Rotating the head of a Bridgeport clone

Discussion on all milling machines vertical & horizontal, including but not limited to Bridgeports, Hardinge, South Bend, Clausing, Van Norman, including imports.

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stickfigure
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Jun 21, 2017 3:31 pm
Location: California

Rotating the head of a Bridgeport clone

Post by stickfigure »

Hi all. I'm "inheriting" a friend's shop, which means moving it. It includes a ~2500-lb turret mill. I need to rotate the head down for transit, but the manuals have long been lost. I haven't operated one of these in 25 years (but itching to get started again!).

Quick sanity check (picture below): To rotate the mill head, unscrew #1 and #2, then rotate #3 to actually move the head? Is there anything else I should know?

My moving plan is to lift it from the eyebolt on the ram with a gantry crane, bolt 4x4s under it to give it a wide footprint, and roll it on heavy duty casters designed for cars (1500 lbs each). Most of the rest of the shop has been moved this way, but this is the heaviest item. Any advice welcome.

Also, if anyone knows anything about this model (I'm guessing it's china-built, probably 20 years old) I would love to know more. Thanks!
vertical_mill.png
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BadDog
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Joined: Wed May 17, 2006 8:21 pm
Location: Phoenix, AZ

Re: Rotating the head of a Bridgeport clone

Post by BadDog »

There are 2 other fasteners opposite 1 and 2. Loosen all 4 and it should turn. However, the top assembly is very heavy and can overload the worm drive once you get very off vertical. So use your hands to help support the top drive assembly as it comes around, don't let it just ride on the drive. With that power draw bar you won't be able to flip it completely over and brace on the table as would be ideal. So you'll either have to remove it to invert; or stop with head horizontal, tighten 1..4, and I would also place some boards under the drive housing to support that weight for the move. You also likely want to remove that fine feed wheel before it falls off and breaks. That's all that comes to my mind, good luck with the move, and congrats on the shop outfitting.
Russ
Master Floor Sweeper
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