Bridgeport Availability In Your Part Of This Country

Janderso

Janderso

Jeff Anderson
H-M Platinum Supporter
Joined
Mar 26, 2018
Messages
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I really feel fortunate. I began looking for my Bridgeport Milling Machine a few months ago. Within a very short time I found one 2 hours away. I paid $1,500 for it. It has been used. The table is not pretty but it does what I need it to do as long as I pay attention. The head is quiet and tight. The downfeed works and the back gears are quiet.
I searched the entire San Francisco Bay Area for a Bridgeport and there is one beat up machine-step pulley- for $4,500.
When I was looking on E-bay there were dozens up in the North East, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio at any given time you had choices.
I love the weather in California not the politics.
Where did you find your Bridgeport and how far did you have to drive?
Did you pay less than $3,000?
What State do you live in?
Just curious.
 
Canada. 3 hours, $1400 clone. Wound up needing significant rebuilding. 1400 is on the low end for a mill around here.
 
I got a Round Ram with a J head and smallish table. tight and quiet except the brake is at its end stage. The quy delivered it all for a cost of $600 since have put on the xyz dro and a quill dro and a power x axis and made a drill chuck drive for raising the table. love it. was able to sell my Burke mill for $1400 instantly.
 
You’ll hate this. Friend called said you want a Bridgeport. I said yeah how much he said free you have to get it out by the weekend it was a Friday.
His fathers friend was moving to Florida Monday needed it gone. We drove a 1/2 mile to check it out. Step pulley jhead textron model early 80’s. Has a anilam dro on x and y. Servo 150 on the y. He threw in two sets of collets, Kurt vise,troyke 9” rotary table and center support for rotary. He also gave me a phase o matic I think to run it. I felt so bad like I was robbing him I gave him 300 bucks. I called my tow truck buddy had it in my garage in hours.
He purchased the machine for home use Has chromed ways and minimal use. One of the best deals I ever got. What a great man!
 
Drove 30 miles for a very lightly used 1981 BP with a 2HP motor, 6" Kurt swivel vise, Anilam Crusader 2 CNC controller for $4000. Many options in the mid-Michigan area or Detroit area. You can pretty much pick up BP's and clones for anywhere between $1500 - $8000.

Bruce
 
Pickings are slim on the west coast for lathes and mills, you'll see a few machines then a long dry spell. Rinse, repeat.
Much better luck on east coast, and east coast prices are generally lower too from what I've seen
Mark
 
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Bay Area better than here, I like my supermax it’s quieter than most BP’s I’ve messed with
 
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Damn Cadillac. What a score No way to beat that!!
I paid good money for mine but admittedly I was looking for something nice not a fixer upper or “rebuilt” with steel wool and spray paint. When it popped up on local CL I could tell immediately it was mint and more than I wanted to spend but knew it was still good price relative to its condition so I pounced. Fortunately for me just a week earlier after much begging I caved and agreed to my wife getting another dog. That friends was instrumental in her saying yes to my 5k ask. Here in the Midwest BP’s are plentiful but most of them in the 1-2k range I found were clapped out projects. $3k will start to get you into something half decent that may need only some cleaning and a shot of oil etc. I go to quite a few industrial auctions and have seen them all over price wise but that number here will usually get you one. Ultimately tho as Cadillac is proof of its all about time and place.
 
I needed to replace my Busy Bee 7X22" mill with a larger model. I approached a bunch of dealers in Western Canada, finally a guy in Vancouver found me a well used but workable 9X49 'First' mill with a Mitutoyo DRO on it. The motor reversing switch was destroyed so we had to hook up a substitute to test it. In the "far North" West, these cost between 3K dollars to 7K dollars, even with a head that needs rebuilding.
 
We're flooded with them here. You can almost name your price. Lots of good deals and still lots of high price sellers too.
 
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