bridgeport MDI?

[billsnogo]

I found a Bridgeport Series 1 MDI with Heidenhain TNC 131 controls for sale, and the price is right at $1000, but was told the tnc controlls has problems and has been used as a manual mill. I can not get any info on these machines, but would love to have a bridgeport for a mill. Can the tnc controlls be removed and just used as a regular series 1 bridgeport? Or were these built different and can't strip it of the other items?

any help is appreciated :nerd:

 

[billsnogo]

stupid double post :-X

 

[Tony Wells]

Pity the TMC controls are bad. Heidenhain looks like an interesting setup. I would think that unless there are serious mechanical modifications to the mill, you would simply remove the drives and install cranks and handles. The motor would probably need to be wired directly to a reversing switch, or better yet a VFD. For a grand, I'd probably go for it. If it has ball screws on all axes, it should be a smooth machine.

I assume the current owner has given up on repairing the control?

 

[Hawkeye]

If you pick up the mill, check the power supply to the board inside the controls. If there is no power, getting that working may be all you need to have a TNC mill. Who knows, might just be a fuse or a transformer.

 

[billsnogo]

This is what he said in an email
"The DRO lights up but the joysticks aren't working right now with it.
I replaced a board in it after I purchased it and the joysticks and
everything seemed to work great.
Then they just quit one day.
A friend that knows a bit about them thinks it's a brake on one of the
motors hanging up."

I don't know what kind of tooling this would take, and the guy selling it does not no much about it, it looks like he knows even less than me, and that is surprising as he didn't know what backlash was, or DRO until I described it. I can not identify the tooling he included in the pic (vise not going with the mill) so not sure about this.

 

[brucer]

that would be a nice project machine to convert to emc2 or mach3.. matter of fact thats exactly what i would do with it.. might take some time but i think that would probably be your best route...


read up on mach3 and linux emc2... emc2 is free.... as far as i know, the time wiring would be the biggest thing... basically a controller board, 3 driver boards and a cheap pc with an old parallel port (printer port) and wire would be your cost...

controller and driver boards are pretty cheap..

 

[Tony Wells]

I'd buy it, then either retrofit a newer control or fix that one. Sounds like a simple case of the cause of failure not being diagnosed, but replaceology used in an attempt to fix it.

 

[Fishchips]

What did you decide on the MDI?

 

[billsnogo]

What did you decide on the MDI?

Have not decided yet. Neighbor said it might make a lousy manual machine if I can not lock the axis not being used, and with the different tooling needed, that is may not be a good first machine. There is a manual bridgeport machine at an auction I am going to check out before I make any decisions.

 

[billsnogo]

Looking at picking it up this weekend, except now it is a better price, but bigger risk. The seller moved it out of the garage, and to do that took the head off. So now it can not be tested. Price is worth the gamble I think at $600