Rough Price on Bridgeport

You mean a new one? - GWE

New? Better sit down! The manual machines are supposed to run around $26,000! By auto-lock, do you mean a quick-change collet system? That might add $1000 or so.

The Bridgeports are made in the same factory by (mostly) the same people. There have been several stories about the restarting of the Bridgeport manufacturing line. Apparently the Hardinge people came in and found many inefficient processes there, but were quite serious about preserving the quality of the final product.

Jon

Hi Dean, Last time I wandered through Hare & Forbes in Sydney, they had several used Bridgeports in the $5000 range. Have a look at their site

(It seems to be down this morning)

I've got a second hand Hartford, which is a Taiwanese copy of a Bridgeport, paid $5000 for it 15 years ago, still works fine for what I do, which is not much these days! I found equiping it with collet chuck, rotary table, dividing head, clamping kits, precision boring head, and on and on kept me poor for years. The lowest cost DRO I could find at the time cost as much as the mill, but they can be had for much less now. This tool disease is great fun.

I'm not sure from your question if your having trouble finding stuff here, or trying to get it at less cost by importing it? Hope this helps some anyway.

regards,

Not sure where you are getting your bridgeport prices, but they are incorrect. A brand new bridgeport runs $12,000 from MSC. This is a made in America machine.

in america, a similarly equipped Taiwanese machine runs 1/3 to

1/2 that amount.

Hardinge lathes are still made in the USA and the B'port in the Elmira, NY area also. I have not seen a new B'port but read a rather long and complete article in one of the machining magazines. The head is made by the same company that was making them for Bridgeport and the rest of the machine is made by Hardinge. The base price for the vari-speed is about $13k, a 6" Anglock vise, the only vise worth buying, is about $350., DRO's are about $500./axis and single axis powerfeed in the $600. range. We can buy a nice and well equipped vari-speed for $7000. - $8000. Leigh at MarMachine

Eh? You mean, used?

I presume that you are talking new price, rather than used, and I can't help here.

However, I should mention that the Autolock collets (Clarkson) are *far* from common here, so I don't think that you will find a price with that included -- or if you do, it will be significantly more than the collets and driver would cost you there.

The most common spindle for a Bridgeport with a vari-speed J head would be the R8 collets. Some others (such as the rather old Series-I CNC machine which I have) use a quick-change spindle of the Erickson type, with #30 NMTB taper end-mill holders. I don't know whether there are any 30-taper Clarkson Autolock holders, though I do have (for another machine) some 40-taper holders. I have yet to find the Autolock end-mills here in the USA, however, and have not yet made up an order to either the UK or Oz for them. (This should show you how uncommon Autolock is here in the USA.)

Well ... I've not seen any machines which have come out since the takeover, but I would expect the quality to be good with Hardinge running things.

Hopefully, others will have fresher information on the quality issue.

I voted -- now waiting to see whether it did any good.

Enjoy, DoN.

Nope -- he doesn't mean a quick-change system. Auto-lock is a system by Clarkson (a UK manufacturer) which uses a special set of collets, internally threaded at the inside end, which screws onto the end of the endmill. There is a hardened projection in the base of the socket, and as the retaining nut is tightened, the center hole in the end of the endmill is pressed against this hardened point, and then the end of the collet is squeezed closed.

The advantage of this is that you *can't* have end-mill creep in the collet (with right-hand endmills, at least).

The dis-advantage of this, in the USA at least, is that end mills with the threaded base are apparently made only in the UK and in Australia. I've got two sizes of the holders for my Nichols horizontal mill with a vertical head, and *no* endmills to fit. These are

40-taper. I *guess* that R8 Auto-lock holders are made as well, but I don't know for sure. I *do* know that he will probably have to buy them as after-market items, as I somehow doubt that Bridgeport/Hardinge would sell them with the machine.

Enjoy, DoN.

Hi Don, Your guess about the R8 clarkson is correct, I have one. End mills and slot drills with screwed shanks are common here in Australia. If you are looking for some they come up on ebay Australia fairly often, and there was a complete auto - lock chuck on there recently.

regards,

John

Thanks.

Enjoy, DoN.