I was under the impression that ways were scraped in when new. I was studying the column of my mill today and was surprised to see tooling marks under half moon scraping. long gentle arcs spaced closely together. As if maybe they were fly cut or more likely ground. The Bridgeport vise I took apart has the same marks minus the moons. I can't get my camera to pick up the detail. Are the Bridgeports ground and then just given half moons for oil? Not scraped into plane and alignment new? Am I maybe looking at a repair? What do you guys see under the half moons on your columns?
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Bridgeport way surfaces
- Thread starter LEEQ
- Start date
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- Jul 1, 2012
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I was under the impression that ways were scraped in when new. I was studying the column of my mill today and was surprised to see tooling marks under half moon scraping. long gentle arcs spaced closely together. As if maybe they were fly cut or more likely ground. The Bridgeport vise I took apart has the same marks minus the moons. I can't get my camera to pick up the detail. Are the Bridgeports ground and then just given half moons for oil? Not scraped into plane and alignment new? Am I maybe looking at a repair? What do you guys see under the half moons on your columns?
The column ways are ground on way grinders with a cup wheel ....then flaked. Bridgeport has the machines dedicated to the parts and are set for the right squareness. We scrape them in the field as most rebuilders do not own a way grinder. There used to be a rebuilder here in MN that had old planers converted to planer mills and he mounted Bridgeport head on the machines and used a cluster mill and a 50 deg. dovetail cutter. He sometimes would use a Borzon wheel to grind harden lathe beds on his planers. That was Ed Hadley who is retired now. One of his men Rick started A & D machine rebuilders in Roberts WI. He has my old planner converted to a planner mill with Bridgeport head. He also has a 60" surface grinder to grind the tables.
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- Jul 1, 2012
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Would you say that a scraped surface is superior to the ground surface of a new machine?[/QUOTE
You bet..Many machines are one side is ground and the other side is scraped. It is impossible to grind the flats and dovetails and get a a matched fit. In order to get a matched fit and the right squareness and alignment one side has to be scraped. There is a product called Moglice that helps eliminate the need of scraping as you cast it like concrete and a form. Look at Moglice.com for more info. I use it and used to be a rep for them. But if you have ever worked with gage / joe blocks and you can stack them up by rubing them together when you want to measure or set up a height gage to a set measurement. Well when you grind both sides of a way they will ring together. Like I said if a machine rebulder could afford one he would have a way grinder to grind one side and scrape the other to fit it. The majority of us will scrape it on both sides and 1/2 moon one side. Did you ever order the Book, Machine Tool Reconditioning? I will scan something and include it later in this post, that will explain it better. Rich
Yes, I have that one and the mechanical accuracy one. A bit slow reading. That has been my focus lately machine wise, to educate myself. With the column, it has almost no wear. I could make sure the couple grooves are not standing proud and probably call the column done. The knee and so on are from a different era though, well used to be sure. The table is new to me/used. So I think it would be wise to scrape all that in at least to the point of alignment and fit. Adding rulon to saddle to build it up. Fitting new gibs. Call it good. A fix and use machine. I look forward to someday going way more in depth with a machine, but I don't think this is the one. Thank you for your expert opinion on my question as well as your quick reply. You have been a great help to me and I look forward to meeting you.
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I still think you would be be better to glue the Rulon to the gibs the spending $150.00 each for new gibs. You can't just slide them in and your done. They will need to be fit, cut and gib screw slot cut in them. The Rulon scrapes a lot easier then cast iron. Rich
I can get all three of them for that price. I am ready to defer to the opinion of someone who knows what they are doing though. I had in mind making the purchase and leaving them in returnable condition until that call had been made. That way they would be available if necessary. On the subject of rulon, is phenolic scrapable also? I was also wondering how to remove some metal to allow a suitable thickness to be applied. Would milling be ok?