Should You Buy A Bridgeport Mill To Start Your Shop?

This video is a response to an email that I received this week:" I want to start my own shop, is buying a Bridgeport milling machine still a good option?" Here are my two cents.

[nevetslleksah]

I run a one man machine shop out of my home garage in a northern suburb of Detroit to supplement my retirement income. I have a Bridgeport mill, a few lathes, a surface grinder and other equipment. I do work for a local gage company. Most of their work is fixture and bench gages for the automakers and suppliers, so the quantities on the details are 1-3 up to maybe a dozen pieces. I prefer the smaller quantities as I find I get bored fairly easily if I have to make more than 6 or 12 of anything. They send out RFQ’s, I bid what I am capable of completing 100%. Most of the work is mill work and occasionally there is some lathe work. All my machines are manual. I make some money, but admittedly I am not going to get rich doing this, but it keeps me out of trouble and out of the wife’s way. I like turning cranks and at this point I don’t have any desire to learn CAD-CAM. I also do some work for the general public occasionally.

[alangivens]

I am brand new to mills and will be taking delivery of my completely restored Bridgeport in two days. I have never even touched a mill and I am just adding one to my shop where we often do custom one off projects we are mechanical contractors by trade. I found your video very helpful and informative and wanted to be sure to thank you for sharing your time and expertise.

[fasteddie]

I’m glad that my home shop is just for my secret alchemy and fun, so I love my Bridgeport. Good video and useful information. Thank you.

[johns]

My path from Bridgeport to making money.

Bought an used Bridgeport clone and learned how to use it. Took me 10 years to make back the cost of the mill. But the learned skills got me a job at local machine shop as a machinist/tool & die. Saved ALL the pay checks and used it to buy a second-hand CNC mill. Left the shop and I'm on my own now. Only took me 8 month to make back the money for the CNC mill that cost 30x as much as the Bridgeport.

[razorworks]

Great question and GREAT answer!
Being a welder/fabricator for over 4 decades and counting, I got introduced to machining through a machinist friend about ten years ago, and I will not call myself a machinist just out of respect to the trade, but as a home shop and a job shop to my community, I can make some pretty cool things and put some smiles on some faces!
That said, I agree 100% that doing things manually is definitely not going to make the mortgage payments, but if your retired like me willing to get up and do something everyday, it's a Hell of a lot of fun...at least for me..
Currently I'm in the middle of making custom Jeep parts for my new Gladiator!
Razor!

[jeffanderson]

Yeah, you're right. Us hobby guys that have all the time in the world and are nearing retirement, never learned G code, well a Bridgeport/clone is perfect.
We aren't doing it to make money, your answer to that young fellow was correct.
That young guy asking about a Bridgeport may have a few grand to buy the BP but what's a Mazak cost?
Exactly my point. Those machines are cost prohibitive for the average machinist or hobby guy.

[MFmp]

I was laughing when you talked about FOGs. FNG here.

[AJR]

Thanks very much Phil. I think you understated a bit here though. Your "Two Cents Worth" is really worth at least more like "A Few Bucks Worth"!! This info will help a lot of :)

[biologicalagent]

My grandpa owned a Bridgeport. He worked his entire career for 40 years on the same machine. The last 20+ years were for texlon inc. making moulds. I make good money, in IT I probably make 3 times what he did, but I really wish he were here to show me the ropes. All I wanted was to run a Bridgeport like he did.

[CzechSixTv]

I'm not a machinist by any measure, but learned a little in HS(on a Bridgeport mill, Logan metal lathe and Atlas brake lathe all from the 50's if not older) and a bit more while working for a well digger where nearly every piece of equipment in the shop was driven by a series of leather belts(the stuff was OLD). All the actual machinists except the owner had long since retired, but I was the mechanic fixing/maintaining the trucks, drilling rigs and other equipment. Sometimes the owner would have me cut/thread pipes or driveshafts for pumps and cut/drill/tap mounting plates for motors if he was out on a job. When I really had nothing else to do, I would make chips from scrap just to have a better understanding of how the machines worked.

For repair and hobby work, or even custom one of stuff, I can see the lure of a vintage manual mill. They are, for the most part, still capable and incredibly durable. Plus they just look cool as hell compared to a modern CNC machine. As someone with friends that were machinists in shops with manual equipment that closed down because the shop couldn't handle volume...CNC wins every time.

By the way, if you're even wondering why I'm commenting, I stumbled upon the video while researching mills for small hobby projects and figured quality info deserved at least a thumbs up and comment(gotta feed the algorithm).

[tomte]

We got rid of all but one manual kasuga mill and one manual lathe and the only work being done on them is rush jobs when you just need to take some material of for clearance or use the mill as a drill press.
Even Conversational programing is outdated nowdays, I think you would be amazed at how fast you can get things done with a properly setup cad/cam and a modern cnc. I work in the tool and die department so most jobs are singles or low quantity. We have the computers right next to the machines at work with every common operation ready in a macro in the cam so you just click on say a thread and it selects all the threads of the same size and at most you change the depth and send it to the machine. The DMG i run got a 18k rpm 40hp spindle, 5axis, through spindle coolant, 1900 ipm rapids and 60 tools ready to go in the magazine. Good luck competing with that on a bridgeport :)

[magicman]

As i like to say. My great grandfather was a wood worker. If he had had routers, table saws and CNCs he would have used them.

