press is much more suited.
I see some guys are putting a price on this one, but I would shy away from doing so without inspecting. No amount of pictures will help you determine the value. A wore out bridgeport isn't worth much. Seeing how this one has been stuffed in a corner and been put on hole drilling duty, I'm going to guess it's pretty wore out. You'll want to balance between buying a worn used Bridgeport and a new import machine for what you are going to use it for. The Taiwanese mills are very good and even the Chinese ones are for what they cost. |
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lizton IN | There isn't a lot that can't be fixed on a mill. I have an old Bridgeport that is wore out for a machine shop. For a lot of the farm repair that I do it is just fine. I can get it to hold tolerances of +-.010 if I take my time. When you buy on the mill is the cheap part of everything the tooling adds up quick. The Mill you have listed looks good just getting it home is the problem. |
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WI | That mill isn't worth anywhere close to $7500 or $6000. Maybe worth $2500-$3000 tops with all the extras it has.
I watch this site for machine deals..
http://www.hoffonlineauctions.com/ |
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| Was funny reading guys saying a mill isn't for drilling...................I worked at 3 different job shops in my area, only 1 had a drill press, and it was a radial drill press that was never used while I was there. A good mill, set of drill bits up to 1" and a good boring head and you can darn near do any hole you'll need on a farm. I personally would think the ultimate farm shop machine would be a tool room mill from Haas................Place I worked at bought one, wasn't quite up to the tasks we were doing with it, but it worked and the owner could afford it. In a farm shop it would be awesome, love CNC and mastercam..................You truly could make darn near anything you needed with it and a good lathe. |
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Agent Orange: Friendly fire that keeps on burning. | One thing you can do with a DRO equipped mill is layout and drilling that's accurate to a thousandth or less. Scribing, center punching, and then drilling might get you to a hundreth if you're lucky. Clamp the workpiece to the table or vise, use a spotting drill, and you're holes are where they are supposed to be and a whole lot quicker too. Also no problem to drill a hole directly through the exact middle of a shaft or pipe or to put it exactly in the middle of any other workpiece.
And then there's the actual milling you can do that doesn't work on a drill press. Been fooling around with my newest camera and used the mill and a couple scraps of aluminum to solve a couple problems.
I shoot quite a bit from a tripod and design considerations on the camera precluded putting the tripod hole where I thought it should be. See the problem here?
So a small scrap of AL and I replicated the quick attach tripod pad with a notch that allows the door to open without removing the pad from the camera:
Next, I needed a little nicer way to mount my speedlight on a stand so I whittled out a cold shoe to 1/4 -20 thread adapter plate.
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| Ed,
I wouldn't know how to operate most of the machine tools in your shop, but my mouth waters at every picture you post.
Nice work. |
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Southern Iowa | As stated, most older bridgeports aren't in the best condition, but can be fine for farm shop. The one in your link is probably from the '70's with that style of variable speed setup. You'll need 3-phase power...even if you don't have 3-phase you can run it with a VFD (variable frequency drive). You might consider getting one with the step pully head instead of variable speed....it will likely be cheaper to purchase and you can power it with a VFD that will give you variable speed with the twist of a knob. |
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Bridgeport mill for shop
