Cheap CNC Machine and Hydraulic Press Waste of Money? ... 

Worked in a bumper factory in 1971. Had to hit the two buttons at the same time to insure the press would go down and stamp out bumper without any chance whatsoever any part of us was in that press. I thoroughly enjoy your enthusiasm and appreciation of machines. It's obvious you love your occupation and have a gift for it. God bless.

I’m a retired disabled veteran who would really love to have those machines. Man that press is so smooth, and the cnc mill Would be fun. Thanks for any consideration, and thanks for the video!

Love seeing old(er) tools being cleaned up and given a new lease of life. I've been in the stamping tool and die business for the better part of 15 years and have never seen a hydraulic press system like that. Looks like it has had a couple hot suppers but still running like a champ and ready for another million parts. Great find!

Cool vids man ! You are reviving the same old machines I saw get sold or scrapped when I secretly wanted to keep every decent one for myself. You're like the VGG of manufacturing equipment. Super smart as retrofitting this old equipment will become even more popular imo. 27 yrs in the trade, now a 5 axis aerospace programmer. But dude when I hear hydraulic activated foot pedal... I cringe. Worked at shop where 4 people put a foot operated live center through their hand while loading parts. They finally wired in hand controls on the hydraulic tailstock and it never happened again. I'm of the opinion that you should never be touching anything being pressed so I'd keep the 2 button deal

Your channel was on my suggested feed. Glad I stopped by. Like the content here.

Just found your channel today! I became a hobby machining junky 2 years ago and Love seeing these timeless pieces of equipment doing what they were intended to do. Great channel! Thanks for the entertainment

Regarding the punch block, I think the top of the block could have been attached to the head of the press. No need for springs n stuff when the presses head raises automatically. Would love that as a hobby mill, good find.

Just subbed to the channel man. I'm 30 and have worked a production shop for the last 15 years. Just got off the manual lathes and onto a prototrak that my company purchased. I've been writing conversational code for the first time and really feel like this trade is for me. Never used a manual mill yet, but hope to transition into the tool and die part of the company soon. They got old bridgeports and would love to throw a DRO on them at the very minimum. Love that your spreading the knowledge, keep it up man.!

Keep up the good work. Sometimes educated guesswork is what it takes. Been there done that in my current job. Im enjoying the content.

You have an absolutely amazing channel, I work at a machine shop and do a lot of similar things to you and I enjoy watching these videos, I’ll be a long time subscriber, glad I found your channel

Man, that mill sounds awesome!! Giving away that equipment would mark you as a very generous man. Either way, I'm in for more content!

The Bridgeport computer needs to be turned on in the cabinet, you almost had it when you opened the door.

I'm really torn... I'd love to maybe get the Bridgeport in a give away of some kind... but I'd also love to see it get retro fitted for CNC... Either way, love the videos!

Man one more comment please send to me. I am working on an experimental aircrat and it would be supper for pess all of the lightning holes, I would have to punch out the holes in the ribs. Then press the bends, which including the lightning holes. Save would save a boat load of time ~~ Cris H.

Be pretty cool to see the Bridgeport converted to modern controls

There are several examples of converting this style Mill to CNC with a Centroid Acorn controller. Not very expensive to do. It depends on if those servos are AC. The Acorn does not support DC servos but will accept AC servos or stepper motors. Modern AC Servos are not expensive compared to the original motors...

I’m 23, been doing CNC programming/making parts since 18. I’d love to be able to collect machines like these one day and use them for whatever they’re capable of.

