[chris123]

Hello

I'm only a newbie to large mills, I have converted a desktop mill to CNC
Can old bridgeport mill be converted to CNC and is it worth it?

[tpmx57]

I feel you would be better off to purchase a cnc to start with and if need be retrofit it.
You can get some good deals on used machines right now.
Good iron to start with.
Could be something as simple as adding a breakout board and running it off a pc with anyone of the available softwares out there.
I have a series II that I put one of Dereks breakout boards on and run it off Mach 3.
That is if the original drives and steppers are still good.
Mine works great.
The other option would be to strip it and retrofit to either servos or steppers
with geckos or some other drives.
This way the ballscrews and all are already there.
Just my 2cents.

[chris123]

remember I am from Australia not the US
Not many good deals on used machines here

[tpmx57]

Sorry,didn,t look to see where you were located.
I bet Australia is a beautiful country.
Ill swap you my machine for a piece of ground over there.

[ichudov]

Can you convert an old manual Bridgeport to CNC? Yes, you can.

Is it worth doing? No, it is not worth doing, in my opinion, as you would end up with something not as good. It is fun, and educational, but the result just would not be as fully capable as a real CNC machine. But it would work, people do it all the time.

I would also wait and look for a real CNC machine that you can retrofit.

Even if I was in Australia.

i

[chris123]

What's an example of a "real" CNC machine?

[79TigerPilot]

You can convert a BP or clone to CNC. I have a 1966 J head step pulley I converted over the past couple of years. I am cutting parts with it but haven't finished up the electronics cabinet yet. In my view the largest drawback to a manual mill conversion is the BP's lack of ball screws and the lack of any sort of chip/coolant containment cabinet. In general you are stuck with an R8 tooling system as well.

My initial plan was to just use the Acme screws with some modifications to the standard BP acme nut to control backlash but this didn't work out well and I ended up buying a set of ball screws. Still need to build an automatic draw bar and figure out some sort of containment cabinet. My stepper motor conversion was fairly straight forward, I was able to build the motor mounts on the mill before I took it all apart for the restoration and conversion. Conversion Pictures: Picasa Web Albums CNC Mill Project
Was a fun project.
Craig

[chris123]

That's some excellent work
How well does it work?

[mactec54]

chris123

If you can find a Boss 5 in Aus that would be a good starting point, but a manual mill will convert quite well as well, look in my gallery photos this was a Boss 5 I did some major work on it,& it's been a great machine, a rigid ram is a good choice if you can find one

The manual Bridgeport or others, will have a longer X axes travel than the Boss 5 machines, They only have 18in in the X axes, But they do have a better Knee,saddle, & table, than the manual machine

- My Photo Gallery

[ichudov]

Here's the CNC mill that I bought. It had a bad Heidenhain control, which was cost prohibitive to repair.

Bridgeport Series II Interact 2 CNC Mill

I refitted it with a AMC servo drives, PC and Linux based free program EMC2.

i

[79TigerPilot]

It's been working great, has more capability than I know how to use. The ball screws really make this a nice machine, back lash is very low. Cut some brass guides for a friends log splitter today.

I really have to finish up the e-cabinet so I can get all nice features like spindle rpm control and probing working.

Craig

That's some excellent work
How well does it work?

[chris123]

Tempting

[BrianP]

what would be involved in upgrading the controls on a Bridgeport Interact 1 MK2 mill or would it be cost prohibitive. The machine is brand new but I have had no luck in getiing the spindle to turn on, all I get is spindle faults, the table and quill does zero though.

[ichudov]

what would be involved in upgrading the controls on a Bridgeport Interact 1 MK2 mill or would it be cost prohibitive. The machine is brand new but I have had no luck in getiing the spindle to turn on, all I get is spindle faults, the table and quill does zero though.

This seems to be more of the kind of a problem that should be easily troubleshooted. I would not upgrade the control, yet, solely because somehow it cannot get the spindle motor to run.

What have you done to troubleshoot it?

i

[nokillzone]

any progress on your work ?

I'm interested in your Z assembly.

You can convert a BP or clone to CNC. I have a 1966 J head step pulley I converted over the past couple of years. I am cutting parts with it but haven't finished up the electronics cabinet yet. In my view the largest drawback to a manual mill conversion is the BP's lack of ball screws and the lack of any sort of chip/coolant containment cabinet. In general you are stuck with an R8 tooling system as well.

My initial plan was to just use the Acme screws with some modifications to the standard BP acme nut to control backlash but this didn't work out well and I ended up buying a set of ball screws. Still need to build an automatic draw bar and figure out some sort of containment cabinet. My stepper motor conversion was fairly straight forward, I was able to build the motor mounts on the mill before I took it all apart for the restoration and conversion. Conversion Pictures: Picasa Web Albums CNC Mill Project
Was a fun project.
Craig