Josh Dabney
Moderator
Thought I'd share my small adventure of buying a Bridgeport and getting it into my shop. I always enjoy it when others post threads like these so I snapped some pics of my new mill and transporting it.
This could probably be considered an impulse purchase but when a deal shows up on Craigslist you gotta act fast or miss out. Asking price was $1000 but he accepted $850 and included a ginormous vice and some other odds and ends including what appears to be a tailstock made to mount on the ram's dovetail (????)
The seller had access to a fork lift for loading the mill but hauling it and unloading it was another question. It must have been good karma or something because I stopped at the gas station to air up my tires on the way to look at the mill and who pulls in behind me ? A nice local fella with a big flatbed hauling a Large sized Kubota with a front end loader. I struck up a conversation and told him my dilema of transporting the mill if purchased and we quickly agreed on a price of $100 to haul the mill the 6 or so miles to my house and deliver it to the inside of the garage.
Here she is in the previous owners shop covered in a few years worth of grime at least. Not real pretty but to my untrained eye she seems to be a servicable machine with smooth tracking on all 3 axsis and ways that were obviously scraped with no alarm raising damage that I saw. Of course he had unwired the machine for a fire inspection or something and no vice mounted so a test drive was out of the question but he assured me she ran fine :les:
That fork lift made loading a snap and the seller did a fine job of driving too.
The fella doing the hauling strapped her down with a 4" ratchet strap and added an additional chain binder at my request
6 miles later and here we are back at my place with my new girl in tow :3: Of course it had to be raining for the move so I trashbagged the head and called it good. I wasn't too awful concerned about a little water on her knowing I'd be working on getting her cleaned up straight away.
Best hundred I think I ever spent !
I got all my equipment moved over to the side of the shop to have plenty of room to get her in where I want her
J-head with pullies and a 1hp 3 phase motor which I'll run off my VFD so if desired I will have infinate variable speed.
A slightly blurry shot of the ways. They all pretty much look just like this small section. I got everything cleaned up and de-greased and confirmed the one-shot lube system is working fine. All the movement is buttery smooth with no noticable play anywhere.
Another shot of her before getting serious about cleaning up the outside of the machine. I did get a pretty darn good start at cleaning her up and polished all the dials with a scotchbright.
I couldn't stand it anymore so I swiped the cord and plug off the surface grinder and wired her up. She purrs like kitten for sure ! Without a real test drive I was a little worried but she sure seems to be a real sound machine a great price.
Aside form this milling machine adventure I'd been forging out some blades and spent a few days re-arranging my jumbled shop and building a new workbench with some desk space and room for the Evenheat. My old computer desk that the oven used to sit on was a waste of valuble floor space and the press board top was blowing up so I HAD to get that replaced with a sturdy home for the oven. It's gonna be nice to have a sit down work area and all the extra shelving space I didn't have before. It's not quite 100% done yet but it's getting close. I still need to get a top on the non oven side but I'm happy to at least have a sturdy perch for the oven again
VERY excited about my mill upgrade Dogs so I thought i'd share with y'all.
Maybe someday I'll actually make a knife BWAAA HAHAHHAHAHA :biggrin:
Take care all
-Josh
This could probably be considered an impulse purchase but when a deal shows up on Craigslist you gotta act fast or miss out. Asking price was $1000 but he accepted $850 and included a ginormous vice and some other odds and ends including what appears to be a tailstock made to mount on the ram's dovetail (????)
The seller had access to a fork lift for loading the mill but hauling it and unloading it was another question. It must have been good karma or something because I stopped at the gas station to air up my tires on the way to look at the mill and who pulls in behind me ? A nice local fella with a big flatbed hauling a Large sized Kubota with a front end loader. I struck up a conversation and told him my dilema of transporting the mill if purchased and we quickly agreed on a price of $100 to haul the mill the 6 or so miles to my house and deliver it to the inside of the garage.
Here she is in the previous owners shop covered in a few years worth of grime at least. Not real pretty but to my untrained eye she seems to be a servicable machine with smooth tracking on all 3 axsis and ways that were obviously scraped with no alarm raising damage that I saw. Of course he had unwired the machine for a fire inspection or something and no vice mounted so a test drive was out of the question but he assured me she ran fine :les:
That fork lift made loading a snap and the seller did a fine job of driving too.
The fella doing the hauling strapped her down with a 4" ratchet strap and added an additional chain binder at my request
6 miles later and here we are back at my place with my new girl in tow :3: Of course it had to be raining for the move so I trashbagged the head and called it good. I wasn't too awful concerned about a little water on her knowing I'd be working on getting her cleaned up straight away.
Best hundred I think I ever spent !
I got all my equipment moved over to the side of the shop to have plenty of room to get her in where I want her
J-head with pullies and a 1hp 3 phase motor which I'll run off my VFD so if desired I will have infinate variable speed.
A slightly blurry shot of the ways. They all pretty much look just like this small section. I got everything cleaned up and de-greased and confirmed the one-shot lube system is working fine. All the movement is buttery smooth with no noticable play anywhere.
Another shot of her before getting serious about cleaning up the outside of the machine. I did get a pretty darn good start at cleaning her up and polished all the dials with a scotchbright.
I couldn't stand it anymore so I swiped the cord and plug off the surface grinder and wired her up. She purrs like kitten for sure ! Without a real test drive I was a little worried but she sure seems to be a real sound machine a great price.
Aside form this milling machine adventure I'd been forging out some blades and spent a few days re-arranging my jumbled shop and building a new workbench with some desk space and room for the Evenheat. My old computer desk that the oven used to sit on was a waste of valuble floor space and the press board top was blowing up so I HAD to get that replaced with a sturdy home for the oven. It's gonna be nice to have a sit down work area and all the extra shelving space I didn't have before. It's not quite 100% done yet but it's getting close. I still need to get a top on the non oven side but I'm happy to at least have a sturdy perch for the oven again
VERY excited about my mill upgrade Dogs so I thought i'd share with y'all.
Maybe someday I'll actually make a knife BWAAA HAHAHHAHAHA :biggrin:
Take care all
-Josh
