I am going to look at a bridgeport"HELP"

Seriously listen to the advice other members have already posted. Even for CHEAP don't buy it. Keep looking and spend a little more money for a nice J-head with R-8.
That's quite a bit of work to move that Mill and at the end of the day as you tear it apart to fix one problem you will just probably continue to find other items to fix and by the time you are done you could have had a far superior J head.
 
It is my understanding that parts for an M series mill are a little on the hard side to find. I also have to agree that a Series 1 would be a better buy. I bought my Series 1 for $1,200, which I thought was a good buy and then found that I needed new bearings through out the upper end as well as spindle bearings. That was an added cost of $400. So if you buy too high and need to do repairs it starts to become a money pit. I really don't think that there is a real high demand for the M, just my opinion.

So to get to the point I think you should keep looking.

Paul
 
I do appreciate the replies , I have put off looking at it for a while, I will still look at it though, just out of curiosity. Thanks for the input.
 
Back in the late 90`s I picked up a very nice series 1 cnc Bridgeport. The slides all still had deep scrapings. And EVERYTHING was tight for 5000.00. You can get a strip down model 2014 for 9000. So you do the math.
 
I bought an M-head with a short table and a broken head casting for $300. Basically scrap price. If you get one in running order, with a vise and some tooling, $500 might be reasonable. It will not have an R-8 taper as the spindle is too small. Most are Morse #2, some are Brown and Sharp #7, a few are a proprietary B'Port taper that looks like a miniature R-8. They are all limited to a 1/2" shank. No back gears. No power downfeed. Quill travel is only about 3 inches.

I would probably compare it more to a small Rockwell mill, or the smaller Asian mills, than to a J-head B'Port. Useful within it's capabilities. M-head parts tend to require some scrounging. The spindle bearing setup is a bit odd. But there is far less mechanism to go wrong than in a J-head.

Make sure to read up on how the spindle bearing lubrication system is supposed to work. That drip oiler feeds oil to the front pulley bearings and from there down into the upper and lower spindle bearings, and then slung off the spindle nose into your face.

am
 
Well I have commited to a 1963 J-head from a friend ....it needs a major clean-up other than that I am taking him at his word that all is well....It hasn't been run in ages and I am hoping I can run it off my lathes static converter without too much difficulty. Don't know if there is a vice or any tooling, it could be buried somewhere in his shop , he is not sure at this point he hasn't done much in there for quite a long timeso it is possible ......I dread moving it but move it I must
 
Regardless of the condition of the J head you will be much happier. You may need to invest some labor or parts at worst but you will have a waaaaay better machine than that M head. Congrats on a wiser choice.

Cheers
Darrell
 
Thanks Darrell, That's why sites like this and the internet in general are so awesome , I get the information I need in a timely manner.I've already got the manual and the year it was made. I can't wait to get into it and throw some chips, another ton of funI'll need to get some r8 collets I have cutters. I'll post some pics later this week hopefully
 
You don't want machines that are being used as benches. The table has to be trashed with all that crap stored on it. The mill looks pretty crap anyway.

Scrap value machine...

John
 
+1 what comstock-friend said.

If you can get that one for about 10 cents a pound, then you can probably make some money on it by dropping it at the scrap yard on your way back home. Looks like cast is going for about 75 cents/lb right now.
 
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