I’m in the process of building a new shop, and when it is done and filled with all my junk and tools it will not have a Bridgeport in it. Why? Because I don’t own one. But I sure want to at some point! I’m no machinist, but the things you can do with one can be really handy when building cars or anything else for that matter. One thing that is really cool about a Bridgeport, or any other milling machine for that matter, is the fact that with the right skills you can make almost every mechanical part inside one, with the milling machine itself. In other words, if you had a Bridgeport’s large cast pieces, you could make everything else with just a pile of steel and another Bridgeport.
In this series of videos you’ll see Bob taking apart and restoring his Bridgeport Mill, using a cool gantry crane that he build in his garage too. Bob is cool, having completed a 5.3 LS Swap in his cool CJ7 Jeep. I’m pretty impressed with his workshop, and his ingenuity, as this Bridgeport is big and daunting. But Bob seems to know what he’s doing, so watch, and learn and enjoy.
i thought it was going to rebuild it correctly,.like scrape all the ways and rebuild the spindle. all this was just a wash and soap job.
just scraping the ways will make a man out of you. lol. been there, done that.
Bob the Builder… I think I’ve heard that one before
Bluing and scraping ? Oh My !
I hope this guy has a tramming bar
to square up the head etc ….I own one my self ….
Mid 80’s I worked in a two man shop with
second hand tools from other divisions – we rebuilt :
Grob 24 inch band saw – including getting the 4 speeds and , variable speed system and the blade welder working
Surface grinder – needed all new bearings
Lathe that had the hydraulic shift plate mistimed and the jack shaft crashed so hard it had steps in it – took from one speed to 12 –
and installed a 6 jaw Buck chuck
We had a good time – did model work for scientists , reworked
parts and helped maintenance fix things – like getting broken bolts out of
a six foot cooling tower fan and rebuilding the ventilation drive for ladies room ..