# Bridgeport HALO Angle Eyes light build



## BGHansen (Oct 17, 2017)

Like many others, my aging eyes like more light on the subject.  I bought myself a Bridgeport mill as a birthday present (OK’d by my wife) and added a HALO Angel Eyes light to it this weekend.

I had ordered a pair of 100 mm lights off eBay some time back and used one on my Jet JVM-830 mill.  Really nice to focus the light straight down the quill.  I had one left over as they’re sold in pairs.  Mine came with a light cover for protection which was just a little small to fit over the Bridgeport’s quill, so some mods were in order.

The light on my Jet is great, but could it be improved on the Bridgeport?  Sure, did a little research and discovered the Angle Eyes lights come in many sizes.  I ordered a pair of 110 mm lights so the 100 mm and 110 mm could be nested together.

Nesting the two lights together wiped out using the stock lens which wasn’t a big deal since the 100 mm lens didn’t fit anyhow.  My BP has 2-axis CNC, so designed up a mounting ring for the 2 lights with a polycarbonate lens.

I’m looking forward to moving into the 21st century and running a CAD/CAM package someday.  But until then, my programming is done via conversation or direct inputting of codes into the Anilam Crusader control box.  I tend to write every routine as a subroutine with a unique label.  That way multiple programs can be in memory and various ones run by CALLing the different routines at the start of the program memory.  Another 21st century project will be figuring out how to dump to/from the control box too through the RS-232 port.  May be a winter project . . .

Wrote the routine for cutting the perimeter with 4 bosses for lens screw holes, hole routine to clear out the center area and a routine to do a circular pocket to counterbore the middle.  One side is counterbored for a recessed pocket for the lights, other side for a pocket to slip over the mill’s quill housing.

Ran the routines in air for starters, then ran them on a piece of particle board.  I didn’t bother cutting the perimeter to full depth as it was just to prove out the routines anyhow.

The light adapter is 0.700” thick; had a piece of ¾” aluminum all prepared for the job.  But it was just a little narrow for the lens bosses so threw a 1” piece on the mill and face cut away.  About 2/3 through the surfacing I had a “duh” moment.  The ¾” piece would have worked fine if I put it on the table at a 45 angle instead of square, or re-wrote the perimeter routine to put the bosses at 45, 135, 225, 315 instead of 0, 90, 180, 270.  Hung my head for a moment and moved on . . .

Made the test cuts in the particle board which showed me the side would need to be notched for the HALO light wires to feed through.  Guess that’s why we build prototypes.

Ran the center hole cutting routine first.  Bit of a pucker factor here as the routine starts at the center, then moves up in the 1:30 direction until it gets close to the circle.  It then travels CCW until it’s on the path, then continues around to 12:00 where it starts to veer off the circle until 10:30, where it then diagonals back to the center.  On the last pass, the center piece of aluminum came lose as expected but started to rotate.  That meant the 10:30 to center move was going to be at a feed rate of 8 ipm at a full depth of cut (0.700”).  Quickly hit the HOLD button on the CNC before things got ugly.  Lessons learned is to either clamp down the center plug or block the work up so the plug falls down on the last path.

Ran the counterbore routine next and dry fit the HALO lights.  Perfect fit other than the notching for wire routing.  Drilled and tapped the boss holes next; used the CNC as a DRO and did it manually.  One nice thing with my set up is I can plug in a coordinate and the table will rapid move (100 ipm) to that spot.  So no hand turning of the cranks to get to my targets.

Ran the routine for the perimeter next.  Manually milled the notch for the wires.  Cut a block of wood and screwed it into the recessed pocket as a hold down; didn’t want a repeat of the center hole cutting excitement.

Flipped the housing over for counterboring the quill end.  Used a co-ax indicator to center the work, then ran the circular pocket routine.

The lens was made from a piece of 0.080” clear polycarbonate.  Clamped it to a block of wood and ran the same center hole cutting routine.  Then drilled screw holes for bolting to the housing and finished it up with the perimeter cutting routine.

Next step was to make an insulator for the bottom of the lights as they set in the housing.  Something about aluminum being a good conductor.  Used the same center hole cutting routine and a circle cutting routine to cut the OD.

Drilled and tapped four 8-32 holes on the perimeter of the housing for set screws to attach the assembly to the quill housing.  Then assembled the parts, used some Gorilla glue to tack the insulation and lights in place.  Screwed the lens down and shot some clear RTV silicone in the wire exit hole to seal it up.

Fashioned a sheet metal bracket for mounting an ON/OFF switch which was attached to the Bridgeport auto-feed speed setting housing.

It works GREAT!  The single HALO on my Jet mill is nice, but the doubled up ones on the Bridgeport are fantastic!  Oh, they make 120 mm HALO lights too, maybe nest a 100, 110 and 120 together?

Bruce


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## Glenn Brooks (Oct 19, 2017)

This is very cool. Always wanted to do this, but didn't know about 'HaloEyes'. Off to eBay to buy some!

