May have found a mill looking for opinions

[Drcemento]

looking for opinions from the MCB community. 3 phase bridgeport - $1500. forklift onsite to load big bonus.
been keeping my eye out causally . what am I looking at here. I know very little. Mainly can it be upgraded a little over time to things like digital readouts etc? or will it be a colossal paperweight. I have other uses for it at my business besides paintball - we do allot of mold-making and the ability to slot and suface things would be great.

[tyronejk]

Preface: I'm not a machinist and have never owned a Bridgeport, but have a lot of time on them from engineering school.

You should be able to put DROs on these pretty easily. I think 4/5 of them at my school were equipped with DROs. I would also get one for home if I had the space (or got rid of my lathe). From what I've researched, these are still good machines and generally better made than the new imported machines in the same price range. But being old machines, they likely have decent wear in the ways and bed and may not hold the same accuracy as new machines (unless you re-grind or scrape the ways).

[Ecapnation]

That's a 3000$ upgrade on old machines

[tyronejk]

A quick Google shows them selling for $300-$500.

[RedLeaderSB]

Looks wet? Not sure you could give me a machine that has water puddles on it. I don’t want a machine to be the project, but that’s up to you.

[Ecapnation]

Had the exact one in my garage for years and ended up scrapping it

Three big things to remember.

1) Bridgeports are almost always three-phase and that's a bastard to get into a residential house

2) cheap doesn't always mean usable... Sometimes shops will just sell it along broken in order to not have to deal with the logistics and cost of disposal

3) bigger is not better.... My table top mill was a hundred times more usable for paintball projects. Chances are you won't need the size, weight, or torque for home projects.... Oh and keep in mind a machine that size needs a 10 foot bubble of work space around it

[superman]

you can run a phase converter. That is how i am running mine.

[Ecapnation]

I ran into issues with that on older machines before

[Drcemento]

Thanks guys - that helps. it would live at my shop - space and power readily available, but thinking this one will be the project after going back and forth with person selling for a friend, which means it may likely sit forever.

going to circle back to looking for a new benchtop one to maybe get my feet wet in this world. Ecapnation what is the one you are happy with? I know there's been a couple threads on this, but the ones i found are are from early in the re-boot. ultimately I'd like to be able to take some of the big block cocker bodies I've collected over the years and do some carter style decorative cuts on them, and mill some slots in sheridan bodies - PGP etc for rubber detents and quick strip slots etc. milling some brass interface blocks for tubes etc also on the list.

[Ecapnation]

I was using an early grizzly prior to them manufacturing overseas.... Bought new in 2000, 240v single phase. Used a common R8 collet and worked great on aluminum plastics and wood. Steel I had to go easy with

Advice for you.... Base your machine on the ideal size of work you will use it for and not fantasy land.

Keep in mind too.... Big machines need big tooling and vices and that's big money

[DocsMachine]

Okay... [cracks knuckles]

First off, the key issue to ANY machine is condition. The highest-quality brand in the world does you no good if that particular machine is badly worn.

The flip side of that is, buying pretty much any used machine- especially a cheap one- means there's going to be wear.

On the third hand (I flunked anatomy class) just because it's worn, doesn't mean you can't do good work with it. It just means doing that good work isn't as easy. My first mill was a badly worn JET mill-drill, and that was good enough to launch my biz.

Being out in the rain tells me the seller thinks so little of it he doesn't care- so take that as a red flag right there. Check the slide ways- heavy scoring and gouges? Pass. Light but smooth wear? It can be usable.

One of the biggest benefits of a Bridgeport, unlike a large number of other machines, is that parts are widely available, news and used. You can get aftermarket power feeds, spindle bearings are easy and comparatively inexpensive to find, leadscrews and nuts can be had new or used, you name it.

By contrast, I have a Spanish-made Exacto mill, made by a company called Anayak. Replacement parts simply don't exist. No one parts them out, no one sells new parts, etc. (Save for common bits like belts, bearings and bolts.)

It's also worth noting that my Exacto was literally thrown away- junked because it was damaged and they didn't want to fix it. I fixed it and repainted it, and now it's a pretty damn nice machine. Not saying that's going to be the case for that Bridgeport, but that you can get a deal if you're willing to put in a little work.

On the 3-phase, even if you don't have native power, it's easy as pie to convert. I don't have 3-phase and more than half the machines in my shop are 3Ph, up to an including the 10HP Springfield lathe. Most everything runs a VFD (variable frequency drive, which also adds things like soft start, variable speed and near-instant reverse) and a couple run on a 5HP rotary converter.

And finally, if it works, and you have need/use of a mill, ANY mill is better than no mill. If you're trying to launch a business with it, you might be a little more discerning, but if you want to get into the game and not break the bank, that doesn't look like all that bad a deal. I'd snag it, clean up the rust and the ways, lube the bejeebers out of it- and buy more bejeebers to boot- plunk on a 2HP Automation Direct VFD, closely inspect and regrease, or replace, the spindle bearings, throw a $400 Chinese glass-scale DRO on it, a cheap import 5" vise, and go to work.

Doc.

[Drcemento]

Ha I knew you'd chime in with a more optimistic view doc - and having read enough of your re-build threads over the years.... I feel like it would be within my skillset and another bit of a dream project, but with limited time.... I may go over and at least eyeball it and look for the red flags.

that said, this also popped up on FB marketplace locally.... this is what got you started!? 1,500 seams steep considering the bridgeport....

[Magageddon]

I find most table top/small mills to be more expensive than large mills like that bridgeport. A lot more people can fit these smaller mills in their basements/garages and are much easier to move around than these giant bridgeports.

[Magageddon]

I ended up going with this old benchmaster from 1947. It weighs about 350 pounds all together and does everything I've wanted to do paintball projects wise. I think I paid 875 for this one on marketplace at the time and took another couple hundred to get a collet set and some mill bits and been playing with it since. If i was looking for another mill or recommending one, I'd say try to find one like this.

[KMDPB]

I wouldn't hesitate, I wish I could find 1500 dollar bridgeports in my area. Slap a freak drive on it and start playing around!

[DocsMachine]

that said, this also popped up on FB marketplace locally.... this is what got you started!? 1,500 seams steep considering the bridgeport....

-Mine was an older variable-speed model, but yeah, basically an R8 mill-drill.

As for the cost? Chances are that M/D has considerably less use, and thus less wear, than the Bridgeport. But, speaking personally, with only a few exceptions, I'd personally rather than a lightly worn Bridgeport than a near-new mill-drill. Or rather, any knee mill rather than a round-column mill-drill. I fought for years with trying to hold or re-find "zero" after adjusting the head height on a M/D.

Either one of those machines would likely serve you reasonably well as a 'starter' mill.

D