It's been 30 years since I really operated an old Bridgeport using all manual crank and stops so my mind is a bit rusty. I have the T slots on the front edge of my table along with the adj. stops but see no place to mount a fixed top to the non movable part of the table (X axis) it may be and probably is being used by or covered up with the stop mount for the power feed. Anybody have any pics of how they built stops?
-
Welcome back Guest! Did you know you can mentor other members here at H-M? If not, please check out our Relaunch of Hobby Machinist Mentoring Program!
Table stops on Bridgeport
- Thread starter Charley Davidson
- Start date
T
Tom Griffin
Forum Guest
Register Today
Charlie,
The fixed stop was removed when the power feed was installed. That's the price you have to pay to have power feed, but I think it was a pretty good tradeoff.
Tom
The fixed stop was removed when the power feed was installed. That's the price you have to pay to have power feed, but I think it was a pretty good tradeoff.
Tom
Turns out it was not removed but the top of the casting is broke off. Gonna do some checking to see if I can still use a manual stop along with the power feed stop.
Is there a way to mount adj. stops for the Y axis? I see a DRO in my near future.
Is there a way to mount adj. stops for the Y axis? I see a DRO in my near future.
For a minute:lmao:
Charley,
Here are photos of two types of power feeds; mechanical and electric (Servo™). I'm not sure the original Bridgeport mechanical power feed required any conversion to the X-axis table stops, maybe just some additional stuff that really doesn't interfere. You can see that it just integrates with the fixed stop. The electrical feeds on the other hand, require that the fixed stop be replaced by a bi-directional switch, which then utilize the original adjustable stops. With this lashup, if you forget to slide the adj. stops out of the way and proceed to hand crank the table, you can nearly wreck the switch mounting if you hit it unexpectedly, because it is a switch, not a fixed stop. So it has to be built and mounted strong enough to withstand the occasional bump. These are pretty tough.
-But I think you were asking about the original hard stop system, so here is what I have on the X-axis, but I don't recall what Bridgeport used as a fixed stop for the Y-axis.
Dave
Servo™ Y-axis stops
View attachment 37615
Bridgeport original X-axis stops
View attachment 37616
Bridgeport original mechanical X-axis power feed
View attachment 37617
Servo™ X-axis power-feed stop switch (replaces fixed stop)
View attachment 37618
I have a job I do sometimes where I want to mill repetitively to a solid stop on the X-axis, so I made myself some really rigid stops that fit into the front T-slot to replace the weenie ones that came with the machine. They hang down and bump into the saddle directly; I can hand feed right up to them and hit them hard without deflecting at all.
All about it:
Mill Table Stop
All about it:
Mill Table Stop
Frank,
Nice to speak/write to you. I like your solid stop idea (and all your other ideas too). I have hit and overrun my stops enough to want to convert to ones like yours.
-Uhm, your link is missing the "L" at the end.
Dave