bridgeport MDI?

[brucer]

Looking at picking it up this weekend, except now it is a better price, but bigger risk. The seller moved it out of the garage, and to do that took the head off. So now it can not be tested. Price is worth the gamble I think at $600

think i would make a cnc retrofit project out of it..

 

[billsnogo]

think i would make a cnc retrofit project out of it..

That is my plan, or hope I should say, but need to learn what is all involved/needed. Kind of in the dark. Will post questions when/if I get it home undamaged.

 

[Fishchips]

$600, I think you'll be ok.

 

[billsnogo]

Well, got it home, and went much easier than I thought. I rented a drop bed trailer and pallet jack (did not need the pallet jack), headed to pick it up, the seller and his father were there with a john deere tractor waiting to load it up. Dropped the bed of the trailer till it was an inch off the ground, they lifted the mill, I backed the trailer under it, strapped it down with there help (very nice family, was glad to do business with them), lifted the head on the front of the trailer, strapped that down, and headed home. Checked straps after a couple of blocks, it was fine, then went about five miles, stopped in a gas station and rechecked and one was a little loose, tightened it down, and the rest of the trip back was uneventful (thankfully).

Got home, tried to figure out how to get it to the back of the garage, and what do you know, if I dropped the bed till about an inch off the ground it would clear my 7' garage door. Even better was I could back it all the way in. I used some ratchet straps and some oil (spilled all over the trailer from the mill) to help it off, and a little help from a medium pry bar. Those drop bed trailers are golden for this purpose.

I need to put the head back on, and he had it all marked for what wire goes where, and he said I could call or email and would help me if I could not figure it out. Only thing broken was the front handwheel (had been previously broken, and glued back together since it is plastic), and the handle for the variable speed on the head snapped off (only a screw, the handle itself is fine so no big deal).

Now for the bonus, the machine came with a power inverter on the back of it, so I can plug it into my 220 outlet!

Has a coolant mister on the back, and an oiler. Has five quick change 30 tool holders and a jacobs drill chuck! Looks like no draw bar needed, just a spanner wrench.
So for $600 for the mill, $70 for the trailer, $30 for pallet jack, $40 for two heavy duty straps, $60 in gas, grand total of $800 I got myself a project mill

that is all for now, I am tired and am going to watch some Halloween movies

 

[Tony Wells]

No flies on that!

Reminds me of a couple of Webb CNC mills I used to run. I'd sure look into repair before re-fit.

 

[billsnogo]

Little confused on the tooling. From what I have been able to read by searching that qc30 is not the same as nmtb #30, but I have both with this machine. Are these interchangeable? Trying to find a bunch more tool holders when the prices are right.

thanks all

 

[brucer]

nice score bill, either way you got your moneys worth for sure.

couple of questions... you might have to wait till you get the mill hooked up... do you have to plug in 2 cords for the machine to run? like plug in the controller and also the phase converter?

the phase converter might be the problem, i dont know enough about them really, but i do know they put out a reduction of power to a motor, or something along those lines, basically you might have a problem with not enough power being supplied to the machine for the motor and the controller to operate correctly.. might be something for you to look into..

 

[billsnogo]

Thanks for the suggestion. Only one cord, and the previous owner said after he replaced one card, it was fine and used it for several months, and then it had the problem. I might be looking into running the phase converter to run a three phase idler motor, and use the idler motor to run the mill since my 220 in the garage has a different plug, and rather not run more wing out there unless there is no choice. We will see.

First I need to find out how to get this thing back together...... oh, and boy is that cabinet full of electronics, not going to be fun.....

thanks guys, hope it turns out to be a decent starter