Bridgeport head rebuild

[mcostello]

People try hard to make pockets to hold oil, You just found a quick way to add more!

[Rockabye74]

LOL on the oil pockets.

I fully disassembled the J-Head last night, and most of that is still in great shape. During storage, the reverse feed knob got broken off again. I think in my book update I will recommend that no matter what movement you are doing with the mill, remove this fragile part!

I have checked the ways and they did not fair as badly as the table did, but they will still require scraping. The table on the other hand looks terrible. I have a friend that has a large CNC machine that he does commercial work with and we are tempted to put my table on his machine and facemill the surface and sides of my table. I can then follow up using his large granite block and scrape the surfaces to get the flatness back. When my table was re-ground several years ago, I was involved in the clamping process to ensure that the table top was parallel to the ways. I still have some of these jigs and should be able to clamp it properly on his CNC table as well. Using a facemill instead of grinding the table will mean more scraping, but given the alternative of the pitted rusty table, I am willing to put in the time to get the accuracy and flatness back. Since I will be re-doing this table and there were several gouges from the previous owners (and myself), has anyone attempted to weld-fill gouges on a table? I'd be curious to hear any horror stories before I become a horror story.

The famous yellow that I used was a single part polyurethane based marine enamel, and this paint did not react well with the coolants that I used as part of the CNC cutting. The coolants would cause the paint to bubble. Thus, I am in the market for a new paint, something in a "Bridgeport" or "South Bend" grey. Are there any suggestions as to what will hold up well to the oils and coolants? I have the capability to spray the paint in the new shop which will also make for a better paint job if I go through the entire body work process.

As I have a lot of scraping and truing to do, I have time to think about the paint, but wanted to start thinking in that direction so that I can acquire some and try it out to see how the application process works.

[Harold_V]

Since I will be re-doing this table and there were several gouges from the previous owners (and myself), has anyone attempted to weld-fill gouges on a table? I'd be curious to hear any horror stories before I become a horror story.

Weld on it and you'll have endless regrets. Without preheating, the weld will cool too quickly, yielding extremely hard areas in the HAZ. That doesn't even take in to account the new stresses that you'd introduce to the casting, most likely resulting in movement of the table over the long term.

Preheating the entire table may not be a good idea, either, as that may encourage relaxing of the original casting. That could be a good or bad thing, although if you intend to do a 100% restoration of all surfaces, it may prove to be a good idea. Machine tools would be far more stable if they were subjected to proper aging or stress relieving of the castings after rough machining. My money says live with the flaws, assuming they can't be removed by light machining.

Harold

[oiad]

Hi Mike,

I just saw this thread had picked up again (3 years old!) I just downloaded a copy of your rebuild manual, You did an amazing job. Look forward to seeing what updates you make to it.

Cheers,
Scott

[morsetaper2]

A 15 min youtube vid on replacing spindle bearings in a Bridgeport. Looks easier than I thought.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVzZeDC2ZiQ

[Jim_Nolan]

Well my heads fine but you never know so, I clicked the link and it came up with “The Verizon site builder tool has been decommissioned and all personal web space pages have been deleted”?

Jim

[stevec]

Jim, are you talking about morsetaper2's link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVzZeDC2ZiQ?
I had no problem bringing it up.

[Jim_Nolan]

Hi, I am Mike Hoffman and I have decided to offer my manual up to the public for personal use. The latest version of the manual can be found at the following location:

http://mysite.verizon.net/resofxtf/site ... 2_0_01.pdf

No. This one

J

[stevec]

Gottcha Jim, Now I understand. ?
I get the same message from Verizon too.

[Rockabye74]

Yes, my Verizon site is long since gone. I have put the manual up on many of the machinery sites (NEMES) comes to mind, and have attempted to add the file here as well but the file size limit is too small.

This is the current link on the NEMES site:

http://www.neme-s.org/Shaper%20Books/br ... ebuild.pdf

[spro]

Thanks for the link/info Rockabye74. I'm sure it will helpful to many.

[Rockabye74]

Wow, when it rains it pours. Recently and more importantly rudely my body interrupted the rebuild process of my mill and I had to have some surgery. Now that I have recovered from that hurdle I started the cleanup process on the mill column and that is going very well. Many of you were very correct that the rust was predominately on the surface of the ways. I have included a current picture to show the clean up.

Stripping mill column.