Bridgeport 3-axis retrofit with Centroid M400 

Thank you

Thank you much !

We did a 2nd Bpt with 30mm linear ways to xslide, table and column believe it or not. Good for over 400 IPM cutting feeds but had to slow down so the mill wouldn't tip over. Rigid spindle installed with 30 tooling and rigid tapping. Makes for a fun shop tool

We use Schneeberger

For CNC application, the dovetail ways are limited in rigidity, too much yaw motion after a while. With the table extended, there is greater inertia moment to contend with on dovetails only. We did the linear rails just because and in use often for our shop needs. Thanks

The Bpt xslide ways were machined to fit the Schneeberger linear rails, ball way carriages machined into bottom of original saddle. Table saddle ways turcite lined. Knee counter balanced with twin nitrogen gas struts like the kind that hold open a hatchback door. The rigid tapping idea mentioned is slick and I will get to a video in the near future. Also a small custom MPG handwheel at the knee crank dial area for easy tool set ups that is switchable for using all 3 axes. Z-axis servo is direct belt drive to a vertical ball screw with a hole cutout on right side of the knee. A fun machine!

@@ppjjbb13 thanks Paul, what size linear rails did you use ? if you check out my channel im converting a couple series 1's and a couple boss' machines with centroid.. looks like a great job !!! thanks joe

20mm linear ways

@@ppjjbb13 thanks Paul !

Well thats impressive. I've just picked up a beaver vbrp that I'm going to convert with an acorn and some chinese 750w ac servos. Love that you've done the knee, assuming you replaced the original screw with with a ballscrew? Braked servo? What spec struts did you use for the knee counter-balance

The ball screws are 32mm dia and 5mm pitch. The belts are 2:3 I believe.

The table is still dovetail with turcite added to top of saddle and saddle dovetail and gib surfaces for table as well.

Same yoke height dimensions as we kept the relative height the same as original

​@@ppjjbb13so did you machined the machine down some of the original ways to keep the relative bed heights the same? Could you do a video specifically about how you went about the way conversion to linear rails.