Trueing Bridgeport Mill table

[binnaway]

Thanks for all the replies, I will leave well enough alone and just check for flatness and remove high spots with an oil stone.

Garry

 

[george wilson]

No one seems to have mentioned that recutting or grinding the top of the table can stress relieve it and cause the table to warp.

 

[Richard King]

George is correct. A friend of mine, Axel Fors of Fors Machine Rebuilding in Ogden UTah runs a T-Slot cutter down the peaned T-Stots on all the table before he grinds them. Archie the professor who writes on my forum says the table bends from peening and stretching the metal. I have also heard of rebuilders who flip the table over and peen the bottom and it straightens out. I tried that once on an old 36" table to see if it would bend back. It did, but it was on a machine we scraped. I would never do that to a customers machine. But George is correct, you could pull the table and have it ground and it will straighten up. A friend of mine up here in MN will grind the top and fly cut the bottom from $750.00 - 1000.00. Rich

 

[george wilson]

I once had to have the table of a little Burke #4 recut. It had warped pretty badly from tightening stuff in the T slot. Had to have both the table and the underside and dovetail recut.