buying Bridgeport Interact 1 CNC Mill.

[ivan sandford]

hi all and a happy new year to you all
I've been thinking off retrofitting my bpt series 1 2j head manual mil to cnc and have just found a bpt interact 1 with heidenhain tnc 150 control and wondered if any one could tell me whether it would be a better option than the retro fit. in the advert they say that the spindle speed is set at one speed what could this be?
PS having read a lot of the threads on this site i am very impressed at all the info people keep in there heads

cheers Ivan

[gridley51]

I have seen that mill advertised as well,but can`t remember the price.The speed issue could be several things.Possibly the air motor or at worst the drive pulleys/linkage.
Only you can decide if it is better than a retrofit.The 150 is a nice easy control to learn and on an interact makes it a fully functional cnc machine.A pc based retrofit may not offer all the level of control the Heidenhain has regardless of what claims may be made for it.
Where in the UK are you based.
On edit.I had another look at that machine and my view is that for a machine with a problem it looks a bit expensive considering that you also have to move it and the price is plus vat which will add another £262.50 to it at the current price if you are not vat registered.This machine has been on before and did not get a bid so if you are local to it it could be worth looking at it and making an offer.
As a comparison I bought a similar machine with a fault for less than £700 of Ebay and fixed it in less than an hour with no parts needed.
Mark.

[ivan sandford]

hi mark i live in Somerset,near wells,
the mill is on ebay starting price £1500 no bids yet!
how difficult would it be to control it with something like dolphin cad or Mach 2/3
straight from a computer?
these might seem like daft questions but i know nowt about cnc except what I've read
many thanks Ivan

[ivan sandford]

thanks for the info mark might just hang on for a bit unless i can sort out a cost effective retro for my manual one, after all i only paid £600 for it
wouldn't mind making the hardware for the retro but i don't know squat about electronics any body got any plans for retro hardware
I've read a lot about home brew retro stuff and still don't know what motors/controllers,etc to use
any advice would be greatly appreciated

[gridley51]

Ivan,there is loads of info on this site and the Mach support forum about retrofitting old Bridgeports and other mills with mach.
There is a guy called Hood who posts all over the place,lives a few miles from me,he has retrofitted a manual Bridgeport and a Boss controlled Interact.I was quite impressed with the retro he did on the Interact with Mach 3 but I have never seen the point of taking an interact with a Heidenhain 145 and up control and retrofitting it.Two reasons,you can buy a machine with a working control for as much as you are going buy one and retrofit it and the other which to me is the most important is that with the Heidenhain you have true closed loop control and regardless of what anyone tells you it`s not possible with Mach as it is just now.I hear that may change.Another reason which is important to me is that I buy a machine to cut metal and make money now not to play about with and possibly earn money from it another month down the line.
Please don`t think that I am condemning Mach,it`s very good for what it is and what it costs but it still has bugs and it is now coming to the end of the line and may possibly be locked down now although I believe they are sorting all known problems.I also think it has possibilities for being used to run certain machines where you might not be able to justify £10,000.00 and up for a recognised cnc control,drives and motors.
Mark.

[awemawson]

Ivan,

I have an Interact 1 like the one you were considering here in Kent, and find it an excellent machine. I bought mine from a dealer, with a guarantee of full functionality for not very much more than that price. If you are ever in the area get in touch and come and play with it to see if it suits.

Why not give Nigel Bongers a ring at Capital Equipment:

http://www.capital-equipment.com/

He may well have something suitable and can arrange delivery cheaper than you could yourself bar hiring a hi-ab !

[ivan sandford]

hi Andrew
thanks for the info, just had a look at there web site and they have a Bridgeport Series 1 Interact CNC Mill with Heidenhain 145 for £1900+the dreaded vat are they up for a bit of bartering do you think??
again many thanks for the info
ivan

[awemawson]

Well, far be it for me to be indescrete.... but yes definately if pictures of our noble Queen are the currency!

Avoid the TNC145 - go for a 150 or preferably 151 - make sure whatever you get has the RS232 port and is also able to receive 'drip feed' programs. Very few CAM generated programs will fit in the memory of a TNC 150/151.

I seem to remember I paid arround £2K including delivery for my TNC151b 1987 machine and with quite a bit of tooling and the extra clip on keyboard overcover to let you enter G code more easily

[ivan sandford]

HI thought that might be the case will give them a ring thanks for the extra info
btw just seen these on ebay wondering if the motors and controls might be ok for a retrofit??? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...2882&rd=1&rd=1
many thanks for all the help
ivan

[awemawson]

Yes I saw those - look like fun, but I think you's be buying a load of trouble if you wanted to canabalise the control and motors.

If you want to get hands on and dirty doing a conversion, you'd be better advised getting something like a Bridgeport MDI as dealers can't give them away. Use the existing servo motors but fit different servo drivers (the MDI multiplexes one Bosch servo driver to three motors iirc) and something like Ah-Ha or Mach3 or TurboCNC to give it a PC based controller.

However by the time you've done it all, buying a working Interact 1 won't cost you any more, and should work as soon as it hits your workshop floor !

Personally I think trying to CNC a manual Bridgeport is false ecconomy. The required ball screws, motors, controller etc will cost a fortune, and are too free and easy when you are manually machining - you end up with something that is neither fish nor fowl.

[colin1544]

Hi Ivan can I stick my two pennyworth in I agree with all the coments posted to date to convert a standard bridgeport to CNC is alot of work Ive been looking at it myself but only on two axes as I need a machine with a long bed travel and CNC machines with long travel are normally big machines I'd never fit them into my garage but I also have a series 1 CNC bridgeport origonally with a Boss 5 control and when the control went bust it was just before alot of the pc driven systems were available so I plumbed for a virtual plug and play system from AJAX C N C systems from the states which is the PC driven D I Y version of the Centroid system this is a very easy system to install and very easy to learn programing although there are alot of cheaper systems this works very well so if you did buy one with a Heidenhain control and the system went down it's worth looking at a complete reliable system that definitely works and is uptodate. And I run mine from sinlge phase no problems which is another great advantage Cheers Colin

[ivan sandford]

hi Andrew i think it was the fun bit that attracted me,still no bids though might email them with a offer.
as for the Bridgeport i think your right and have resigned my self to keep looking for a interact or similar
many thank to all for all the advice
cheers Ivan