I have the same mill, but didn't quite as good a deal. I think I paid more like $700 for it back in the early 90's. At that time it wasn't too bad a deal. George Bush slapped higher import taxes on imported metal causing all metal prices to skyrocket. It was an auction purchase as well at a time the economy was going into a recession and lots of businesses were failing. It's currently waiting in storage for me to retire and retrofit it's controls ultimately for my hobby projects. For a period of time it was stored at a friends machine shop and was used for a few production runs in return for the storage space. I can tell you that as is, it probably won't be the most reliable in terms of the electronics. The Boss control was okay and I don't remember it giving me any problems other than I thought the control was dead the first time I powered it up. I don't remember exactly what I did to get the control going. It could have been something as simple as the right sequence of keys. I can tell you the Boss control does not require an Exec tape for startup like a lot of other controls of the era. From what I recall from about 15 years ago: The good: There is a way to download programs to the control via RS-232. There is a selector switch to select Remote Data Input and download programs to it. If I remember right it's a push button in addition to a selector switch, so rotate and push. Baud rate is going to be slow and probably 300, maybe 1200 at best. I don't think it was an odd rate like 150, or 600. I don't remember where the port on the machine is located....I want to say the back of the machine somewhere. The "quick change" tooling was okay and better than an R8 collet, , but obviously not as good as having an ATC. The bad: It will eat output transistors that drive the stepper motors. I think the transistors are 2N3055 and they tend to fail frequently. The transistors are not extremely expensive, but seem to know when you really need them not to. I read somewhere a long time ago that the motors cause the failure of the transistors. The machine only full steps, so 200 step per revolution to each axis. I believe when new it was engineered to have 0.001" as the smallest move on any axis. The only axis that has something resembling a home position is the Z-axis. You'll notice if looking at the control, there aren't any "home" buttons for the machine. There are two mechanical counters, each one is located on the X-axis and Y-axis. These are "machine zero" as I understand it. I used this location to initially set zero for the X & Y axes, then rapid to where I wanted X0 & Y0 to be for the work piece and fixture on the table, and finally use G92 to establish the part origin in the lower left corner. If I wrote down the mechanical counter counts, it wasn't necessary to to use the "machine zero" reference until the next setup. I don't think the control will keep the program after cycling the power. The Z-axis has a vernier scale on the bottom of the motor shaft that probably isn't noticeable or readable unless relatively clean. It was a way of determining if Z-axis was off a few thousands from the last time the machine was run. I think you're getting the idea it's a quirky machine to use by today's standards. I forgot to mention there is a legend at the top of the control with three colors indicating what buttons are active for a given mode of the machine....Run, Setup, and MDI. The background color behind the button, knob, etc. indicates when the switch is active. I hope to do the retrofit to my mill within the next couple of years. I'm leaning toward either LinuxCNC or Centroid Acorn. I've looked at the Stepper Online products and considering their 34HS59-6004D-E1000 and control as a compromise between an open loop stepper system and servo system. I don't know as I can really justify the cost of a true servo based system on a non-production machine used for hobby stuff. I'm also going to use a variable frequency drive that supports single phase input to control the three phase spindle motor instead of using a phase converter. As I recall the spindle motor is the only thing on the machine that really is three phase. One of the disadvantages of using the VFD is the induced shaft current that will flow to ground through the shaft bearings. It's a small current, but over time will damage the bearings due to the motor is not designed to be used with a VFD. Wow! That ended up being a lot longer than I planned when staring to type. Good luck.

As much as I'd love a giveaway I dont think my 1 bedroom flat in scotland would appreciate the weight of such a thing hahaha

It's wild that that old dinosaur of a Bridgeport uses stepper motors. Regardless, I'd be replacing them. Should be a trivial job for someone with good equipment and fab skills. Servos if you can afford it or even just steppers again for budget.

Man I would love to win something like that Bridgeport! I only have tabletop milling that wont handle steel.

You have an awesome shop with some nice machines.

You can test that contactor by pushing in the buttons with a screwdriver. The contactor protects the motor and is easy to fix or replace. The machine is prob wired for 480 not 208 like your rotary. You can rewire the motor and change the contactor then it would be proper.

Love old Tools.. if it wasn't for old Tools...we wouldn't have the world we have today

Great videos. I need a big monarch lathe like yours. What model is yours

I am a sucker for a good machine auction... dragging home stray machines.... giving then new homes where they can function...

That press is a beautiful thing!

i would like to see you go through the cnc in fair depth and then possibly give it away if it seems like a reliable machine.

I worked for an employer who had a similar mill, he occasionally had to replace transistors in the back of the machine. If i recall he had his machine able to recive programs off an old computer rather than using the punch tape. I suggest upgrading the machine while preserving the old technology.

I’d love to get that bridgeport and convert out to modern cnc haha.

Heck yeah, I’d love to have the press!

A give away would be pretty awesome.

Man for a buck fifty that press is sick, and that port would be a slighter older style of cnc that I've got, just sucks how much it cost to fully convert to a more modern control. I made sure to buy mine with a lesser dated (but nowhere new the latest and greatest before doing a plug an play controller swap on it). You plan on keeping that fadal?

They really are a great machine I used mine to make 426 hemi cylinder heads on out of solid aluminum. I have a set on my Bonneville car that I made in my junior year of high school over summer vacation I made 20 Sets about 1976 over the years it must have been a couple hundred sets I remember taking cylinder heads to Eddie Hill at firebird lake twice once for top fuel boat then again for his dragster.

Forklift looks like a big version of my 1960s Hyster s40c, thing just will not die...