Glenn


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## markba633csi (Oct 19, 2017)

Very cool Bruce! You CNC guys have all the fun
Mark


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## BGHansen (Oct 19, 2017)

Glenn Brooks said:


> This is very cool. Always wanted to do this, but didn't know about 'HaloEyes'. Off to eBay to buy some!
> 
> Glenn


Hi Glenn,

I'll have to do some digging in the POTD thread, but there's one there from me on the Jet mill install.  I used a 4" drain PVC cap for that.  No CNC required.

Bruce


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## BGHansen (Oct 19, 2017)

markba633csi said:


> Very cool Bruce! You CNC guys have all the fun
> Mark


Hi Mark,

I have no formal shop training (last shop class was in junior high) so had no exposure to a CNC mill.  The novelty of watching the table moving around in a perfect circle or following some other pattern has not worn off on me yet.  Still lots to learn including some terminology (drip feed, DNC, etc.).  I'd like to be able to dump routines to/from the controller through the RS-232 port.  Ordered a cable to go from USB to RS-232 with some sort of internal chip; hope it works.  It would be considerably easier to draw something up on the computer (CAD) and convert it directly to codes the CNC controller understands (CAM).

Bruce


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## Glenn Brooks (Oct 26, 2017)

Hahaha, Bruce, my CNC experience is limited to looking at the pretty pictures of what they produce. Oh, I actually saw a CNC 5 axis machine once.  Fascinating piece of equipment, with a shinney 20' long stick of round stock sticking in one end  and parts tumbling out into a basket on the other end.

I had in mind just building something from scratch by hand, with raw materials.   I like your idea of two concentric rings , nested inside one another. And using PVC fittings to machine the ring. I'll search for your other thread regarding the jet mill. Probably similar to my  old Grizzly round column - that I use a lot.  

Also,thinking about affixing a round halo eye light to the spindle of my ancien' Canedy-Otto 21" camelback DP - which is on the cusp of going back into service after these many years. Can't wait to see a 1" drill bit power feed at 80 RPM through inch and a half plate!

Glenn


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## BGHansen (Oct 26, 2017)

Hi Glenn,

You'll enjoy the extra lighting.  I'm half tempted to buy another pair of 100 mm lights and a set of 120 mm's to nest three of them together.  I'm surprised no companies have come out with something yet.

The PVC drain cap I used on the Jet mill light worked really well.  The drain as opposed to the schedule 40 is a lot thinner, so you'll notice my boring for fitting the spindle casting of the mill is not a consistent radius (tighter at the chuck jaws).  It wasn't my intention, but it worked to my favor as the drain cap had an interference fit to the spindle casting.  It's been setting on the mill for months and has no tendency to slip down.  

I used the stock lens which won't work if you nest a 100 mm and 110 mm together.  If using the stock lens you'll need more clearance; use a 100 mm and 120 mm instead.

Bruce


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## Glenn Brooks (Oct 26, 2017)

Thanks, Good info!


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## Richard White (richardsrelics) (Oct 26, 2017)

Never heard of that kind of lighting.... us old fellas need all the help we can get. I like it... most excellent work

Something like this might be handy inside my media blast cabinet.....always too dark in there


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## rwm (May 12, 2018)

Guys- I have a question about this? I am thinking about putting a halo LED on my new drill press. If I draw a line of sight from the diameter of the 100mm halo to the tip of the drill, it would appear that the light will be blocked by the rather large drill chuck. Is this going to be a problem or is there enough scatter to illuminate the center of the  work anyway? This may not be an issue with BP mills due to the geometry but may be an issue for me?
Robert


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## BGHansen (May 18, 2018)

rwm said:


> Guys- I have a question about this? I am thinking about putting a halo LED on my new drill press. If I draw a line of sight from the diameter of the 100mm halo to the tip of the drill, it would appear that the light will be blocked by the rather large drill chuck. Is this going to be a problem or is there enough scatter to illuminate the center of the  work anyway? This may not be an issue with BP mills due to the geometry but may be an issue for me?
> Robert


Robert, you will have a shadow and lose a lot of light. Frankly, flooding with light from the side works better, but it can get in the way. I've got some auto led fog lights that'll go on the mill too.p, just need to devise some bracketry.

Bruce


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## rwm (May 18, 2018)

Thanks Bruce- thats what I figured. I will look at lights on either side with a better angle
R


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## mksj (May 19, 2018)

I like Bruce's double halo, gives a lot of light. I mounted my Halo light on the spindle ram so the distance relative to the chuck is always the same and I do not get any noticeable shadowing from the chuck. This is with a 100mm LED ring, you could add another outer ring for more lumens like Bruce did. I also use a 24" high output LED light bar behind it mounted to the base so it lights up the table and diminishes any shadowing. I have built a few of these light rings for others and they have worked well, wish I had a CNC mill, would be fun to do more creative milling.
https://www.hobby-machinist.com/thr...-did-you-do-in-your-shop-today.14637/page-290


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## Silverbullet (May 20, 2018)

I've been looking at the round magnifying lights made in China which are cheap . I figured I'd just take the magnifier out and mount the lights. The little bullet lights from Ikea are nice too.


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## Janderso (May 27, 2018)

Bruce,
I just saw this halo eyes project you made.
Incredible! Great job. 
You know, if someone decides to make this product it will sell!
A few months later, but, I am blind as a bat, I’m always flooding my work with any light I can find.


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