Machining - Bridgeport Controls 101 ( and some other stuff )

before we go any further into this video let's just make some general assumptions of the people that are going to view it you walk up to a machine like this you know that it's a Bridgeport and all the shiny chrome knobs on it the ones on the table this guy right here moves in left and right there's one on either end this is your x-axis the one in the front there's only one crank that your y-axis moves it in and out this is for the knee you crank that the whole mechanism goes up and down we'll cover the controls on top and I'll show you some attachments that I've built and some features you may not be aware of stick around [Applause] hey guys Joe pies insky here from advanced innovations if you are watching this video you are probably new to this type of machine right here this is a nice tile vertical mill this is a Bridgeport clone and this is very much like a Bridgeport it's got all the features of Bridgeport ass without the price tag now I've been asked to do a couple of videos and one of the suggestions was review the controls on this machine because there's an awful lot of knobs and nuts and buttons and levers and if you pull the wrong one at the wrong time well you may have a problem on your hands so let's start at the top run it all the way down to the bottom and for those of you that know what this machine is stick around I'll show you what this little nifty is right here or you could just fast forward to the end of the video check it out if you're not interested in everything else this machine is a 949 Enco and nine is the width of the table and how long the table is that does not indicate how much room you have to mill does naturally the saddle here in the center is going to take up some of the stroke and the cranks cannot go beyond that and on this side where the power feed is located this unit right here will crash into the pickup scales for the digital readout underneath so you're compromised there as well starting at the top on top of the machine you have the drawbar this is a very long nut very long ride that goes all the way through the machine there's currently a collet in here when you tighten this up the collet closes squeezing the tool or whatever else you seem to be putting in there that is the most basic part of it the on/off switch on the side forward and reverse will change directions and polarity when the machine is in high or low range so depending on how your machine is wired you know which way the switch goes to get on high-speed man it almost make you dizzy you know which way to turn the switch to put it in forward and reverse and when you're in high or lower range that changes so keep that in mind and on some of these machines that are wired single-phase you can go to throw it directly into reverse and the electricity will just jump around inside there and the machine will continue to run forward which is an interesting dynamic when you're running a power tap down inside of a part and you think you're gonna back it out and it doesn't happen ask me how I know this is a three-phase motor on here and the three-phase motor will allow you to go instantly from forward to reverse so make sure whatever you're doing you know exactly what you have it and how its wired this is a variable speed machine this dial right here as you crank it clockwise or counter clockwise the speed of the machine changes it's that simple if you're in high range you look here for your basic reference speed and if you're in low range right here high and low speed on this machine can be accomplished by using this knob on the side mark the speed range high neutral and low if you want a free-will the spindle if there's something in there that you want to turn by hand like for indicating a part with an in to call on it put it in neutral and by doing that you just push on this and slide it down here until it's not in either one of the detents simple that is now in neutral you want to put it in low bring it around the back lock it in if you return it to the high range and it does not go into the high range rotate the spindle by hand and you should see this jump up into position and lock so that's high speed forward and reverse are controlled by the motor this is just high range low range on the gearing this little guy right here is the engagement lever for the power feed on the down feed okay controlled by this controlled by this controlled by this controlled by that so all of this cluster right here is basically controlled by this none of that works automatically if this is in the hand position okay once at hand and once power one you pull a lever and it goes down and in the hand position you can actually put a hand wheel on here a crank and turn it and feed the quill down now I've actually never done that I've never seen the use for it since you have a handle on the side that controls it anyway by pulling down on this handle goes down simple the machine does telescope out it can move in and out this way it is on a large dovetail underneath and that is controlled by this is a lock nut this is a lock nut and these handles right here when you crank this is like closing a big steel door gear drive mechanism underneath will move this entire head forward if you have a plate or a part that's just too wide whether it's strapped to the table or in the vise eventually when you crank the table in you're going to run out of room and if you can't reach the feature that you need to reach well then you need to telescope the head move it out these heads also have the capability to tilt this way in and out and rotate them this way quite a bit when you rotate ahead clockwise or counter clockwise these four screws here need to be unloosened but before you could do that and that rotation is controlled by this nut right here it's another gear driven mechanism like the rear end of a car as you crank this clockwise or counter clockwise the head will respond accordingly and once you get where you're going make sure that you tighten these back up same thing for the tilt mechanism in the front if you want the whole head to lift this way so that you can drill an angle hole or put a large chamfer on a part using a cutter you unloosen one of these three