Hi All,
I am working on Job1 on our new/used Bridgeport Series II Interact 2 with Heidenhain TNC145 control and have some user questions:

1. I cleaned out the coolant pit in the base of the machine last night and want to test the pump and system. I was going to use ATF to test with. The only coolant available in our area is NAPA water souluable cutting fluid which I use on our old drill press. Anything other than common materials I would have to ship in. What do you recommend? I used wd-40 to run our test part.

2. Running some test programs the M03 spindle start command does not turn the spindle on. The program stops and waits and the green led flashes on the control screen until I manually start the spindle by holding the Spindle Enable switch over (momentary contacts) and pressing the start button. The M00 command stops the spindle. Could I have a bad relay that should be starting the spindle, or does this machine NOT have the spindle program start capability?

3. I have to drill some holes for 4-40 thread in 3/4" 2024 aluminum. Right now I do it on my manual machine and manually peck the holes in. The max rpm on the Bridgeport is 4200 rpm but I usually run max 2800 - 3000 because thats where the machine is the most quiet. I have not tested the pecking canned program yet or have a collet to hold a #43 drill, but what speed/feed/peck would be recommended?

4. I don't know when the machine was last used in service. I have oiled things up and keep the autolube full. Other than the pm listed in the manual what should I be looking at to keep machine as good as possible ie, the spindle noise mentioned above. Its not real noisy, but there is definately a sweet spot at 2800 rpm.

5. I use the handwheel for manual movements. Last time I tried the joy stick I had to have the rapid button pushed and got gross positioning error. Then I have to power down the machine and re-reference everything. It could be a machine parameter setting or software limit or something, but it works and I don't want to lose my 300 lines of code until I get my dnc software up and running. The battery back up should keep the program in tact during a power outage correct? I'm going to have to work on this issue at some point.

Thanks all!
HMC710

>>>>>

1. I cleaned out the coolant pit in the base of the machine last night and want to test the pump and system. I was going to use ATF to test with. The only coolant available in our area is NAPA water souluable cutting fluid which I use on our old drill press. Anything other than common materials I would have to ship in. What do you recommend? I used wd-40 to run our test part.
>>>

Use a soluble oil, spend some money, buy Blaser or another top line water soluble

>>>>>
2. Running some test programs the M03 spindle start command does not turn the spindle on. The program stops and waits and the green led flashes on the control screen until I manually start the spindle by holding the Spindle Enable switch over (momentary contacts) and pressing the start button. The M00 command stops the spindle. Could I have a bad relay that should be starting the spindle, or does this machine NOT have the spindle program start capability?
>>>>
I have a matchstick stuck in the button on mine, the interacts seem to be stupid this way

>>>
3. I have to drill some holes for 4-40 thread in 3/4" 2024 aluminum. Right now I do it on my manual machine and manually peck the holes in. The max rpm on the Bridgeport is 4200 rpm but I usually run max 2800 - 3000 because thats where the machine is the most quiet. I have not tested the pecking canned program yet or have a collet to hold a #43 drill, but what speed/feed/peck would be recommended?
>>>>
4. I don't know when the machine was last used in service. I have oiled things up and keep the autolube full. Other than the pm listed in the manual what should I be looking at to keep machine as good as possible ie, the spindle noise mentioned above. Its not real noisy, but there is definately a sweet spot at 2800 rpm.
>>>

spindle noise is probably bushings.
>>>>>
5. I use the handwheel for manual movements. Last time I tried the joy stick I had to have the rapid button pushed and got gross positioning error. Then I have to power down the machine and re-reference everything. It could be a machine parameter setting or software limit or something, but it works and I don't want to lose my 300 lines of code until I get my dnc software up and running. The battery back up should keep the program in tact during a power outage correct? I'm going to have to work on this issue at some point.
>>>>.
Servos need to be tweeked

Thanks Gus,
I looked in J&L and they didn't list the Blaser product. A local guy said that our Blarney Castle dist handled coolants and lubes for a local shop here also.

I'll try the match stick and see what happens. As far as the servos, do you think it is a machine parameter setting or servo amp tweak? My original machine parameters were DOA so I've got working values in there but don't know if they are optimal. That reminds me, I need to find the one that changes the comma to a decimal point.
Thanks again,
Tim