What To Do Before Firing Up The Bridgeport For The First Time

I have the head disassembled. I did the disassembly with the head on the mill. I have not disassembled the motor assembly nor inspected it accept to turn the motor and it turns nicely. Nor have I disassembled the belt housing assembly and the gear housing assembly. These assemblies also spin nicely but the belt housing does have a rattle in it when you shake it and it looks like the toothed belt may be riding low as there are some wear marks on the casting from the belt.

I have quill housing completely disassembled into all of it's small parts and removed from the ram. To remove the quill I had to take it up through the top of the quill housing as trying to slide it out of the bottom of the quill housing, per the disassembly instructions, would cause it to bind about 3/4s of the way through. It looks like I will have to find the interference points on the quill exterior and quill housing interior in order to get the quill to slide freely in the housing.

I did find that the quill felt washer was shredded and that the metal ring that supports the felt washer was missing. The quill skirt fastening tabs seem to be mangled also. The screws that retain the quill skirt where of two different types. bolts and tried moving the ram back and forth.

With the head removed I did loosen the ram lock and cranked the ram back and forth. The ram did move without issue. I also tried the nod feature. It moved just fine as well.

I believe this mill had bee rebuilt before the previous owner purchased it or by the previous owner. What happened to the quill though I don't know.

Vlad
 
I worked on getting the quill to pass through the quill housing today. I polished the inside of the quill housing with some 320 wet and dry followed by 400 wet and dry and then 600 wet and dry sandpaper. I also polished the quill but when done and the quill lubed the quill would still bind. I tried marking the quill with magic marker but was unable to identify the problem. I finally layed a straight edge along the length of the quill at multiple points and found a at the high spot right below where the quill stop knob mounts. This I was able to remove with a stone and then polishing with the multiple grits of wet and dry sandpaper. This took care of the problem.

Vlad
 
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