Bridgeport for Beginners!

Found this. If you watch closely at the end of the video, when it hits the stop nut, the fine threaded shift lowers just a little and shifts the rocker (not seen on the bottom) and pushes up this silver plunger thus disconnecting the feed. YUP! Mine is screwed up. Nothing looks broken, just gummed up like everything else. Nice piece of engineering.



Brilliant! I'd be screwed without YT.

 

Beats me... I'm stumped.

 

Ah shit. Found it. Busted the pin monkeying with the stupid clutch
$23 dollar mistake. Live and learn.

 

Jason
whoever is selling that pin for $23 is very proud of it. I think I would start with a grease fitting. Drill it out. Silver solder in a matching piece of drill rod or if it as I suspect and is .125" Just use a harder series welding rod.
I have a Wells Index model 747 VR that is having problems with the power quill also You inspired me to tear into it today. I am a bit ashamed to say I did not work on it before it became a problem. As with yours. It has 40 or 50 year old grease that has become a thick past rather than a lubricant. In my case it will require a complete tear down of the power feed assembly. There is a shift fork that is stuck in the muck.
After looking at a couple of my old hand books. I found a 1946, 12th addition and a 1956, 7th addition. I have no idea why the 12th addition is the oldest Both along with Mat’s 12th addition posted is quite a bit thicker.
Mat year is the 12th addition you have? It is in great shape.
I was looking for a copy or similar too the one you posted Jason. I know I have a shop copy that is about that thick. I used it for years but have misplaced it. It covered everything I wanted to do and then some. I use my 2 copies posted frequently but the thinner one of a few years back was quicker.
Joe

 

Joe, mine is actually the 20th edition, Second printing, 1976. This one completely fills the Kennedy Bible drawer. Do you know Kennedy designed a knockout in the bottom of the drawer so you can actually push the book up out.

 

Careful Joe, you have heard of shipwrights disease right? That's a trip Kennedy stuck a hole in the bottom to push the book out. I'm kicking myself for not grabbing my dads box when he died. I KNOW that sucker ended up at a garage sale for 5bucks.

Found 5 of these little bastards from china for 14bucks. Probably made out of ramen noodles, but it's worth a try.

 

Jason, I wish I had some advice for you on the quill feed, but… Mine was missing a few parts and screws when I got it. The quill feed, is primary function is for a boring set up. I wish mine worked from the get-go. But I haven't missed it. I don't even have a boring head. But anything could change. More often than not in the industry this is the first part to fail as a machinist quite often accidentally hit the handle with a dead blow hammer, tapping the block down in the vice.

You mentioned a few posts back about tapping on the handle. It is not highly recommended. But, a industry standard is to tighten just by arm strength, then tap the block down into the vice till it snugs the parallels, then give one or two light Love Taps to the handle, double check the parallels are still snug and if so you're good to go. If not one or two more taps on the block to make sure Parallels are snug. Now this procedure only has good outcomes if the block is square.

If it is saw cut on all six faces, it is best just to randomly hold it with just one parallel in the middle to get and establish at least one flat face. Once that is achieved, then you can use the bar method.

It is always best to try to flatten the largest face first.

 

Here's another little video I did for a small group a few years ago. It's not very high definition but it gets the process across.

This was was with my old read out, that was maybe 40 years old. With the new read outs they have manual Numerical Control.

 

Good stuff Matt! Thanks for posting that!

 

Jason
I had heard that term “ shipwrights disease” before but honestly had to look it up.
I have so many old machines and projects. I will never have time to catch it.
With my mill and lathes the time and cost or repairs is minimal to the cost of not having everything on these machines working.
Once you get the quill feed working you will wonder how you ever got along without it.
At one time my machinery paid for all my shop needs. It still would if I was able to keep up. I had some surgeries and a life threatening ailment that retired me 5 years ago. I don’t know if I will ever have more than a few hours a day of endurance but...
I am very happy to say now I plan on living long enough to make all my decedents miserable!
Matt
That is interesting about the Kennedy box you have. I have a Kennedy but had not noticed the cut out. It is a different model than the one you have. I will look to see if it has the cut out.
Joe

 

That's the goal Joe, own enough heavy stuff to make it perfectly miserable to those we leave behind! lol.

 

That's the thing about that old iron. It usually just needs a little love and a LOT of cleaning and then it's good to go for another 50 years.

Don

 

Some machinist references.

http://www.carbidedepot.com/resources.htm

 

Well scratch hobby-machinist.com off the list. I ask one question over there a month ago about scale recommendations and get one BS smart ass response. Now, the site mandates you shutoff your adblocker (as a member) or you're screwed. F them, I not going down the road of spam, online ads for whores and DcK pills. NONE of which this guy needs! My wife is plenty happy with this guys performance! A stiff breeze blows across my neck and, well you get the idea.

What's the other recommended machinist forums you guys use?

 

Hobby machinist is a good site. Practical machinist is the best site but they don't like helping out green too much.

 

Practical Machinist is all right and a lot of experienced eyes will see your post, just make it clear that you're a new owner not some grizzled workshop veteran. Some of the red flags are topics like: "I'm an inventor and I want you to make something but I can't tell you what it is...it's a secret" and "I want you to make my energy device for free...you should be honoured to do so and the parts must be sterling silver not aluminium to preserve astral energy" and the old chestnut: "Don't argue with me, I'm a self taught genius!!".

https://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/bridgeport-and-hardinge-mills-and-lathes/


Ahh I see your post about mounting scales there....

 

Another thing about practical machinist (as I’ve been a member there a long time, don’t ask questions about your VFD.

 

Yeah I'm outta there. Practical looks pretty good. Lots of stuff on that site and very active. Thanks.

 

Practical machinist forum is one of the biggest on the net. There is about 10,000 of me there. I’m there. I usually stick to the electrical stuff there.

 

Jason
I am happy to say it is alive! I was able to get the power feed working again without the need of a total tear down. I used break cleaner to dissolve the old geese. This allowed me to see the linkage and easily place it back on the spline with a little help of an ice pick and a long thin screwdriver. I then replaced the grease and it is working like new.
Don
I also like the old iron although I prefer to run the newer machinery with a modern design. After WW2 they had worked out most of the issues associated with older machines. Mostly being bearings rather than bushings and gear boxes and V belts compared to flat belt drives and step pulleys. That is not to say that there was not some beautiful and very accurate machines running the belts and bushings. Some of the older lathes with a properly dressed flat belt and a bronze bushing produced beautiful results if not pushed past there limits.
I must admit I tend to hog metal. For heavy cutting you can not beat a direct drive head with a transmission and no back gear. I have a 19 inch 15 Hp LaBlond lathe that can take a cut that is scary. Just don’t ask for a mirrored finish on a very heavy cut.
I know it is just in my head but when running a well designed well maintained old as in 100 or more years lathe or grinder. You can feel the skilled hands that ran it in the past.
Matt
I looked tonight at my Kennedy box, It is a different model than yours and has a deeper drawer where yours has a rectangular one designed just for a machinist hand book. I did not look to see if it had a knockout but due to the depth. I do not thick it does.
Now to fix the other 64 shop problems. As with life there is a set number of problems and no more. If you fix one another will spring up keeping the number the same.
Joe