[doughall]

Yes, CNC is the only way to go to print money, I could not see having a shop without it but.... I started my garage shop with a manual mill and lathe, mostly to learn and do prototypes, not to make money. Today when I have my Big CNC running I use the Bridgeport for repairs, fixturing, and mostly stock prep. Started CNC with a Bridgeport Boss 5 conversion with 4 axis and nice Centroid interactive and USB capability, it is awesome and could probably do away with the manual Bridgeport but the game changer was the Fadal with tool changer and flood coolant. Now with Fusion360 I no longer use the interactive. Quicker to just do it in CAD/CAM and pop out the G code. Can I live with just my CNC, probably. Can I live with just a manual mill, NO. I still use my manual CNC and I feel they compliment each other. Tearing down a production setup on the CNC for one small job does not make money. If you know what to look for you can pick up a used CNC for under 5k. Paid $1700 for my well worn manual bridgeport delivered to my door 7 years ago. $5400 for my Centroid 4 axis conversion to my door and my Fadal was only 5k to my door and it has the option to run on single phase. Funny thing is I used my CNC to make fixtures and soft jaws for the manual Bridgeport.

[spencertoolandgrind]

I bought a Bridgeport. Cranked handles. Upgraded to a prototrax. It’s so simple and fast. I would love to have a Mazak. Easiest things to use.

[WilliamPayneNZ]

The shop I worked in had both CNC and manual. The mould cavity work was all CNC and EDM. The manual work was usually “Job shop” type work or non cavity parts of moulds.

The shop was a good profitable shop but everything was about doing it the most efficient way. Some jobs were done manually and others were CNC.

I did a lot of TIG welding and for me starting my shop the market I see is doing work that others can’t, special steels, exotic metals, specialised build up and repair.

I know a guy who has a business with a manual lathe and mill in his garage, but he doesn’t do any moulds and his business/profit model is more about supporting himself rather than a large growing business.

[davewhite]

Well you can have a Bridgeport without a Mazak but you can't have a Mazak without a Bridgeport. Nothin like setting up for a secondary operation on the BP while the Mazak is grinding away producing the next part . Just my 2 cents . Great content .

[HomebrewHorsepower]

I have a Bridgeport type mill (1960 Gorton Mastermil) in my home shop. I can't fathom trying to make any real money on it. It's fun for a hobby, and it's great having the ability to mill custom parts as part of my other work, but I wouldn't consider a manual mill to be a profit making machine at this point.
Additionally, people are way too hung up on the Bridgeport name. They're good machines for sure, but there are plenty of other machines out there that are as good or better that will cost far less because they dont say Bridgeport on them. When I set out to buy a mill I was pretty much dead set on a Bridgeport, but once I started doing my research I realized that a lot of other American manufacturers had designed and built better machines by the 60s and 70s, and that the real value was in those machines. I ended up getting my beefy 3000 pound Gorton mill for almost free because nobody wanted it and it needed to be cleared out of an old factory that had closed.

[keithlane]

While I respect your opinion on having a Bridgeport in a small shop, or not .
I think for people working short handed in a small start up shop, no matter what, a manual series I Bridgeport is absolutely the first big machine you need to buy.
Not as your primary production mill, but as the tool that will keep your primary production mill running efficiently.
Whether you need to fly cut off a false end that was your method of holding for your CNC operations, or prepping stock so it's ready to load and run in your CNC.
You will also find that you will need to machine / build fixtures for any number of operations, or run off a handful of small parts you need now, but once you have a CNC set up, and proven out, you're not going to break down a set up in the middle of a job.

Series I Bridgeports weigh in at roughly 2, 000 pounds in one piece. Newer ones are lighter. My 1961 Bridgeport weighs in at 2, 200 plus pounds .
The Bridgeport mills built just after WW II are the best. Heavier castings equate to less harmonics, and longer tool life.

Many years ago, when moving my shop to a bigger building, I was so glad I had the riggers move a Series I Bridgeport in first.
That one Bridgeport, once moved and wired up, has been kept busy to this day making everything you can imagine.

From a production standpoint, I agree, you'll never make required cycle times with a manual mill, but big picture, having a good manual mill will keep your shop efficient and will expedite feeding your CNC Machining Centers.
Excellent video . I'm always keeping my eyes open for channels like yours to pass on to new people joining our trade.

Looking forward to future content. Take care

[douglaspierce]

Because I cut my teeth on a Bridgeport, I've actually run jobs similar to how I would process them on a Bridgeport. I keep small, easily to edit programs to side mill a part to length, face a part and drill\tap cycles. I've had guys tell me they can do these tasks much faster on a manual than I can with a CNC. I've accepted many a challenge and have yet to be beat

[lwilton]

For most sorts of production I can't see why you wouldn't want to go with some form of CNC machine. It can read the readout and turn the handles a lot faster and more accurately than you can.
But I'm wondering about the case where you are basically a repair shop. Everything that comes through the door is different, has to be registered and held differently, and has some different kind of machining to be done on it. And most of the time you don't have prints, you have a rusty and bent part to set up and fix. It seems to me in that case that the automatic machines lose about 90% of their cool factor, and not being able to get close to the tools and the work and feel what is happening with the cut might be a disadvantage.