Bridgeport for Beginners!

Discussion in 'Other metal working projects' started by Jason, Dec 10, 2019.

  1. Jason

    Jason Gold

    yeah Mark, that works too. I used the forks at the same spot. worked good.
     
  2. Jason

    Jason Gold

    What kind of bullet proof paint did these guys use? I'm counting my lucky stars 70% of it's already gone. What's left is putting up a serious fight. Lead based no doubt.:rolleyes: I'm sure what ever I replace it with wont tolerate 40years of abuse.o_O
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  3. joe yard

    joe yard Silver

    If you have never owned a mill. You are in for a treat. In short order you will wonder how you ever lived without one. The dividing head is a gem. It will give you fast accurate circular pasterns. This allows making gears and sprockets well within the reach of even beginner. I think the original finish is epoxy.
    Joe
     
  4. OMM

    OMM Silver

    It is most likely lead based paint.

    Use two-part epoxy body fill. Don’t mix too much more than you can use and two or three minutes.

    100 grit sandpaper for the first knock down and then 220 for the second knock down. But you can skip the stage...

    Versol or mineral spirits in a squirt bottle for wash down.

    You definitely want to prime with a oil base primer and wait almost a week. This can be done with high build liquid or rattle can. I do it with a dollar store foam roller oil machine primer or gun.

    Then use a semi gloss or flat oil based paint. If you want it looking really good, put it on with a spraygun. If you’re OK with 70% OK, put it on with a foam roller.

    The trick with oil base paint is, put it on thick and let it self level (but not too thick it runs). It usually takes 4 to 5 days to skin over and almost 30 days to be hard/Cured, in a decent environment. Not too much moisture with decent ventilation for off gas.

    If you’re overly anxious you’ll have to use two-part automotive paint. The price tag it is almost 10 times the price. Trust me. The last 30% of making this look professional is a rabbit hole you don’t wanna go down unless you have 2 to $3000 you want to burn. My spray equipment without paint, I am over 3G. But I also build furniture. Spring automotive paints will move you into the $200ish,... for the two parts, Per quart, plus Gun plus cleaning supplies plus time...it is not worth it.

    Just my Main gun and turbine Compressor are about $800. My clearcoat gun and compressor are another $2000. And I haven’t even bought Pro staff. Maybe semi Pro.

    With dollar store artist brushes you can work around some of the finer details.
     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2019
  5. There's a Youtuber in the next large city South of my town who fabricated a steel table for a benchtop mill: he used time expired two pack urethane aircraft paint (free) and brushed it on to good effect. No need for a spray booth and no need for a mask in a well ventilated area, with a long cure time, the finish was nice and glossy as the paint had time to flow and smooth the brush marks out. I tested some of the red/pink primer and filler used on a few 1960's machine tools and it was negative for lead: they were mixing red iron oxide in for the pigment, that's not to say chromate primer wasn't used as well.

     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2019
  6. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Thanks Matt. That sounds like the way to go. Ive got tons of cleanup work in front of me. First on the list needs to be a vfd. I didnt get to hear this thing run and want to know if I have to go inside the head. The bottom seems really simple, but the head scares the hell out of me. I saw one apart and had nightmares. Is there some easy procedure to flush it out and relube?

    For now, it's been lots of evaporust and getting the tooling looking good. I found a criterion 3/4" boring head in the box today.:eek: I saw a used one on fleabay running 300bucks. Its starting to sink in how many dollars I have in tooling. Terry really hooked me up.

    Joe, I know this thing is going to be the catsazz. Look what I found at the scrapyard yesterday. I walked by it twice and then I thought, I need that! I've skipped out on larger saws for lack of space. I paid 40bucks for this and after some cleanup, it works! Even the motor is silent as a mouse after I evicted the mud dobbers. Everything on it was frozen solid. Half a can of wd, it's good to go! I see the attraction now to cast iron, but god is this stuff H E A V Y!
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  7. OMM

    OMM Silver

    When you’re ready for a VFD, Touch base with me. I have a pile.

    The little chop up that you have, which, I call, power-handsaw. New are worth about $1000 with the tilting. These saws are absolutely amazing for cutting through thin stuff. I don’t personally own one but it is on the bucket list! So I’m a little bit envious. The one you have looks like a pre-version. But don’t look a gifted horse in the mouth! Can you get blades for it reasonably?

    I almost asked where is the lead guide. But I think you got it from the two pictures.
     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2019
  8. OMM

    OMM Silver

    How much are you charging for rent? Or is that vehicle under the blue rag yours? At $50 a month storage charge , I think that vehicle is yours now???
     
