Member postings for _Paul_

What type of Bridgeport? a J head? they are the most popular.

Height around 7 foot, varies with motor type "pancake" motor being the shortest

Weight around a ton, varies with table size and or other bolt ons

Power between 1-1/2 to 2hp for a Varispeed.

"4KW rotary phase inverter" do you perhaps mean "Convertor"? if so that should be fine, you can use an Inverter but then as the BP has more than one three phase motor....

Try to get a step belt head machine they are less problematical than the Varispeed version and cheaper to repair, generally watch out for spindle noise and bearing play a set of Abec 7 bearings could cost you > £300

Then it's the usual things: wear on the ways leadscrew wear fine feed mechanism faults etc, the list goes on.

Skip across to the Bridgeport Forum on Practical Machinist lots of good info on what to look for when buying cheap BP's

Paul

Clive I do like your optical centre height indicator I can think of a situations when that will be handy, I do have a question though when cutting the mirror to size is that classed as breaking said mirror and subject to the superstitious 7 years bad luck?

Paul

I wonder if caustic soda is an element of the bleaching/whitening agents in your paper?

Paul

I use up to 16mm tooling in the holders I have for my 4-1/2" Model "A".

Some of my holders are genuine Aloris/PhaseII and natively allow 16mm tooling, all my homemade one's are 16mm the far eastern imports have around a 13mm slot in them.

(image courtesy of Shars Tool)

Have a look at the Aloris Catalogue for some more sizes

It's easy to vary the height of the holder by it's adjustable knurled ring and locknut for the amount of travel allowed by the toolpost block height it doesnt just sit at the bottom.

Paul

Some will and some wont I have two 1/3 hp coolant pumps which are wired Delta but wont start or run on any capacitor setup yet will run quite happily on an Inverter...

I found the table in Jim's book to be a bit "off" and had to do as Neil says some experimentation with values to get the running voltage close to equal on all three legs.

In another book in the Workshop Practice series the author Graham Asterbury uses a better formula for calculating the required capacitance, I found it gave more accurate results than the tables in Jim Cox's books.

Paul

Warning always discharge the caps before working on your circuit.

The only machining required to fit an AXA size QCTP is to machine a step into the supplied separate bolt base to suit your topslide slot.

This particular pic is of a "Craftsman" lathe but shows the operation required.

Paul

I have two Aloris/PhaseII type AXA size on a 4-1/2" Model "A" Boxford one back and one front and make a lot of my own holders which are not too hard to manufacture unlike the Dickson type which are a little too intricate.

Here is a UK supplier Arceurotrade

Paul

If its a 6F power feed these people are good to deal with Sorted

spring prices dont seem too salty.

Regards

Paul

lol

You can never have enough of these, so made a couple more

Paul

This diagram (courtesy of Sir John Stevenson) is for a Myford ER32 Chuck it gives you an idea of whats involved to make one.

By turning the chuck on the machine that you will be using it on should ensure that you will get the best concentricity your machine is capable of.

They are not difficult to make but try to select some decent steel to make it from and probably the trickiest part is getting the taper right.

Collet nuts as previously mentioned the ball bearing types have a greater clamping force and are quite reasonably priced at Arceurotrade that said it takes quite a bit of force for a standard nut to let the work slip.

You will find a lot of info and help on the Homeshopmachinist forums heres a starter ER40 Chuck

Regards

Paul

I have personally converted a quite a few 400/415v motors from Star to Delta by picking out the "Star points", and all work very well on 240 single to 240v 3 phase Teco inverters.

If you feel qualified to do this yourself there are some good books on the subject in the Workshop Practice rage by Jim Cox, there is also in the same range a book by Graham Asterbury which again explains the process quite well.

Please be aware though that these voltages can kill you, if unsure please consult a qualified electrician.

Paul

I had a similar issue in the end I turned the pins to suit the size of the Knurling wheel and just ran with the pins being a couple of thou slack in the arms seems to work OK.

Paul

Vista gives this error:

Runtime error 339

Component 'tabctl32.ocx' not correctly registered: file missing or invalid.

Paul

Try a drop of cellulose thinners.

Paul

Apologies for raising one of John's old threads from the dead but Toolstation have Cementone Brick & Patio Cleaner 5L on offer for £6.73 spend over a tenner and the delivery is free.

Paul

If the spacer is loose it looks like your bearings are dud, it's the bearings pressing on the outer spacer that gives them light preload.

Both spacers should be the same length preload is provided by the bearing.

Depending on how long yours has run loose these spacers may have now suffered some wear, thankfully they aren't that expensive to replace try "Sorted.co.uk" for prices.

Bearings prices are a different matter £200 to £300 for something the correct Abec 7 spec 2MM207WIDUL is the Fafnir designation.

You do occasionally see new old stock on Fleabay.

Paul

Nearly forgot to mention make sure you have the quill lock on as once you take off the stop knob and screw there is nothing to stop the quill coming right out other than the handle clock spring and if that is jiggered....out drops the quill in the process this will damage the quill skirt.

Paul

You will be OK nothing else will drop off, the quill skirt is held on the quill by a couple of screws which you access from the top after taking the head off.

As you only taking out the spindle this will not be affected.

When disassembling the quill stop screw assembly what you may find and it’s quite common is the reverse trip ball lever is broken, all it takes is for the quill stop screw circlip to pop and the screw drops snapping the ball lever off, getting the remains out can sometimes be a pig.

Regards

Paul