Mystery Lines On Bridgeport

its not a theory, I ran a dozen bridgports with that kind of hydraulic knee, they had true trace tracers like the one in picture

Bridgeport-hydraulic-tracer-mill-tru-trace-milling-adimage.jpg
 
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That may have been a tracer mill at one time. They may have removed all of the tracer parts and made it a regular Bridgeport. The tracers had both hydraulic and screw to raise the table.
 
I have something similar on my 80's BOSS 6 Series II. It used to function as an air-assist to the crank mechanism for raising the table. . On my machine, there is a valve and gage just for the pressure to the air-assist, on the left side near the mist coolant unit. Originally, with enough pressure, the table would almost lift itself as you cranked the handle. At some point, an internal seal blew and I no longer have the air assist. Maybe increasing the pressure wasn't a good idea. There is a small tapped hole in the front of the lower portion of the column that I had to plug to keep the air from just blowing out all day. It didn't improve the lift action by plugging it, however. That table is a beast to raise but I'm not going to tear the whole machine apart to fix the seal. To test if that is what you have, try putting air to the system and attempting to raise the table, then turn it off and try again.
 
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