# 1976 vintage 2J Bridgeport without side door ?



## bobdog (Nov 2, 2017)

Have 1976 bridgeport with 2J head without side door on column . Does anybody know why mine does not have a side door on column like all others . I have seen. Is it a production mill heavy mill or something else ?.... Thanks


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## JimDawson (Nov 2, 2017)

In 1968 Bridgeport was sold to Textron. Textron did a redesign and cost reduction.  So many of the mills after that acquisition were a bit different than the original design.


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## 4ssss (Nov 2, 2017)

Textron finally figured out that the door was useless as the only thing you put there was the fine feed wheel and anything else  put there was covered in chips


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## expressline99 (Nov 3, 2017)

I have a series 1 1981 model that also is a Textron without the door.
Paul


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## bobdog (Nov 3, 2017)

expressline99 said:


> I have a series 1 1981 model that also is a Textron without the door.
> Paul


Thanks was always curious


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## rgray (Nov 4, 2017)

Way back when There was a thread about bridgeport vintage.
As I remember by the chart (I think there was a web link involved) mine was a 1957.
It has no side door...Would that be correct or did I look it up wrong?
Went off the number stamped into the top of the knee.


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## Bob Korves (Nov 4, 2017)

I would not trust that parts currently on a 30 year old BP mill were all originally assembled together at the factory.  Any parts with matching serial numbers, then yes, anything else is just a WAG (guess.)


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## jmarkwolf (Feb 22, 2018)

My 1967 Series 1 J-head has a door on the column.


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## Richard King 2 (Feb 22, 2018)

Way back when Bridgeport mounted a coolant pump in the hole behind the door. I have only seen 1 with a pump in all my 50+ years of rebuilding.
Paul is correct about when Textron bought Bridgeport the removed the door and thinned out the casting and there is no depression in the base under the knee.  Those Textron machines always sell for less at used machine dealers.  They  also weigh a lot less.   I tell folks not to buy them unless you only doing light work.


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## Nick Hacking (Feb 22, 2018)

Richard King 2 said:


> Way back when Bridgeport mounted a coolant pump in the hole behind the door. I have only seen 1 with a pump in all my 50+ years of rebuilding.
> Paul is correct about when Textron bought Bridgeport the removed the door and thinned out the casting and there is no depression in the base under the knee.  Those Textron machines always sell for less at used machine dealers.  They are also weigh a lot less.   I tell folks not to buy them uness you only doing light work.



My Bridgeport has a coolant pump in the hole behind the door!

I'm not sure if it counts, it's a British A&S Bridgeport, not an American-built machine.

Kind wishes,

Nick


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## 4ssss (Feb 22, 2018)

Here's a PDF with all the Bridgeport Accessories available.  I didn't realize they had 1/2 of these and I did a search after seeing this thread about the coolant setup.

http://www.sterlingmachinery.com/media/brochures1/file/bridgeport-milling-machine-brochure.pdf


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## Richard King 2 (Feb 22, 2018)

I saw serial number 1 Bridgeport up at the American Precision Museum north of Springfield VT. 

https://www.americanprecision.org/


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