What's this Bridgeport worth?

@G-ManBart Of the hundreds of J head Bridgeport machines I have seen in Canada, all were 2HP, or were converted by the mill owner to something else. I cannot speak for other jurisdictions, so I may be wrong for the U.S.
 
That is called a Tru Trace Bridgeport FWIW . Been obsolete for decades . They also had a Line-a-matic which followed a drawn template . Once again , obsolete . The value of a regular BP or clone is their versatility which the mill you're looking at does not have . Is it worth $1000 to me ? No , I'm not in need of a boat anchor . Keep looking for a knee mill . :)
 
As mentioned, H&W and other places sell reconditioned Bridgeports in the $5,500 - $7,500 range that are very close to a new machine.
Dabbler said:
@G-ManBart Of the hundreds of J head Bridgeport machines I have seen in Canada, all were 2HP, or were converted by the mill owner to something else. I cannot speak for other jurisdictions, so I may be wrong for the U.S.
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I highly doubt Bridgeport made step-pulley J heads with a higher horsepower motor for places outside of the U.S....that makes zero sense at all considering their primary market was the U.S.

I'm helping a buddy shop for a Bridgeport right now and we looked at five or six step-pulley J-head Bridgeports in the past week and all had 1hp motors on them. Before that I've probably looked at maybe a hundred others that all had 1hp motors. M heads had 1/2hp motors, so it was a big jump to 1hp with the J head. The first Vari-speed 2J heads were 1-1/2HP and the subsequent 2J2 got a 2hp motor. The 1-1/2hp and 2hp motors are nearly twice as tall as the 1hp motors and are very easy to spot.

H&W should be considered a fairly reliable source of knowledge....their page on determining what model Bridgeport only mentions 1hp for the step-pulley versions.

Bridgeport Type

machinerypartsdepot.com machinerypartsdepot.com
 
The only rationale for this is that they were competing with the Quebec - made Excello BP clone which included 2HP and 3HP step pulley heads as standard (depending on the year). Importers here must have regularly ordered the 2HP version - I have only seen a single 1HP BP J head ever, and thought it was just weird.
 
I saw one at the scrap yard a couple years ago and sang Dionne Warwick's song "walk on by" as I rummaged along through the treasures.
 
Provincial said:
About the lack of a tilting head:

Just how often would you tilt the head? I have run machines that did not have the head tilted in years.

Some jobs that are done with a head tilted can also be done with a fixed head if the work is positioned to the angle instead of clamped square and the head tilted.

The extra work and expense may not be necessary if you do not need the head to tilt.
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Better to have it and not need it (very often) than to need it and not have it?
 
It would probably make a great donor mill for a CNC conversion. That being said, I wouldn't pay more than a grand for it.
 
Dabbler said:
The only rationale for this is that they were competing with the Quebec - made Excello BP clone which included 2HP and 3HP step pulley heads as standard (depending on the year). Importers here must have regularly ordered the 2HP version - I have only seen a single 1HP BP J head ever, and thought it was just weird
(depending on the year). Importers here must have regularly ordered the 2HP version - I have only seen a single 1HP BP J head ever, and thought it was just weird.
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There was no such thing as a 2hp version of the J head they could have ordered.

Bridgeport made the J head with a 1hp 1800 rpm motor. There was an unusual variation that offered a 3600rpm motor that was rated at 1.5hp, but they are very uncommon and the available RPM choices are double, so nobody is going to be confused by one. Both of these had step pulleys with a total of 8 speeds.

The next model was the first Varispeed version which is the 2J1 that had a 1.5hp motor and can be spotted by the circular dial on the face of the head showing the RPM selection.

The next was the later/current Varispeed version which is the 2J2 with a 2hp motor that can be spotted by the square (ish) display with two windows showing the RPM selection having back gear speed on the left and direct drive speed on the right.

All of these heads will have a J prefix serial number on them regardless of version, and that seems to confuse many people....a 2J2 will just have Jxxxxx as a serial number, not 2Jxxxx.

J heads had a smaller spindle and bearings than the Varispeed models with 1.5 or 2hp motors....you can't even take the 2hp motor off a 2J2 head and mount it on a J head.

Go to the Hardinge website and look at the parts manuals for the Bridgeport machines and the possibilities they list. There is no mention of a J head with anything other than 1hp. I don't believe that Hardinge is unaware of a J head step-pulley 2hp version and they're just ignoring that it existed....certainly not one sold in the numbers you're suggesting.
 
You have made me question the commonality of 2HP BP heads, but the ones I converted to VFD and the last one I helped sell (with a 32" table) were all 2HP motors. I cannot explain the discrepancy. I admit I assumed based on my experience that they *all* were.

And I am also convinced by the HW chart that there aren't common enough to consider for their charts.

For instance, the multi-head BP doesn't appear on their charts. I've seen 2 of those in Alberta alone.

I don't want to haggle about right-and-wrong. You're right there's no evidence from your researches showing 2HP heads except on Series 2. I know what I've converted. We'll just have to leave it at that.
 
Okay, I've been in touch with the nice folks at H&W, and it's looking like this purchase is never going to happen. I sent them the picture that I attached to my post #1, and from their immediate observation this is a unit that cannot reasonably be converted to a conventional knee mill. First question they asked was did it have the long bed (i.e., greater than 48"), which it does. Evidently, control end caps are either not available or non-existent for this size bed, so for starters it would require a new or reconditioned shorter one. (Not gonna happen.)

Their number 1 expert on these conversions is out on a job and will contact me when he returns, but the person I talked to was one step removed from absolutely certain a conversion could never be done on this machine without a prohibitively high expenditure of both time and money. I'll wait to hear from the expert, but H&W seems very certain that this falls into the dreaded category of what they described as 'boat anchor' (their term). I don't have a boat.

Just for clarification, I am not actively in the market for a mill. I have a very nice Vectrax with all the bells and whistles that I bought not too long ago. If I were looking for a plug-and-go machine, this one wouldn't even be on the radar screen. My main interest in this machine was: a. an enviably low cost of getting into a pristine Bridgeport, and b. having the opportunity to rebuild/modify it. Sounds like neither goal is attainable with this machine. I'm glad I initiated this post. I definitely would not have purchased this without some expert advice and no way would I be anywhere near $5K, but everyone's advice - both pro's and con's - gave invaluable information that pointed me in the right direction. H-M rules.

Regards
 
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