Bridgeport Beast. (Photos)

**Zhyyra** · 06-10-2009, 03:11 PM

Hi everyone,

A couple of weeks ago I took leave of my senses and bought an old second-hand Bridgeport series II Interact 4, with Hiedenhain TNC150 control still attached.

Thank goodness there are places like this on the net that one can go to, to recouperate from the aftermath of such a decision, that I suppose one can only make under the influence of the intoxication by pollutants in a centralized zone of one of our worlds industrialised cities. I swear, I was not otherwise intoxicated.

Ok, so, where to from here?
My intention is to keep it in as original shape as possible yet not let that decision compromise the proper working of the machine. So, if old parts are no longer obtainable then new will have to do. Sort of like restoring an old vintage car.
I've switched it on and all its vital functions seem to be ok. X,Y and Z axis glide quite smoothly. There's a bit of rattle on the spindle. It may just be spline-rattle. I took it up to 2500rpm and it seemed ok.
I took chunks of chocolate desert out of the coolant sump(I kid you not), cleaned it and put new coolant in and it pumps like a dream.
Wrote a small program with circular pocket cycle in it, and it ran ok. Just a dry-run for now. I'll cut metal once i've cleaned the beast up properly.

One thing I will want to do in the future is to get it to dripfeed as some of my work involves 3d design and programing. I read a thread here on CNCzone about how to do that but I'll dive into it in more detail when the time comes.

The main aim for now is to get it working. Making it look pretty will have to be done over time as a sort of refurbishment exercise.
This is not a hobby machine. I will need to make some bread and butter from it within the next two months or I'll be looking for a job again.

Glad to be in your company.

**Zhyyra** · 06-28-2009, 05:10 AM

Ok so I chose the wrong topic title. It's not a new machine build. It's more like an old machine restoration. My appologese.

Since my last post (just incase anyone cares to know) I've cleaned the beast up and I've done a couple of jobs on it already. It's working fine and will be fully adequate for the work that it wiil do.

I still howerver need to make a suitable ventilation guard for the back.

You may notice that the Y axis has a non-standard motor and a linear encoder while the X and Z axis have the standard motors with rotary encoders. Yip, there's no doubting it, it's definatley a beast.