but actually you do it to all three and that guy right there you can see the screw mechanism down inside as you turn that the head will move and this is just a balanced ballet of moves when it comes time to tram the head when you want to make sure that this head is exactly true to this table you better have your coordination going for that day because you've got a lot going on the tilting rotation of this head can be a quite a gremlin to try to chase out my machine is set up with a curt vise this is a 675 curt vise six and three-quarter opening six inch wide I think that's what the 675 is six and three-quarter rotary table ten inch and eight all part outrigger in the back the power feet on the side has three different feed settings this is the wheel that controls the speed settings one two or three and I don't know you know if anybody does know by all means tell me what it is the one two and three is I know it's high medium and low as far as the speed range is concerned or fast medium and slow but is there a reference to the RPM of the machine I do not know if you know put it in the comment line below let me put this camera on a tripod and we'll throw a couple of switches here and show you how everything works as I know I've seen some comments about I threw the lever and nothing happened why is that let's check it out first part of engaging up our feet on the quill is to make sure that this guy in the front okay I'm standing in the operator position right here is in the power position if it's over here in the hand position none of the gears are meshed inside and you're not going to have any luck trying to turn the power on the power feed on in a previous video I showed you a collar that I put on to the bottom here to take the slop out of this make sure there's no obstruction under here or you risk stripping your gears on the head when you engage the feed we're gonna leave the setting for the down feed right where it is it's on the third position number three and I believe that is the most aggressive this handle right here this lever right here pulls in and out like that it pulls in and out actually it pulls out and in and there is a neutral position as well watch the rotation of the flange behind it as the flange is rotating clockwise the quill is going to be going down and the counter clockwise it's gonna be coming up I believe that holds true for high or low range but by all means if you're not sure bring the quill down right here you see this nut right here if this thing moving bring it down so it's about an inch off the top and bottom and then engage your power feed if there's any problems with your machine if there's no kick out in the top and you power feed up against the top well then you risk having a real problem when it comes time to saying that your gears are in good shape let's turn this machine on watch the rotation engage the feed and watch the activity - this guy right here the machine is at the high range spinning forward you can see the control knob is pushed in for a Down feed the shaft is spinning clockwise now on a bridge port I believe you need to pull down a little bit on the handle to engage it and when you engage it watch the whole shaft move up just a hair see that when those two surfaces now come together the center thumb wheel and the quill stop kick out and when it kicks out the lever is going to snap back in and the hand wheel or lever you have on the side of the machine will return to home watch your knuckles on out now the spring on my machine is set so that it returns the quill handle to the top it doesn't neutralize the weight it doesn't hang there when there's no load on this handle not just a handle I'll unlock this is the lock for the spindle up and down when i unlock this watch this take off that takes off pretty quick if it's in a full rotation and it's around the back when it comes time to return and you get your knuckles in the way you're gonna wish you didn't because it's max you're pretty good that is a down feed well it's good one upbeat alright the machine is still laid forward still in high speed by pulling out on the knob you can see it'll momentarily stall and when it's all the way out now the shaft is spinning counterclockwise when you engage the lever the feed will come up now that little knob the end has a bad habit of coming unscrewed and quite often you'll see them they're running out horribly this one is running out a little bit but they run out because when you're seating a piece on the bridge port or in the Vice you usually hit it with your hammer so don't be ashamed if that happens when you're not using it put it in neutral it's halfway between the in and the out it should not be spinning right now either way okay let's power feed it's really nothing to it this guy appear on the side that I've been grabbing unconsciously is the brake depending on how tight the band inside your machine is you'll notice that the other top side of this is usually got a fairly large radius on it that way you can crank it to one side and pull it out and it cams and it stays like that and can be a real helpful keeping the spindle locked if you don't want it to rotate okay it's canned like that for a reason it should return to the centre neutral position when you unlock it which it does okay close up on the front back that's the camp right there only after you go clockwise or counter clockwise it really doesn't matter which way you turn that it's gonna bind the spindle and lock it's not a mechanical lock it's a strap lock so if you were to accidentally hit that while the machines running it's not going to grind off anything and ruin your day these guys in the front underneath our table locks for the x axis when you Snug these up you can have a little bit more fun climb cutting because the table is not going to have a tendency don't want to run away from you a y-axis lock is on the side and the Z which is the up and down is right here in the back this is an oiler for the machine as you depress this it forces oil through all these lines right here and oils the machine she's very versatile it's really straightforward and the one thing but you know I got a part like just laying on my Gretch and this is the finished part so this is it's a good example