At present I've been investigating purchasing a second hand CNC knee or bed mill for retrofitting with an Ajax control setup, and have been trying to educate myself on the different machines out there.
One of the likely candidates is the Bridgeport Boss machines. Main problem is there really doesn't seem to be much in the way of useful information out there on these machines - here or elsewhere on the web.

Boss 1-7 use steppers, and 8-12 use servo motors. What's the other differences between all the Boss models? Is it just controllers?

What's the difference between Series I and Series II machines.

Some sort of matrix showing the different models and features would be most useful.

Any help appreciated.

thanks

Mike

In case you hve not found this one previously:
Here is a link to some Bridgeport machine discriptions, that a used machinery dealer keeps on his website.

http://www.machinemanuals.net/web_pages/bridgeport.htm

If you hunt around, he also has a, little used, discussion board, including Boss machines, that you might glean some info. from.

http://www.machinemanuals.net/web_pages/message%20board.htm

Russ

Books are available at machinemanuals.net and there is a discussion board which he calls a BLOG. I answer questions there also.
A series one has 18 inches by 12 inches of X and Y travel. A series 2 has more but the main difference is in the weight it supports. The HP of the head (2HP) is the same.
There was a series 2 standard and it had a 4 HP head.
BOSS 3, 4 5, were all series 1 types with stepping motors and they stepped in.001 increments.
BOSS 6 was available as a series 1 or 2 with .0005 inch step increment.
BOSS 7 was also called the BTC1, had a tool changer and a electronic spindle drive, servo motors thus better positioning resolution and was a series 1 flavor.
BOSS 8 and 9 were servo motor, same heads as the BOSS 3,through 6, and were available in either series 1 or 2.
There was a BOSS 10, very rare, a series 1 standard with a 3 axis control and servo motors.
The same iron was sold with various Heidenhain controls, SEM servo motyors, and BOSCH drives. These were called the INTERACT 1 and 2. There was a INTERACT 4 which had the old series 2 standard iron, and a 7 HP electronic spindle drive.
More recently there was an INTERACT 1 MK 2. Series 1 CNC iron, Heidenhain control and the 7 HP electronic spindle drive.
Then came the V2XT. Series 1 iron (NOT the same as the seires 1 CNC iron), with the old CNC BOSS head, 3 axis DX (PC based) control, servo motors.
I hope this helps. If you have any specific questions, fire away.

George W.

George,

That's awesome information and exactly what I'm looking for!


Questions:

1. The Series II, as it supports more weight, I'm assuming it's also a heavier machine, does it make it a more ridgid machine?

2. What is the standard spindle taper the Boss machines came with? If there was a number of different ones, which is the most desirable.

3. Is power draw bar fitted as standard to the boss machines?

4. Do all Boss models have cromed ways.

5. Any opinions as to which model would be best suited for an ajax retrofit?

6. What's the difference between Series 1 Iron & Seires 1 CNC iron, you got me a little confused with the last part of your post.

thanks

Mike

Here we go:
The BOSS series 1 iron supported 300 lbs. The BOSS series 2 supported 1000 lbs.
FYI: EZTRAK 1 supports 300 lbs. EZTRAK 2 supports 600 lbs. Actually, the iron can support more but the cheaper drives cannot accel or decel the mass. By the way I have had cases of service calls where the knee elevating leadscrew tore out the mating thread in the brass nut (on its way down). These customers would not admit how much weight this required on the table but usually a large forklift was involved.
Lets jump to question 6.
The regular series 1 iron used on the series 1 standard, EZTRAK, V2XT and such has 30 inches or X travel and 12 of Y travel. All these tables, saddles and knees look the same. The series 1 CNC iron will only travel 18 inches in the X. The table casting is different, incorporating a coolant catch around the table and drains at both ends. Per the BPT bulletin about the design, they wanted the moving center of mass not to extend past the saddle for the purposes of better accuracy and rigidity. The Y axis travel was still 12 inches. BPT considered this true CNC iron, not a retrofitted series1.

