Bridgeport Series 2 R2E4

[AppEng]

I bought a "Series 2" R2E4 cnc machines at an auction a while back (along with a manual mill and engine lathe) and have finally gotten them up and near running.

I'm not sure why they called this machine a series 2; it's more like a series 1.5- it still has the smallish 2hp head and base casting, but has box ways instead of dovetails.

Anyways, I can't get the machine to power up, and I later heard from a machinist in the toolroom that it came out of that they had always had control/board problems with the machine. I'm not very knowledgable with the electronics side of the biz.

Physically, the machine is in good shape; the ways are very clean, the table isn't damaged, the coolant pan is there, the mist/flood systems are intact, and the upper control panel is clean. But, if I can't get it to work for less than what I have into it, then it is no good to me.

I was talking to a guy tonight that retrofitted an older Cincinnati bed mill to run G-Code off of a PC (and uses BobCad to program), but I can't remember the control system. He said it was relatively easy to set up and could probably be done for $1000-$1500 or so.

If I can't find a reasonable solution, I'm going to try and sell it outright or sell it for parts.

Can any of you point me in the right direction? I appreciate the help!!

[machintek]

What exactly is your question?
The series 2 was meant to support more weight. If they put a bigger motor on it, the entire machine would need a redesign to keep rigidity, etc.
Does the door have a fan on it? There were a lot of thermal issues with the BOSS 9 causing board failure. Bridgeport came out with a door exchange program to retrofit the control cabinets with a fan and filter to minimize this. Maybe the original owners never took advantage of this.
Are you on true 3 phase power? Are all the transformers configures for the power going to the machine? Do you have the maintenance manual? Have to looked at chapter 7 and checked voltages (and fuses) with a meter?
What does come up/work?
I had a BOSS 9 and made a living with it 23 years ago. Good machine.

George

[AppEng]

It came out of a Delphi toolroom auction about a year ago and from what I gather from a few toolmakers that I know in there, they have always had electronic problems with it and it wasn't working at time of sale. I know this now. It was wired for 440, now I have the control, transformer, and motor wired for low voltage 3 phase for my convertor.

I have it wired into a 10hp rotary convertor. Powers my engine lathe and 5hp manual mill just fine, but those aren't cnc.

I believe it does have the fan on the electrical cabinet. My machines aren't located at my house- that's where I am right now. I haven't messed with it in a few months; been concentrating on sorting out tooling for the other machines and working out little bugs with them. I don't remember being able to get the control to power on though.

I got a fair deal on it, so if it's gonna cost me major dough to fix it; not worth it to me- I'll sell it for parts. Mechanically it's very sound. A friend of mine has performed more than a few retrofits of his own and suggests a possible conversion to mach3 / gecko or similar. Not sure I want to go thru all that.