Milling Machine Advice - Looking at a used machine

Hi Jake- Personally I would avoid the variable speed BPs, although many like them. The variable speed mech can be difficult and expensive to rebuild.
Less to go wrong with the step pulley models. They are somewhat large like others have mentioned.
I'm also a fan of the shorter tables like 32" and 36", although 42" is the most common
Bridgeport is actually considered small compared to heftier ones like Cincinnati and Gorton. Some say a Gorton will spoil you for anything else
-Mark
 
Of course it is very difficult to fully assess a machine by looking at photos, but that appears to be a very nice machine. It has a lot going for it, drives on all three axis, DRO, power draw bar, table looks very nice, chrome ways on the Y axis look pretty decent. I would say it is well worth taking the drive. I have my BP in a very small shop and it has worked out well. Setting it up in a corner is often a good solution. I have mine set up so that the max X axis travel to the left stops about 1/2" from one wall and with the ram in the full back position, it is also about 1/2" from the adjacent wall. You just have to make the best use possible of your space.

Ted
 
Jake,
If I were in a different situation, I would already be in my truck and headed to look at this unit. The huge dimensions are a condition if you plan to mill something that takes up the entire X axis, but really, most only use about 1/3 of that for 90% of the projects if even.

As you stated, you have in mind to build a larger shop or addition. You can surely make this work in you current shop until then. I would not trade this type of unit for any of these Asian machines out there.
 
Some things to think about when buying used. I maybe like you are 100% novice to everything machining. I bought a used mill and a used lathe. Both of them 3 Phase. I started with the Lathe so I just got and VFD(around $500) and thought that would be enough, but then I also wanted the mill so I bought it and got an RPC ($900) and put in on casters. If I buy any more 3 phase stuff I can just use the one RPC. So that's my first tip. If your getting used 3 phase stuff and don't have 3 phase in your shop. Buy and RPC OR expect to put a VFD on every tool.

How much time do you have? For me used equipment has always taken me infinitely more time to get up and going. It took me about 6 months to get everything figured out with the VFD. Obviously not 6 months straight of working on it, but it was around Nov when I got the lathe and with all the holidays, work, a little travel, other odd jobs etc. the time just past. At the end of the 6 months I literally got the lathe turning, did my happy dance, and then had to move on to other things. I think another 4 months past and I finally got time to work on it and made a bushing and some barrel hinges. All that is to say if I would have bought a new single phase smaller machine I could have probably had my bushing and barrel hinges already done in month one. It doesn't make new better or old better one just would have gotten me to my result much faster.
The mill is the same problem. I got an amazing deal on my mill but I have yet to complete one project on it. A company was moving locations and they where trying to move as little of the big equipment as possible. So I got a great deal on it. I got it home but I wasn't ready to order the RPC yet so I took 5 months to order the RPC. Then the RPC got delivered and I was surprised to find there was actually a lot more assembly required than I was expecting for the RPC ( which might mean I order the wrong one because I didn't know what I was doing and was on a limited budget). I had to order some cables, the plugs that were on the machine where some kind of industrial plug I've never even seen before, etc. Another 9 months passed and I finally got the Mill turning. Again the happy dance and I moved on. I got a vise for my birthday and was pretty excited to use the mill on a project I was working on only to find I had the wrong hardware to mount the vise... ordered the right hardware got it in and secured down, and was just about to start in on the project when something failed in the DRO and I got no display. The DRO was old as dirt and I check everything. Fuse was fine... inspected connections on the main board power was coming in transformers were outputting correctly and I couldn't track down the failure. I hooked up a power supply to display and fed it the the same voltage that was on the mainboard and nothing. The DRO was old enough I couldn't find parts for it. I did find a replacement head unit on Ebay for $1000, but I didn't want to buy the head unit only to find more problems when I hooked it up. So that brings us to today. I'm actively trying to decided what DRO to get. I've asked for advice. I've looked at new units from DRO Pros and been thinking about Touch DRO but ultimately it's been 2 years since I purchased the mill and I've done squat on it. I've got 2 pages of projects on it I would like to do but I have allowed the DRO to stall me out completely. I know I can do some of them without the DRO I just haven't done it.

So that long story brings you to point 2. Do you have the free time for used equipment? There are a wide list of things that can help you lower your time to work with used equipment. And the one that is the most valuable and will save you the most time is FRIENDS who know what they are doing. The internet is great and full of helpful people but it can't replace real experience and real friends. I have neither real experience nor friends, that are even remotely interested in machining. I live about 20 min. from anywhere so even if I did have a friend it would probably be asking a lot for them to "pop over" on a Saturday for a beer and advice. I don't even drink so the few friends I do have know that if I'm inviting them over it's to work. So they avoid me and rightfully so. I'm kind of a workaholic. I don't know if that's good or bad but I think I've learned that because of my time a smarter man than me should have bought new so the time to attempting projects was shorter.