All BOSS machines had the option of 2 spindles. A Kurt Quick Change 30, and a Universal Quick Switch 200. The tool holders are not interchangable. The Quick Switch nut had two springs in its circumference and a trigger pin. The tool holder was inserted into the spindle and the nut would snap spin grabbing the tool holder. Yes, I replaced many of the small pins that held the nut open. To be safety concious, the wrench was still used to make sure the nut was tight. The Kurt QC30 was usually hard tightened and then the wrench was used. The QC30 tool holders had a 1/2 X 30 thread in the end which facilitated the installation of the OPTIONAL (question 3) air driven power draw bar. The tool holder nut was removed and replaced with a skirt to protect the operator from getting clothes and such caught in the exposed drive keys. Longer drive keys were fitted as well. This option paid for itself in a few months time.

FYI: BPT has used QC40 on the series 2 standard. The Series 1 standard accepted the 2 mentioned above and the R-8. Except fot the M head. It came with either the number 2 Morse taper, number 7 Brown and Sharp or the number B3 taper.
The tapers were matched to the HP of the machines. Hence the 4 HP series 2 standard got the QC 40.

All CNCs made by BPT had chromed ways or used turcite. The BOSS machines had chrome.

I am not familiar with the AJAX retrofit. If it is targeted at a manual machine conversion or a CNC conversion. I can see where converting a CNC would be cheaper as all pulleys, motor mounts, ball screws, etc are already engineered and there. A series 1 standard may not have chrome ways, may not have a rigid ram (pros and cons), and will not have a electric automatic way oil system.

Theoretically the series 2 CNC iron should be more rigid than the series 1 CNC iron. With a used machine that is something that nust be evaluated on a individual basis.

I hope this helps.

George W.

George,

Thanks for taking the time to answer all my questions, it would have taken me a long time to find out all that info! Much appreciated.

Thanks

Mike

The series 1 cnc[boss etc] iron is as rigid as you will likely ever need, much much more rigid than standard bpt iron. the universal kwik switch helps in this regard, much less chatter than 30 taper in my experience. at the very end, [explorer] the series one came with an extended travel , probably an extended leadscrew.

I used to own a 1976 BPT Series II NC. Nice older machine I wanted to retrofit in worst way. Wish I still had it sometimes. That machine had 4hp vari speed, 40 taper spindle. Machine was close to 7000 lbs, series I machines around 3400 lbs

Hi George,

I am just about to buy a Bridgeport mill and was wondering if there is any particular model more suitable for a retrofit? I would like to keep ballscrews, motors and only get a new control. I would use a PC with Mach 2, but I am sure there might be issues with drivers etc. for some of the various motors. Is there any model that uses the knee for z travel rather than the quill? A series 1 would do as I mainly cut delrin, but need more than 5" z travel.

Any pointers would narrow down the search and be much appreciated!

Andy

At present I've been investigating purchasing a second hand CNC knee or bed mill for retrofitting with an Ajax control setup, and have been trying to educate myself on the different machines out there.
One of the likely candidates is the Bridgeport Boss machines. Main problem is there really doesn't seem to be much in the way of useful information out there on these machines - here or elsewhere on the web.

Boss 1-7 use steppers, and 8-12 use servo motors. What's the other differences between all the Boss models? Is it just controllers?

What's the difference between Series I and Series II machines.

Some sort of matrix showing the different models and features would be most useful.

Any help appreciated.

thanks

Mike


Hello Mike
I have a series I CNC which was origonally fitted with a Boss 5 control the ajax cnc system which you refer to is a kit complete with 3 x 29 lbs ins dc motors with shaft encoders built in, a card which fits into the PCI or ISA slot of a PC and a 3 axis servo control board also comes with intercon interactive control software with different options to suit your requirement.

On my system I have removed all of the origonal electrics except for the 240 volt - 110 volt transformer which I used so that I can run my machine on single phase also using a VFD single to three phase inverter for the spindle motor and using the speed control unit from Ajax gives me programmable speed control from the software. Upto now I have been very pleased with upgrade and would reccomend it to anyone considering a similar retrofit be it on a series I or series II I had one of these previously some years ago before the advent of retrofits were freely available, wish I still had it as well as the series I which would be just the same to convert.
If you email Jesse at Ajax controls he is very helpful also the dvd on programming the machine is very good.

The big question is the Z axis. You said that you need more than 5 inches of travel. This blows away all the BOSS machines.
The only machine fitting that parameter is the old series 2 NC. It had a stepper motor on the knee and an air cylinder in the pedestal to counterbalance the weight so the stepper could move all this mass up AND down.
If you read all the above answers, I am quite thorough in describing what each machine had. Perhaps it would help you to set up a chart with the features you need, and the features you don't need. Sometimes something visual like that helps.

George