Originally Posted by jdelaney44 I would wait for / go find a used Series II with a dead BOSS or other controller and replace it with a PC based controller and the appropriate stepper / servo motor drives. |
There is a dealer near Daytona Beach that has a few of those, used... I will have to stop by and check them out. What are the main things to look for on the bridgeports?? I know a lot of older ones are worn out, but how do you tell that?
Originally Posted by jdelaney44 If you want to see my retrofit story it's on this board. Pretty sure I'm at about $8K including the machine. |
If I'm patient and do it all myself could I do it all for $5k? If it costed more that would be OK, it would just take longer.
Originally Posted by jdelaney44 Now you said you just want the big Z travel for the ability to change tools? Is that right? I think if you use tool holders for your drill bits you'll avoid the problem. Also, use shorter bits. Also, you'll probably end up doing a lot of "drilling" with center cutting end mills. I have had times when I've had to assemble the drill rig a piece at a time. First the tapered spindle, then the chuck, then the drill........ So yeah, it would be great to have 20 inches of travel and not lose reference. |
That and also the ability to go between large pieces sitting in a vice and small plate material clamped to a sacrifial plate. Using 0.0002" limit/home switches and a Tormach R-8 fixed-Z tooling kit, and an electronic edgefinder, I would basically like to take my 3d part from SurfCAM and have the machine start doing its thing... I want any cranking/locking to be minimal.
At this point though, it doesn't look like I could ever get a Bridgeport to dance at 10,000 RPM, so I don't know what I'm going to do. Can you think of any way to attach one of
these to the side of the Bridgeport spindle? (middle) It would do 30K+ and has a built-in pneumatic tool release.