Just picked up a BP

[alloy]

New here. Saw a low of good information here so I joined up. I picked up a Bridgeport step pulley this week for $1300. Got it out of a paper bag company that used it for machine maintenance. It was very dirty, I looked at the base and remember thinking don't all Bridgeport's have holes in the base to mount then to the floor???? Well it does, just had to get through the 1" of grease and grime to find them. The plant has a guy that walks around and every four hours lubes every machine in the plant. Didn't matter if it wasn't a constant use machine or not. so that's about 99% of the reason there was so much grime on it. But on the other hand that's what kept it in such great condition.

The machine is in great shape, just not wild about the green brushed on paint on it. The company bought it new in 62 and painted it the same day they got it. Everything in the plant is green. I only found a couple of small problems on it. No bad for a 52 year old machine. I got it home and have started cleaning it. Boy what a chore that is. First I bought some Simple Green heavy duty cleaner. It didn't do squat. I scrubbed for 3 hours with it and just moved the grease around some. Then my girlfriend walked out and tried some Awesome cleaner from Dollar Tree on it. In 10 mins she did more than I did in three hours and with a $1 bottle of stuff verses a $14 jug of Simple Green. I went and bought 4 bottles of the Awesome stuff.

I have a lot of the grime knocked off now. I'm working on the base now. My biggest concern is on the base, what can I use to get the oils out of it so it won't leach out and ruin the paint I put on it? On the smaller parts I'm running them through the hot parts washer at work and then bead blasting them in my cabinet at home. I picked up a swivel base awhile back at an estate sale for $10. It was under a bench and was so rusty they didn't even bother to price it. I threw it in my bead blaster last night and put some primer and paint on it. Looks pretty good compared to what it was. Now I'm going to do the same thing to a Kurt vise I have.

So any ideas anyone has on getting the final prep done on the base would be appreciated.

 

[chuckorlando]

Nice find. Does the power feed work? I have more or less the same machine. Mine was built in 59. Still cutting just fine for me. My powerfeed is missing the motor unfortunately. That should make you plenty happy man

 

[bvd1940]

First if you picked up that BP I dont want to get you mad at me:nono:
"So any ideas anyone has on getting the final prep done on the base would be appreciated."
You should skid that BP and ship it to me post haste:roflmao:
I cant find anything like that without at the minimum of 1000 mile drive one way:thinking:
There is a ton of info on all phases of rebuild, repair, CNC conversion on this site and Google, search Bridgeport & start reading.
Good luck
PS I used to live in your town till 95 when I retired from the Camas mill.

 

[alloy]

Yes it does work. I had them move the machine and we plugged it in. It's very quite, I was amazed at how good a condition it was in considering how it looks.

And funny thing you should mention your power feed doesn't work. I found this on Craigslist last night. Might be just what you need.

http://portland.craigslist.org/wsc/tls/4550439079.html

 

[alloy]

Won't get mad t you, just counting myself lucky But luck is about 95% hard work I've found. I was on my phone 10 times a day looking for a mill. It was on 28 minutes before I saw it and I was the second one that called. The guy at the plant said the other guy is on the way to get it. I said save my number please just in case. So.......the day went by and I figured I'd lost it. Then at 8 the next morning I got a voice mail saying it was mine if I wanted it. I called him back and said I was on my way. I could hear the doubt in his voice. After all one guy flaked on him. He did say there were 4 others in line behind me. One offered him $1500. He told him pay the company $1300 and pocket the other $200. To his credit he was an honest man, and he said I sounded like a nice guy.

I've been reading a lot of the posts on Bridgeport an found some amazing work done by people here. I just haven't found one that specifies what to use for a final prep to get the oils out of the casting. One I power it up I don' want to have to strip the paint off and redo it.

I'm looking at a VFD to power it. I talked to Wolf Automation and they have one that has a remote keypad so I can just have the pad at the mill and the VFD on the wall. But I guess I'd like the more traditional forward, off, reverse switch and one beside it for the speed control. I'm a CNC guy, not an electrician so I'd like to just buy a setup the way I want it an not not have to wire it and maybe blow something up in the process.

And, this wasn't a 1000 miles from you, was in Canby Oregon..............you need to get on Craigslist more often. Or were you the guy that offered $1500 for it???? )

First if you picked up that BP I dont want to get you mad at me:nono:
"So any ideas anyone has on getting the final prep done on the base would be appreciated."
You should skid that BP and ship it to me post haste:roflmao:
I cant find anything like that without at the minimum of 1000 mile drive one way:thinking:
There is a ton of info on all phases of rebuild, repair, CNC conversion on this site and Google, search Bridgeport & start reading.
Good luck
PS I used to live in your town till 95 when I retired from the Camas mill.

 

[Andre]

My BP is green also.....was green paint hazardous back in the day and they had to get rid of it somehow? I don't know......LOL

Nice machine, good luck on the cleanup.

This video might help. Skip towards the end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYxgT2a-1e4

 

[chuckorlando]

Mine was also green at some point in time ahaha

 

[David]

Nice mill! When I rebuilt my 1958, I scrubbed, wiped, scrubbed and wiped some more. In the end, I had to take it down to bare metal to stop the bleed through. Just not sure if you can paint a base with the oil absorbed filler and make it stick. Good luck!

 

[alloy]

I think that green was in abundance in the plant where the mill was. Or they got a great deal on 1000 gallons of green paint

I'm making some progress, but I've ran out of steam for today, and I have to be up at 4:30 for work tomorrow.

Got a lot done on the base, here are before and after pics. I'm petty much down to bare metal on the base bottom. I also did some work on my vise. I can't finish it because the sliding nut is just too greasy to to clean here at home. I will take it to work tomorrow and put it in the hot parts washer.

I bought some high build primer to use on the base. But I'm going to wait on using it until I get the rest of the machine cleaned up. All the dirt falls to the bottom and I don't want to have to strip my primer off because it got full of grease.

I also just found out my power feed motor is 3 phase. I was afraid of that. I don't really need a power feed as 90% of what I do is modify transmission tail housings and there isn't much milling involved. If someone here has a non power feed x axis lead screw I'll gladly swap my feed and lead screw for a non power lead screw. Otherwise my power feed is just going to go along for the ride and never be used.

 

[chuckorlando]

Dont take any more then you need to down to cast. It gets pretty rough . The guy I got mine from used a grinder on just enough to make me strip the whole deal to cast. Then you gotta play body man