Base Feet for a Bridgeport

Interesting thread - and timely for my next project.

Not to hijack the thread, but I would like to solicit some ideas ......

I plan to take my Induma 1-s turret mill apart (if you've never seen one, the Bridgeport is a clone of the Induma ;) - same general size but somewhat beefier and heavier), clean it, and reassemble it in my basement. Taking the base casting down the bulkhead should be a real joy.

Anyway, I had planned to bolt the base to a pair of 3x3x1/4" pieces of tubing across the narrow width. This would accomplish two things - it would raise the height of the table (I am 6'3") and it would give me enough room to slip a pallet jack under the base to allow for easy placement in the basement (I don't think I could get a forklift down there and while pipe rollers would work, pallet jacks are so much nicer to work with). I had planned to level the beast with shims, but ...

Now I just need to come up with a way to incorporate Randy's idea of tapped holes in the base to allow for leveling - maybe some sleeves welded inside the tubing for the 3/4" leveling bolts to pass through and clips to hold the tubing to the bottom of base. Or maybe I could increase the tubing to 3/8 or 1/2" wall thickness and have the tapped holes in the tubing 1-2" outboard of the side of the base?

Thoughts?

In terms of something to put under the ends of the bolts - I've always used 4x4 or 6x6" pieces of 1/4-1/2" thick steel sheet or plate (whatever I had laying around). Spot mill a 3/4" diameter x 1/6" deep depression to capture the end of the bolt and glue a piece of rubber to the bottom and you're good to goIf you go welding something onto the ends of those bolts, you can guarantee that someday you will need to back those bolts completely out for some reason. I've found that 4x4" "feet" will spread the load enough to support at least a ton per plate and not do damage to a concrete floor. Just a thought.

Brian
Taxachusetts
 
starlight_tools link=topic=1709.msg12158#msg12158 date=1303924559 said:
Personally I would be very careful using a pallet jack on a top heavy mill they can be very tippy, don't ask me how I know!
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walter, since my Millrite resides on a pallet jack, I need to hear this story!
 
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starlight_tools link=topic=1709.msg12158#msg12158 date=1303924559 said:
Brian

See this thread about putting things under a milling machine


Personally I would be very careful using a pallet jack on a top heavy mill they can be very tippy, don't ask me how I know!

Walter
Click to expand...

Walter,

I hear your pain.

I've been moving mills for years with a PJ and have yet to dump one. I almost never do it alone and move verrrrrrry sloooowwwwly. I also make sure to invert the head and lower it onto a piece of 2x10 bolted to the table surface - lowers the center of gravity considerably.

Brian
Taxachusetts
 
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Sorry mate, not repeatable!

Most of you that have been around this site, know that I am a bit opinionated, but generally a level headed guy, and will not repeat the wording that was uttered or heard.

Well when a helper tried to lift my mill with a pallet jack on a slightly less than level floor, it started to lean over and ended up resting on the end of the mill table that the powerfeed was attached, well actually it was resting on the power feed and damaged the power feed, they are not meant to support 2200 lbs. It all happened in slow motion, just like on Star Trek when in the faulty warp drive worm hole scene.

This was after the y axis powerfeed had been knocked by the forklift driver.

Two replacement drives and a collar under the switch housing and everything was back in order.

Pallet jacks have a fairly narrow wheel base and the mills are even narrower, with lots of overhang. This puts a massive amount of weight above the Centre of Gravity. I would have been better, in hindsight to have done as I originally asked the company that shipped the mill, to put 4x4s under the base that were a few feet longer on either side with forklift cutouts, so about 5 to 6 feet long and lag them through the bolt holes on the base. This would have given the mill more stability. The Kev's Bridgeport moving dolley does the same thing, extends the base dimensions so as making it more stable in moving.

The rest of the moving was done by lifting with the engine crane, setting the mill on the legs of the crane, rolling into position then setting back down on the floor. The crane hook was never removed from the mill until safely in place, thus adding a point of contact above the Centre of Gravity.

Sorry no pictures.

Walter
 
My intention is get some square tubing and build a castered base as others have illustrated. For right now this is my mobile base:
RexsMillrite.jpg

I guess I could just drill through the PJ runners and bolt it to the PJ ;D

Same for my Enco lathe. It would not take much to get that thing to fall on it's face
 
At least your millwright is sitting on the pallet jack across the base, if it comes in from the front then there is less support for the machine and as it is raised up it will allow the jack to lean over.

Saw this with a house moving the other day, they had this two story cabin sitting on a trailer behind a dump truck, no straps, bolts, chains or anything other than gravity holding it down. It was 5 to 5 feet wider than the trailer and sitting on a couple of timbers that were used to raise it up from the foundation on. I thought they were going to loose it at one point, it was leaning over probably 15 to 20 degrees and swaying as the trailer wheel dropped inot a dip in the ground, timbers creaked and groaned, but it stayed on the trailer. I heard afterwards that the owner lost continence about that time.
 
Thought I'd throw this in the mix. I'm doing a tear down, cleaning and paint that's why it's looks like a mess. I made this base years ago and had casters under it. Waste of time trying to move it. Once I was introduced to pallet jacks my life has changed. I added the feet and allowed enough room for a narrow pallet jack (21"). Now that I have a permanent shop I'll get it as low as possible since I'm not worried about moving it.

BP_Base.jpg
 
My old BP base was threaded when I got it. I figured they came that way. Mine had two threaded rods but two were missing. The two I had had flats on top for a wrench, so I copied that. I will at some point pull them and weld a nut to the tops so that I can use a ratchet or a better wrench. But the crescent wrench got the job done. Made leveling easy. Also useful to raise the BP high enough to get pipes under the base so that I can move the machine myself.
 
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