  9. The two best things I found for stripping paint and filler off cast iron would be wire cup wheels and 40 grit flap discs: the wire cup wheels chew through the paint and filler and the flap discs can smooth any casting defects nicely, yet leave a finish that keys in filler and paint. Cast iron can weep a bit of oil too, so caustic degreasers on the bare iron will clean any residual oil to the point where you'll get a slight gold tinge from rust which is how you know the oil is gone. Just wear some jeans and maybe a leather apron to catch any wires shed from the cup wheel, they will draw blood.
     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2019
  10. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Yeah Matt it was complete when I got it. I didn't take a photo of it put back together. Odd thing about this saw, it cuts from right to left.o_O Bassackwards of modern saws. These things were popular in the 1960-70's. Blades are available but cut the wrong direction so I guess you flip them inside out. (I suppose that would work) That's my 69 Jag with the back up under the blanket. One of these days, I'll mount the ass end back in it. I did a gear change in the diff and if I don't like the new ratio, I'm cashing in.

    Good to know Mark, I'm running aircraft remover for now until I run out of it. I'm trying to avoid blowing lead dust all over until I get most of the old shit off.
     
  11. Paint shops sell these cigarette sized lead testing sticks: you rub it on the sample and if it turns pink, lead is present, if it isn't then it's safe to attack with a cup wheel.

    https://www.bunnings.com.au/3m-instant-lead-test-kit-2-swabs_p1560254

    If I were to do my machine tools all over again, I'd make sure to do all repairs and adjustments first and paint last, that way you're not forever touching up chips and dings from removing the table or the knee or whatever. There's nothing wrong with bare iron with oil on it until you're sure it's all debugged and working well.
     
    Last edited: Dec 13, 2019
    Jason likes this.
  12. Tobho Mott

    Tobho Mott Gold Banner Member

    What a great score! Sounds like you're gonna be busy playing with that thing for a while, gotta love a big project.

    Jeff
     
  13. Petee716

    Petee716 Gold Banner Member

    That's quite a score Jason. The accessory gadgets you got with it are what hobbyist's dreams are made of. You may have mentioned cutters too, I haven't reread everything yet, but it may take awhile to sort out whatever might be worn out. I got a box of used stuff from a friend and was happily cutting away until I bought a couple of new endmills and realized the old stuff was pretty worn out.
    Someone mentioned a rabbit hole earlier. Cleaning is one thing, but as soon as you start power brushing and sanding you will be in that rabbit hole. I would personally get the loose stuff off, clean/degrease it thoroughly and coat it with whatever will make it cleanable and keep it from turning orange. The grime that's on it now is probably what's kept it from getting worse.
    Unless you really want to go to town with it and do a full restore and make it pretty. You may want to go that route and all things considered it may be the best route to take, but you're a patina guy amirite?
    In any event Marks last comment above seems like the best order of operations. Clean it, get it humming, and then dress it up to suit.

    Pete
     
  14. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Yeah Pete.. I dont have time for a full blown hand scraping restore that's for sure. I do need to pull the bottom half apart and go through the oiling system. This is essential to really see what kind of wear I've got and try to stop anything from getting worse. It was used pretty hard and I hated to see the oil tank was broken. Oil is the life blood and I would have stopped using it the day the tank broke. Hope that wasnt that long ago.:(
     
  15. That oiler attached to the column is a Bijur Spraymist: it's used to spray a fine mist of coolant or cutting oil on the item being machined. The Bridgeport mill relies on someone manually oiling it every time they use it, so machine wear depends on how conscientious the mill operator was at oiling the machine. A lot of online machinists get their panties in a bunch over using the correct way lube oil rather than chain bar lube but in the 1970's drums of the stuff was labelled as both: way lube/chainsaw bar oil. If you get a few drops of oil between your thumb and index finger and it forms long strings of oil as you open your fingers, then it has a suitable tackifier additive for use as way lube.
     
  16. ESC

    ESC Silver Banner Member

    Your lube is probably a Bijur also, but it is a one shot on the right side of the knee. Pull the T handle and it slowly feeds way oil to the machine. If there is a leak you will know it, otherwise it may feed properly to all the lubrication points.
     
  17. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Yeah the bijur oiler has seen better days. Time to look for a replacement. I was shocked when I saw prices on this thing. I'll fix it if I can or swap to a 30buck chinese unit. 1576280572160257018979802889415.jpg 157628059773076642039559798248.jpg
     
    Mark's castings likes this.
  18. I should pay more attention to the photos, I didn't see that oiler.....might be possible to attach the top pump assembly to an oversize plastic electrical box by cutting a hole in the lid of the box.
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  19. Petee716

    Petee716 Gold Banner Member

    Yup that's a goner. I had a major failure in one of my printing presses last year caused by a leak in a manifold in the central lube system so oil wasn't getting where it needed to go. Given the age and condition of your machine it's probably wise to be thorough. Mark's onto something with the plastic tank. I don't think they need to hold any pressure. I think the plunger and the rest of the system are designed for that specific application though, in order to send the right volume of oil through all parts the system.

    Pete
     
  20. Melterskelter

    Melterskelter Gold Banner Member

    Pelican Cases makes a great variety of very rugged high-impact hinged-lidded gasket-sealed boxes. I am sure that they make several that would fill the bill and stand up to the expected abuse that the oiler will have to endure. A little creativity making a custom bracket and tune up/clean up of the plunger and the various oil-point tubes and restrictors should put the system right. Replacement parts are available from Devco.

    Denis
     

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