There Used to be a Garage Here
January 22nd, 2009More Mill Thoughts
I keep staring at the garage, while a little voice in the back of my head whispers “Bridgeport…Bridgeport…Bridgeport.”
Fortunately, I came up with a good answer. The tooling and accessories for these things are probably insanely expensive. Yes…yes…they have to be. They’re BIG. Don’t contradict me. Besides, a Bridgeport takes up like 6.5 by 5 feet, whereas a Millrite is more like 4 by 5.
It seems like all good milling machines cost between $1000 and $2000 dollars, so it’s irritating to think that I’ll end up with a small one.
January 22nd, 2009 at 4:01 PM
Steve,
The accessories for a B’Port aren’t “insanely expensive”, no more so than for any other mill. What it amounts to is, it’s expensive to tool up ANY mill if you go Whole Hog (sorry).
It’s like anything else, including your table saw: fortunately, you got the $300.00 fence with it, but you still ‘need’ a good miter guage, perhaps a dado head, and a collection of decent blades. There’s a few hundred bucks more, but you knew that going in.
A mill is the same way: you’ll need maybe 2 or 5 hundred bucks worth of stuff to begin with, but may never need a rotary table, dividing head, 5C collet setup (spindex, blocks, and a collet set), boring head, etc.
You really should have DROs, but those are available at less than retail. When you get the mill, I’ll give you a phone number of a guy that might be able to help, if the machine doesn’t have DROs to begin with.
You can thank me later, after you have the mill. 🙂
January 22nd, 2009 at 4:06 PM
Here’s a question for you. Assume you back a Bridgeport into a garage corner, and then you draw a line from one wall to the other, parallel to the front of the Bridgeport, demarcating the line up to which you can move things like cars and other tools. How far from the corner is that line?
January 22nd, 2009 at 4:11 PM
Steve,
Are you sure you don’t mean Bugsport?
http://tedsstudio.com/bugsport/
–Brad
January 22nd, 2009 at 7:11 PM
You can’t back a bridgeport too far into the corner because you have to be able to run table. Our work mill is in a corner, but the front of the base is like seven feet from the actual corner to get the room needed to run the table back and forth.
January 22nd, 2009 at 7:29 PM
Okay, now I’m confused. I thought the tables on these things moved parallel to the front of the machine.
January 22nd, 2009 at 7:46 PM
Yes. And perpendicular. And vertically.
January 22nd, 2009 at 7:49 PM
They’re Wonkatables.
January 22nd, 2009 at 7:52 PM
How does that affect anything when the rear of the mill is backed into a corner? How far to the sides of the center of the mill will the table go?
January 22nd, 2009 at 7:54 PM
The table does indeed move parallel to the front of the machine, which would then make it move along the diagonal spanning the corner. As Og points out, the table must move from side to side to get the full travel. Additionally, if you want to work on long pieces you need to allow for that. I have my mill (an Alliant, Taiwanese copy of a Lagun- very nice) parallel to the corner, because I often have to work on one end of long pieces (up to ten feet long). That said, the corner location is often used by machine shops to which the manual mill is an adjunct to a Mazak or some such wonder gizmo.
Do not under any circumstances buy any mill that does not have a knee. They are endless pain. We have a mill/drill here and it is the worst of both worlds. I’d rather have a good drill press.
Bridgies are nice; I learned on one. The Alliant is bigger and beefier. Getting a BP for $2K seems to be optimistic. I’ve seem them disappear at auctions for the new price. Maybe people are letting them go cheap now. One of our sister companies has a Grizzly knee mill, and it is nowhere near stiff enough.
Regarding tooling, you will of course need a set of R-8 collets- Enco is good enough, Lyndex if you feel rich. You will also need a good vise. I would suggest a big Kurt, which will not be cheap. You can find some Chinese knockoffs, but I think the Kurt is worth the money. A set of parallels (Enco), an edgefinder (Starret), a dead blow hammer, a drawbar wrench/hammer. You will need a good drill chuck; I suggest an Albrecht keyless chuck with an integral R-8 shank.
DROs are absolutely wonderful to have, particularly if you are knocking out stuff in a hurry, but the basic dials work fine. Just remember to count the number of turns, and remember it.
You don’t need a rotary table, dividing head, and stuff like that, unless you are doing tricky stuff. A boring head is really nice to have, and the Chinese knockoff of the Criterion head is pretty good (Enco). I recommend shopping at Enco for lots of stuff at pretty low prices. Penn Tool for better stuff at higher prices, and MSC (owns Enco) for the nicest and highest.
End mills. You’ll need a selection, and the bigger ones will need good horsepower. My most used mills are 1/4, 1/2, and 1″. I have a big face mill, but that is too big for a Bridgie to drive. It came with the mill/drill, which could barely turn it. Fly cutters are nice and cheap, and slitting saws are good for those special applications, but not needed now.
You’ll need a bigger garage if you get into this one. I haven’t mentioned all of the cool measuring tools you’ll need.
Bill
January 22nd, 2009 at 8:14 PM
That depends on the table. If the table is 48″ long, it will crank from one side to the other minus the width of the carriage. So usually, a 4′ table will need 3′ on either side of the mill to run, and that 3′ needs to be in center mass, because the carriage will run all the way back to the column. And the clearance has to be at the top and bottom end of knee travel. Here’s a youtube video that shows a bit about how the mill works
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q89JnCh_hAc
January 22nd, 2009 at 8:15 PM
Here’s a video that shows a little bit of the travel of a mill. it’s usually the length of the table minus the width of the carriage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q89JnCh_hAc
January 22nd, 2009 at 8:41 PM
How far to the sides of the center of the mill will the table go? Depends on the length of the table. If 42″ imagine about 20″ left or right of the spindle plus the cranks. The front of the table should be about 60″ from the corner. Maybe a little more to allow the head to slide back.
Wonkatable. I love it.
Tooling (collets and mills and vises) can be had at auctions cheap.
January 22nd, 2009 at 9:00 PM
If the front of the table is 60″ from the corner, the machine is backed in there pretty tight.
January 22nd, 2009 at 9:08 PM
Steve,
I just measured my B’Port (it’s right behind me):
It’s a bit over 4′ deep, the table is 9″ X 42″. It will go 15″ to each side. With the handles, call it 7′ total width requirement. I’ve seen pics of guys’ shops, with their B’Port in a corner like you mention. It’s rare that you will work on stuff that sticks off the side. Well, maybe not for you, as you want to use it to drill wood, and might be working with a long piece.
FWIW: Given a choice, I’d recommend a step-pulley (1J) head, as you’re going to probably use a VFD anyway. The variable speed heads (2J) use a Reeves-type belt drive that tends to get noisy when it’s worn, the old-fashioned kind is much quieter. Around here, you can find a B’Port with DROs for $2000.00 or less, sometimes down around $1500.00. You do NOT want an ‘M’ head, definitely a ‘J’ head.
see: http://www.lathes.co.uk/bridgeport/ for the history and specs on BridgePort. The first picture is like my machine, the second is one of an ‘M’ head.
Try to buy one that you can hear run under power. It’s not difficult to replace the spindle bearings, but it’s not cheap, either. If they’re quiet, they’re probably OK.
January 23rd, 2009 at 10:27 AM
I have a suggestion….
A while back you mentioned your desire to move to a quiet place. Why don’t you find a place in the country that has a ..gasp.. workshop already in place where you can place all your big toys and also has a garage where you can actually park cars!! I know, I know, this sounds insane but this is where you are leading yourself, so you might as well do it now while real estate is depressed. Just saying.