Don't get me wrong. I kind of love my huge lathe and mill. I love that they are massive. I love that they are older. I love that I could probably make my own tank with them, and they aren't for sale... yet ... lol. But I wish somebody would have laid this out for me like this before I purchased so that's why I'm hoping this might be helpful to you.
 
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I also have a full-size BP copy. It's in the corner of a 9x12 room, with my SB Heavy 10 lathe against the opposite wall. The lathe is far enough from the wall that I can get behind it if necessary. I actually removed the crank handle on the left end of the 42" mill table to avoid hitting the wall. With toolbox, bench and surface plate I still have room to move. It's not quite a "turn around kitchen", but close. I suggest you make scale layout of your space and the footprint of the machines your are considering. It will help to visualize the arrangement and clearances.

Regarding 3 phase, there is a third option. Static phase convertors can be had very cheaply. I bought one to hold me over until I got my rotary convertor. After listening to the whine of the 7.5 hp RPC (which wasn't in the same room) and listening to my wife whine after we got the electric bill, I took the RPC offline and put the SPC back in service. There is a power penalty with an SPC, but I haven't noticed it.
 
Funny mine is about 5 foot deep
84 inches high (7 ft.) and 6 foot wide.
I have the big table so I set it up in the corner.
A Bridgeport is the MOST versatile machine ever built...
 
Valid points about used but like most of life, the tradeoff is time vs money. A new mill for similar quality with dro, feeds, and drawbar will run in the 15K range. Taiwan mills are pretty good and new is new, although there are lots of threads about problems with new machines. I've bought about 50 used machines over the years and some can be a rat hole but if condition is good and you feel good about the seller being a straight shooter, there is reward. A guy who takes care of stuff and is honest about the good and bad of the machine shaves the odds of failure considerably.

The power feeds are add on and can be run separately from the vfd needed for the three phase motor so another 250-300 gets you into the vfd plus wiring. Make sure the spindle is quiet and the reeves drive is functioning. If not, there is always another machine. Dave
 
MrWhoopee said:
I also have a full-size BP copy. It's in the corner of a 9x12 room, with my SB Heavy 10 lathe against the opposite wall. The lathe is far enough from the wall that I can get behind it if necessary. I actually removed the crank handle on the left end of the 42" mill table to avoid hitting the wall. With toolbox, bench and surface plate I still have room to move. It's not quite a "turn around kitchen", but close. I suggest you make scale layout of your space and the footprint of the machines your are considering. It will help to visualize the arrangement and clearances.

Regarding 3 phase, there is a third option. Static phase convertors can be had very cheaply. I bought one to hold me over until I got my rotary convertor. After listening to the whine of the 7.5 hp RPC (which wasn't in the same room) and listening to my wife whine after we got the electric bill, I took the RPC offline and put the SPC back in service. There is a power penalty with an SPC, but I haven't noticed it.
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Static Phase Converter.... the good thing about being a dumb redneck like me is I learn something new every day ;-)
 
I put a VFD on mine for less than two hundred bucks
 
Beckerkumm said:
Valid points about used but like most of life, the tradeoff is time vs money. A new mill for similar quality with dro, feeds, and drawbar will run in the 15K range. Taiwan mills are pretty good and new is new, although there are lots of threads about problems with new machines. I've bought about 50 used machines over the years and some can be a rat hole but if condition is good and you feel good about the seller being a straight shooter, there is reward. A guy who takes care of stuff and is honest about the good and bad of the machine shaves the odds of failure considerably.

The power feeds are add on and can be run separately from the vfd needed for the three phase motor so another 250-300 gets you into the vfd plus wiring. Make sure the spindle is quiet and the reeves drive is functioning. If not, there is always another machine. Dave
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I agree with you 100%, but I personally as a Hobbiest sometimes forget what my time is actually worth. Or even worse I assign my hobby time has having $0 per hour of worth. That simply isn't true. That "time, money, speed pick 2" thing isn't quite as cut and dry and everybody makes it out to be. At least not for me. I just really feel like the only advice I received over the internet was "buy used it's better quality and you get more value for your money" or "buy once cry once". That advice to be clear is correct. I never actually had somebody say to me " just buy and cheap new one, learn on it, and when it breaks or when you out grow it with projects then give it away and upgrade. The cost of a cheap new is actually the cost of education. " So I guess what I'm trying to do here is throw in a comment that I wish somebody would have said to me as I started. I had the money, but if you calculate what my odd job $ per hour worth is. I could have bought the cheap junk messed around with it, (and completed the same projects I have already done, for the same amount of time and still afforded to upgrade to the used equipment I have now. I'm really hoping that when I retire maybe there will be a shift in available time and I'll have to reset the whole calculation, but I've got a minimum of another 10 years before I can even look at retiring. I really hope my comments help the Original Poster. I'm not actually saying he should go one way or the other, but rather take a much harder look at what his needs really are.
 
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