chinese mill questions

[dcheff]

I recently bought a bigger and better mill for my shop, since buying it though I have found a few problems. It is a chinese mill model 100-1588 the same as the enco mill. It has a bridgeport variable speed head on it.

1. The gear behing the head that rotates the head left and right is missing, the machine cam with the articulating joint for a bridgeport but the gear is to small for the base and the joint is smaller than the one that is on it. So where can i get one of these gears?

2. the knee handle is missing, I called up enco but they want 250 for a handle, that seems a bit excessive to me.

3. I am also looking for a 2 axis digital readout for this machine.

dan.

 

[darkzero]

Maybe these guys can help with getting you the gear for your BP head and maybe even a knee handle. http://www.machinerypartsdepot.com/

MSC has the knee handle for $85 but it looks like you have to buy the knob seperately or make one.

There's some on ebay for much cheaper.

Or you can try placing a classified ad in the Wanted section.

 

[dcheff]

thanks, I will check those guys out tomorrow.

 

[cotherman]

2. the knee handle is missing, I called up enco but they want 250 for a handle, that seems a bit excessive to me.
dan.

One of the guys with a YouTube channel put up a video of making a knee handle. It was VERY simple to make, but I can't remember who did it! mrpete222 is who I think it was.

 

[george wilson]

Grizzly sells a knee handle for Bridgeport knock offs for $15.00,minus the actual little handle you put your hand on. That's a few dollars more. I bought one. Had to run a reamer through the hole due to the chrome plating making the hole a smidge too small. It fit my mill perfectly. Probably made of cast iron,so don't drop it. The original handle was cast iron,too. A tooth broke off when it got dropped by the president of the museum!! He was cranking on the knee,and didn't realize the handle was removable. No biggie.

 

[sdunt]

One source for gears, IF you can not find the exact replacement is: https://sdp-si.com/eStore/Catalog

 

[lens42]

Here's a cute way of making the knee crank gear. It's not as complex as it looks:

http://www.frets.com/HomeShopTech/Tooling/MillHandwheel/handwheel.html

 

[johnnyc14]

I have started making a knee handle for my Bridgeport clone and used pretty much the same method as shown in the link. I used a piece of 1.75" stainless steel about 2.25" long. The od of the machine's knee handle spines is 1 5/8" so I machined one end of the piece to 1.7" and stepped it down to 1.5" the other end. I drilled a 1/2" hole all the way through the bored the one end of the hole to .625", the size of the shaft on the machine to a depth of 1.7", the length of the shaft on the machine. I then opened that hole up to .700" to a depth of 1.7" for clearance at the spine end. Then I set it up in my super spacer and milled 9 slots using a 3/16" end mill at .165" deep. I found I had to open the slots up by milling each one 4 degrees on each side of 40 degrees. To be clear, I milled the first slot a 36 degrees in .030" increments to a depth of .165 then rotated the table to 44 degrees and made a single pass through the slot to open it up to fit the spines on the machine. Hopefully the pictures will make this all clear. The splines fit the machine like a glove, I still have to finish it with a hex milled on the opposite end of the splines and a 1/2" square hole to fit a drill driver. I will post this in more detail in my Ferro Mill thread when I get the handle finished.

John