Benchtop Bridgeport - what would you do?

you're not going to shower yourself with chips using it, but a nice X-Y table from Grizzly or Enco would let you do some light milling. It'll certainly be better than no mill :)

My only worry would be how much height you'll have between spindle and table once you've put a table and perhaps a vise on the table?

Another way to look at it - this might work just fine until that cheap unappreciated small horizontal mill pops up on CL near you. Quick bit of fabrication later and you'll have a cool vertical/ horizontal mill :D
 
If that Bridgeport head is in good shape, you may be able to sell it for enough to get something that will work better as a mill than anything you can do with that. The suggestion to get a small horizontal mill and add that as a vertical head is also a good one. Someone else could probably look on ebay and find a Bridgeport in great shape missing a head for scrap metal price, but I don't have that kind of luck.
 
I would look for a mill with no head or crapped out head for scrap money and marry your head to it. I believe it came off a m head Bridgeport so that would be the easiest match up. I saw a nice solid x/y table 17" x 10" with dovetail ways and lead screw for the low low price of 8oo bucks. That would be the most advisable style of table for what you have in mind, not cheap flimsy drill press x/y tables. Two options, for my money I would want a mill put together for less than the good x/y table if I already owned the head. :)) I like the horizontal mill idea! That would lend itself to fixing up a very versatile machine. A lot folks wind up selling horizontal machines for less than vertical ones.
 
I concur, it's a shop made hybrid, bourn of Bridgeport head and unknown drill press base. While not a mill yet,
the X-Y table will work and should give you as good results as any similarly sized mill/drill would. However, as mentioned above, your Z axis clearance looks like it will be very limited. To fix that, you could replace the column with a longer one, it should be a fairly standard size.
 
Fantastic help everyone! I like the horizontal mill idea and the Bridgeport base idea. I need to start researching. Do you all agree that I have an M head?
 
Yep, an M head. I'm surprised it's not too top heavy the way it's set up. By the time you put an XY table under it there wouldn't be any room for anything else. I used to see headless Bridgeports on Ebay once and awhile, If that falls through, that head is worth around $200 by itself.
 
Yes as stated, it’s a Bridgeport M head stuck on a little drill press base…interesting. If you are looking for just one milling machine. The “M” style head is not really the best choice. And if you want a Bridgeport, then probably a Series I with a J head would be the one. Maybe sell what you have and use that $ to help fund a real mill…Good Luck, Dave.
 
I'm about 99% sure the base and table are Walker Turner drill press parts. I believe they are probably from a WT 900 15".
 
I would save it and if you find an atlas horizontal mill or other small horizontal mill you could use it for vertical convenience ----there also are good XY tables that could be mounted to the base----I saw a M head last year I offered $200 for but the owned wanted $450 and declined.---I have an atlas hor mill that I am converting to vertical ---hang onto it at least till you get a benchtop mill----use it for what it is---it is unique---Dave
 
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