Bridgeport

This playlist tells the story of our journey to learn and explore with a Bridgeport milling machine, in fast motion.  We purchased the mill at a machinery auction and moved it back to our workshop.  Once we fully inspected the mill, we realized it was in bad shape and would need a lot of work.  The dream was as follows: 

• Completely take it apart it and clean everything 
• Learned how to hand scrape and rework the ways
• Smooth out, fill in, and paint non-bearing surfaces
• Convert drive to a DC motor powered from a 24V battery bank

For now most of that dream has materialized.  Everything but the head was taken apart, cleaned, and painted.  This machine was not cleaned for some time and it was loaded with dirty grease.  A new gib was needed for the saddle/knee dovetail and a handle for the table x leadscrew.  We're putting the hand scraping on hold for now.   The time required to learn and practice such a fine art with a lack of reference tools places this endeavour out of our reach.

After reassembly, an adapter plate was made to fit the mill with a 1 HP PMDC motor.  The motor is currently powered from a 24VDC battery bank charged from an off-grid 800W PV array.  A custom Arduino based low-voltage DC speed controller was built, offering more access and control to the mill's functionality.

The story doesn't end here.  More to come.