I picked up a bridgeport mill yesterday, and don't know a bunch about them. It has a "M" series head on it, which I'm guessing is old, and it came with 2 extras. The problem with them is that they are a morse #2 taper spindle instead of an R-8. Does anyone know anything about these??

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MadMike, Mudmutt or afterburnt would know

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When in doubt, hit it in second gear!

Heres a couple pics.

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Maybe you should chug on over to mamby pamby land....

I dont know much about that model however I would think you could change out the head to a "J" series with R-8. I noticed it is a Vertical/Horizontal setup, nice.

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I want one!

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That's and old one for sure, one of the first series they made. I have been doing machine work for 25+ years, that's the first one I've seen. Are you sure on the #2 Morse taper, most of the old stuff was Brown & Sharp taper??
I just traded a old Index mill for a lathe, it has a B & S taper.
One thing for sure, that old stuff is well built and rugged.

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Nick send me(or post) some closer pics of the sides,frt of the bed and knee ,,can you find any ser#? The "M"head was a high speed head and the "J" was better suited for gen machining is the way it was explained to me,all the "M" I have seen are B&S taper,,I,ve never seen 1 like yours with the horizontal hole and the flat belt drive,,,need more pics All the heads good? The M's are still wanted I saved a head unit with no motor from the scrap yard and I sold it on "craigslist" in less than 2wks for 100$ 2x's what I had in it and he was ecstatic(happy)!

The Mill looks like an old horizontal mill. Someone has adapted a Bridgeport head on. You may be able to find collets and tool holders on EBAY. I know that you can still get the Morse taper collets. The Brown and sharp collets may be harder to come by.

The serial # on the head is M20Y62. I called Bridgeport yesterday and they claim to have lost all their records from back then. I placed it and leveled and wired it up last night, and it kicks a$$! I saw some other "m" heads on e-bay and they say they are morse taper, and the collets I got with it fit right perfectly into the tailsock of my lathe. The bad thing of it is the biggest collet they make is a 1/2". That really limits me. Some one suggested a "spring collet chuck" would fit morse #2 and then adapt to R8. But I couldn't find it.

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Oh, yea... the rest of the mill is a Brown and Sharpe built in June of 1909!! (just the head is Bridgeport). It has a drive on the side for full power everything, x, y, and z. Its pretty crazy lookin old stuff! I just need a belt to fall out of my ceiling to run it!

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Ok thats what I was thinking(someone put head on diff machine) before but I didnt want to say it lol Sometimes it works out better that way!Be leave it or not theres a shop here in town thats still got all the pulleys and shafting up in ceiling from the old days! it would be neat to have seen it all hooked up and running!

Ok on the spindle you could have it bored and ground out to fit r8,,,I did my old Index that way but it was B&S holders,,does it look thick enough? I can ask my buddy if he could do 1 of yours if your interested

It looks thick enough. What do you think it would cost? Arent the spindles hardend?

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just kind of curious, what did you give for that mill? before you put a whole lot of money into it, you might want to see if you can pick up a newer model. up here in cleveland, we have a place called HGR, a used machinery dealer, and it has a lot of these machines real cheap. heres the link, http://www.hgrindustrialsurplus.com/ or you might even be able to find a new head for that machine, this place has everything.
dave

I gave less than a thousand for it with a vise and some tooling. I was thinking about another head for it, but this one is single phase. Is it easy to change motors on a three phase head over to a single? We have that same place down here HGRinc.net

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I bought a little drive for my mill. It converts single phase to 3 phase. I think I paid only about $160 for it. Actually, it's pretty cool, because on my controls, I have a little speed pod, I can turn the RPMs up and down, and I have the forward and reverse with the ramping up and down. It's pretty cool. If you need a little more information on this drive, I can get it for you.

Dave

Don't let three phase scare you away from picking up a J head or series 2. You can get a VFD(variable frequency drive) for a couple of hundred which will also let you change the speed by changing the Hz as well as having a three phase output. You can also build a rotary phase converter like I did. They aren't that hard to make. If nothing else, it will make one hell of a drill press. You can get adapters from MT to JT real easy. Your probably better off picking up a J head instead of having the spindle bored out.

John

How does a j head mount? The m head I have mounts to "knuckle" (i think that is what it is called) with 4 bolts, then that slips over a 3" round shaft. I found an adaptor to go from #2mt to ER32 collets, which will allow me to use up to 7/8 collet, so that is an improvement. Now I need to adapt a face mill over and a boring head

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Heres a couple more pics.


extra heads

Is this a common way for the head to mount?

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I'm back and I'll get ahold of my buddy tue to see about boreing spindle out,,have you trammed(square to bed) the spindle in yet?

If by trammed you mean eyeballed the hell out of it, then yes.

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Now thats funny. Sure glad your not doing anything precise!

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LMAO I think you know what I mean(with dial indicator) I talked to my buddy and he said he might do it (bore spindle)for ya this winter hes pretty busy for awhile,,,heres a few mach sites to check out and put wanted adds on for your holders

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/index.php

http://www.bbssystem.com/index.php?sid= ... a815dc9088

http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net/

http://www.shopfloortalk.com/forums/index.php

Thanks! I'll get the dial indidooter out tonight and square that up

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There's a company in the Cleveland area that specializes in replacement parts and repair of Bridgeport machines. Both Afterburnt and myself have been dealing with them for years on a professional level. If there's anyone that will know of a way to convert the spindle it'll be them. 1-877-DRAWBAR ask for Joe Fortmen. Otherwise like everyone else mentioned look for a used "J" head.
http://www.hqtinc.com/

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I've been using it and I'm not so worried about the spindle taper any more. I just need to get a straight shanked shell mill arbor and I think I'll be set! It's taken ALOT more of a cut than I expected it too, and doesn't even grunt! Thanks for the help guys!

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