bridgeport ceiling clearance

I know I could just go do some measuring, but hoping someone could answer this before I get the chance to do that. I am not in the shop and the mill is in storage not in the shop yet either, so...

I am playing with layouts of my shop and thinking of moving the Bridgeport from where I had originally planned to underneath the loft.

I don't know how tall a BP is off hand, or how much room I need to be able to extract the drawbar without tilting the head.

My "ceiling" under the loft is 8'6", but it is an "open" ceiling so there is probably another 6-8" in between joists. So, I should have almost 9' of ceiling height. I would think this should be more than enough, but I may be wrong.

I am hoping to start moving equipment into place within the end of the month, but things always seem to keep getting delayed...

JW

Reply to
Jeridiah
Loading thread data ...

Reply to
Grant Erwin

My BP sits on 4" high feet under an 8' ceiling and there is enough room to remove the drawbar.

Randy

Reply to
Randal O'Brian

You also want about an 8 x 8 ft footprint space.

Reply to
Richard J Kinch

Yeah, I had that from previous measurements. I have been playing the CAD shuffle game for awhile, so I have the footprints(working window) of all of my machines.

Just wasn't sure on that 3rd D. :) Didn't feel like doing the whole shop in solid.

JW

Reply to
Jeridiah

For what it's worth, my Bridgie is sitting in a space in the shop where there isn't enough room to get the drawbar out vertically.

I haven't yet needed to remove it. If and when I do, I'll drop the head to one side, do what I need to do, raise the head, then re-tram.

Reply to
Nigel Eaton

Never do this (put it in such a location) with a 30 taper machine.

Gunner

"There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism - by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide." - Ayn Rand, from "Foreign Policy Drains U.S. of Main Weapons"

Reply to
Gunner

Why not? My Bridgeport Series I (CNC) has a 30-taper spindle, with a quick-change Erickson nose. It uses no drawbar normally, and the spindle was too gunked up to have a chance to use it with a drawbar when I first got it. (I still plan to put in a drawbar when I use the boring head and other things with serious unbalanced loads, but for normal end mills, the quick-change locking ring seems to suffice.

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

For most scroungers the two draw bolt diamters of 1/2" and 3/8" means that if you manage to scounge up Cat30, and NNTP30 and Standard30 taper tooling etc, you will be changing draw bolts occasionally. While my single Cat30 holder with collets generally gets me through the job, I occasionally have to install a standard 30 endmill holder or other type of tool and this means swapping out the drawbolt. I made a holder on the side of the machine just to hold it, and they are color coded.

Your Ericson taper is a good rig, but others have to get by with the usual mix and match

My Clausing horizontal has two threaded sections on the drawbolt for this exact thing and Ive considered making a new general purpose one for the big Gorton. Im fortunate tthat all my mills except one, use 30 whatever taper tooling.

Gunner

"There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism - by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide." - Ayn Rand, from "Foreign Policy Drains U.S. of Main Weapons"

Reply to
Gunner

[ ... ]

O.K. I can sympathize with that. I've been known to take a CAT-30 and pop it in the lathe to turn the flange down to the proper dimensions for the Erickson spindle to handle.

[ ... ]

While I've got a mix. The Bridgeport takes 30-taper, while the much smaller Nichols takes 40-taper (though it will accept a 30-taper with an adaptor, which I have and use.

I've had to make spare drawbars for the Nichols for just that reason. The one which came with it (and which appears shop-made) was for the original Nichols arbors, and won't handle either the other standard 40-taper thread or the 30-taper ones.

However -- the vertical head for it came with the original drawbar. It has a different thread on each end, and the nut is a cylinder with a pair of wrench flats milled on it. It has two different sized tapped holes, so it can be reversed to fit on the reversed drawbar to handle the other standard thread. I've had to make a spare drawbar to fit the nut to handle the 30-taper tooling.

I've also heat-released the Loctite holding the draw studs into some CAT-40 holders and turned up adaptors to allow the smaller of the standard drawbars to work with the adapted holders.

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.