Bridgeport Mill Refresh Begins

Today we begin the three-part process of refreshing a well-loved Bridgeport mill. I decided to put off doing a full restoration for now and get it into good, clean working order so I can start using it heavily sooner. I'll be going into detail on most of the process, so dive in with me and let's get started!

If you're curious about how I repair the worn lead screw in the middle of the video, check this out:

Instagram: @vanovercustoms

[HM-Projects]

Keen to see how you actually fixed the leadscrew issue, you went from "I'll show you how" to "it's done now"

[older-wiser-better]

And now for the all new magical leadscrew fix - jawdropping !

[Belvedli]

So what happened to the leadscrew? One moment it was an issue, and then it was done??

[MyLilMule]

"I'm going to show you how to fix the lead screw." "Lead screw is fixed."

[wertent]

Maybe its just me but i feel like we need to start a gofundme to get you a shopvac and clean that thing off once and awhile😊

[metroidfusion]

Ah yes, fixing the lead screw with the old reliable jump cut trick

[TnCh]

How is the Bridgeport doing almost 9 months after this rebuild?

[ronkluwe]

Just saw this and have a comment for something you kept saying. You kept saying the ways were chromed. This is impossible as the only way to chrome something is to fully immerse the part in a plating bath and chrome the entire part. What you are seeing is the wear on the ways, which has polished the way metal. If any surface treatment was done at all, it might have been flame hardening, but I do not believe Bridgeport did that for their machines. South Bend did a lot of flame hardening for the ways on their lathes and often advertised the flame hardening aspect. Also, the flaking is not for surface flatness. The types of flakes shown on the ways are for allowing oil to accumulate and help provide a "floating surface" for the upper part. This is done at the end of the machining process and is not intended to improve the surface flatness and precision of the ways. As flaking for a precision surface is a hand process that requires many passes and much time, not many tool machine manufacturers could keep their tools to a reasonable price if they used precision flaking. The wear on the flaking is an indication that during your rebuild you might want to check for flatness and parallelism of the ways.

[EnlightenedSavage]

You keep calling the power feed a DRO. DRO stands for digital read out which has nothing to do with the Power feed.

[Airtight]

Your idea of flaking all the way across and the “correct” observation of flaking all the way across are complete opposites. There is still also no video to be found of the fix for your lead screw as you didn’t in fact show it. There is only one way to correct that and it’s replacement. You knew it was worn, you should’ve had the ball screws in stock. All you are doing is “cleaning” the machine and leaving all the worn areas and parts be. That’s going to cause excessive and accelerated wear in the long run.

[jeffreyschmiedeck]

What a joke! You know when machine are installed by a millwright they are leveled . Just because you have a Bridgeport doesn’t make you a Machinist !