but I'm not going to be able to cut it for you to show you it is an extremely long part and on the end we have this little ditty right here nice little cutout no big deal right set up a boring head or a fly cutter or something that come down across that but guess what we have welled relief in the face of this and there is only one way to do that two ways actually you could do it with a ninety degree head but not everybody has one so we have to stand this part up in the mill and boy that's pretty long so let me demonstrate the Outrigger that I have on this machine that was designed to be held in a card vise but you can also bolt it to the table and then I'll show you how to swing the head around you get your cutter over something like that so you can Roisin it here this particular outrigger around the end of my machine allows me to hold long pieces up to four feet actually and this particular one has just got a bump stop on the bottom and there's a pin on the very bottom for the parts that this was intended to do which are a little bit longer now you can see that there is no way this is going to go this way it's just not going to happen we've got about two inches of room on the bottom and about a two-inch long feature so be very aware if you start putting outriggers on your machine what's in the way the only way to get around this is to swing the head we need to get this over here so this is now the pretend center of the table and we can do whatever we want the machine is completely capable of doing that these two bolts and two on the other side identical will rotate the machine and if the spindle happens to be over in this area here we can then telescope out into position so let's put this on a tripod see how fast we can get that over there [Applause] very first thing I'm going to do is remove all the locking bolts not remove them but on loosen them from the side that I can access first these are the telescoping bolts there's only two and I never crushed down on these because it's actually holding on the dovetail inside I'll take them to the place where their finger tight or finger loose please also know just get I'm just going to step around the back of the machine and do these two bolts on the other side this is not a procedure that you normally have to retrain the head after you did it if you don't trust your machines by all means check it when you get there but for the most part I just returned it to zero and leave it be okay with those screws successfully removed or taken to the movable state turning this counterclockwise telescope the head forward okay see the whole head moving out and I like to use it as handlebars I'm going to take and twist the entire machine now so that it rotates and gets the spindle closer to that part if it's not start to get snug check the nuts when you're in the ballpark and you are happy with the offset alignment you are right over your part make sure that you're paying attention to what side of the slot you're on if there's any size problems down here you want to move away from any obstructions so position your tool to the outside of the part so the part movement the table movement is away from the obstruction you have everything you like I like it right where it is I will now tighten up these two on this side too on the other side and the two that assisted me and telescoping out and we'll load a slug in there and show you the alignment when you load a collet into these machines these are our eight Kaulitz there is a key in one side it will not go in unless it's correctly clocked spin it gently until it drops in okay there you go when the collet is pushed all the way up the drawbar nut on top of the machine that I showed you initially is now lifted up out of its resting position screw it down until you have a little bit of motion on the college so yep moving I'm just gonna put a stylus in here for now I don't want to put a cutter in push up on it to secure it spin it down by hand I always pull on my cutter put side load on it as I tighten up the top that keeps it from dropping out when I'm sure that the college got a good bite on it I will grab them break and drive it home [Applause] [Applause] with the head comfortably thrown I think it's pretty clear to see that we're well within the boundaries of that part and we can get that slot done no problem [Applause] there's a 29 inch long extruded piece of aluminum the machine is about 40 degrees out of skew one more and I always have a telescope marked on my machine because I I know right where everything seems to line up and be happy and that is back here so I'm about 2 and 1/2 inches forward make sure you're not going to snap any wires off I do have a power strip on the back of my machine works really well but screw this back here is for my power feed for my X table it's for my digital readout and I have two lamps plugged into it as well keeps everything nice and clean right on the back of the machine there you go guys I there have any questions about any of the other controls or nuts or levers on this machine put it in the comment line below it may look intimidating but if you know each and every one of these it's really not a big deal very versatile machine good addition to the shop if you don't have one of these long outriggers sooner or later you're going to make one like I said before this machine is usually set up with two vices two curts on there and this particular configuration is meant to be squeezed in the Curt vice and then bolt through the back so this is a really quick thing to set up very rarely do I actually bolt it directly to the table like that but this can be used in this format or 90 degrees hope that helped thanks for watching you

Channel: Joe Pieczynski

Views: 32,062

Rating: 4.9561453 out of 5

Keywords: Joe Pie, JoePieczynski, Advanced Innovations, advanced innovations llc, how to, machine shop, shop tricks, shop hacks, shop techniques, shop tutorials, milling machine tutorial, bridgeport, knee mill controls, milling machine controls, apprentice, new machinist, classroom instruction, Diresta, Furze, Ave, Ave e, Savage, milling long parts, milling machine adjustments, abom, abom79, abomb

Id: G0R-aeA6Nm0

Length: 22min 56sec (1376 seconds)

Published: Sun May 17 2020