Awesome find for a great deal

This would be a great opportunity for people to win this equipment! Looking forward to the giveaway!! Hope I win

I think you should sell the press and convert mill into modern controls. Btw. it's not CNC (Computer Numerical Control) mill, it's NC (Numerical Control) as it does not have a program / G-Code processor (it's not fully automated). Installing some Mach3 boards, or even funnier OpenBUILDS BlackBox in this thing would be a great project to show. I live in a post-soviet country, we've a lot of 'scrap' machines here, but those were often treated like soviet machines (If you can't repair them with a hammer you need a bigger hammer, funny fact: this almost always work). Our "restoration companies" are genius enough to "resurface" ways using angle grinder. It's possible if you have enough knowledge and proper jig, but their work is usually a piece of crap with at least 0.1-0.2mm difference at 250mm. The only way to get good used machine here is to get lucky and grab it from military or get lucky and hit liquidated company before "restorators"... Of course we also have some great restoration companies who can refabricate entire machine from DTR (our local abbrev. for entire technical documentation delivered with machine), but their prices are sometimes crazy for common person (however I personally understand that knowledge requires to be paid for). I'm looking for a lathe and mill for my workshop, but I think I will probably build that myself cheaper than new and better than old "restored" machine (based on 1 year mark of searching for this thing)... Especially with my knowledge as software developer and a bit of skill as electronics engineer. I prefer building things than fixing things, as it often allows me to make it according to my taste... Anyways, great video. I was suprised with that press requiring only rewiring, but it's probably US thing not to test things before putting it on sale. Just get new machine, as this one is old and maybe someone with low budget and enough time / skill to fix this will have a starting point for his/her hobby. I would also check runout on that bridgeport spindle as it seems to slightly vibrate, but it may be a camera/recording issue.

That's a badass press, dont give it away. Keep it. I'm sure I stead of momentary contacts you could do a reostat to slow it down. I'm sure the limit switch sets travel. As is its more of a punching press because of how fast it is ans how it cycles If you had a die set made to do something for a customer you could knock out some stamped parts fast.. holes, slotted holes, etc

I need a Bridgeport and a lathe badly.

limit switch needs a locking or adjustable slide bar

I would love to have a chance at the press!

Maybe that die is for handle bar dimples

Personally I’d convert the Bridgeport back to a standard manual machine. That one looks to be in good shape. I’m not a fan of the old manual/CNC conversions. There is far better CNC machines available for little money. That machine was intended to be a manual machine, they built America with them old machines, I would keep it and the press, and just use them, but that’s just my opinion from a broke nobody, I have a good knee mill and a small lathe, you have a full on machine shop. I can understand why my opinion would hold little to no value. My scarcity mindset shines through I guess. You seem to be a very intelligent guy though. I’m sure you will find a good solution for both of them machines. The pattern you where looking at on the ways of the BP is the factory scraping, those were hand scraped ways and the fact that it’s still there and as visible as it is tells you it’s got little to no wear. But that’s hard to really determine from a quick glance on a RU-vid video. Judging by the rest of the machine it’s a relatively nice example of a BP you would find in the back corner of the machine shop. They generally fall in two categories, one is they used the piss out it up til they closed and the the other is they had a lot of issues with setting it up or understanding how to control it and gave up and pushed it back into the corner. Where you find them in the shop is usually a good indicator of what category it lies. Lol. Personally I’d love to see you pack that shop full of machines and equipment and use the heck out of all of it! Lol

Id keep the mill and give the press away if I were to do a giveaway

All you did was put power straight to the motor... motor starter And overoads need to be changed I think you take the starter out see if you replace the overloads off the starter

I just came across your channel and signed up. Do a giveaway.

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oh pls give us a knee mill

if i could buy those tools for this price i will be crying (mostly because i dont have any mill right now when i need one -no money) in my country even on scrapyard they will ask you like 2000$ for crap mill and used ones start from like 1000$ for ones that need everything to be rebuild or half the parts are missing ps rebuild , sell , buy more , earn money and then when you have enough.... get even more for giveaway

I loved my old Bridgeport boss5 Then again I loved my series 2 N/C it had a spindle wizard on it. It had balls all the way into next month.

You scare 😱 the heck out of me. With your comment, "get rid of the two buttons and convert it to a foot swich." Sir, you are out of your mind. The two buttons are there, so you don't lose your fingers." I think insanity has set in. I was watching a different Chanel and they where showing off their vertical log splitter. She had her hand where it shouldn't have been. She was lucky, just a bad broose. There is an old sentiment: stupid is, as stupid dose., and yes you should stay out of control boxes.😅 as you are dangerous... Ex Crew Chief, BSEE, BSCS, and am building an experimental aircraft. And I could use the mill.😊

I need to find me some deals like that just trying to find me a good milking machine and a lathe! Great videos though! How do you find these deals if you don’t mind me asking?

If I remember on your control panel the green button on the left if you hold that in I believe the machine starts I'm trying to see the control panel for hearing your video and try to remember exactly how you start that up again but basically starts right up and it's happy there really isn't any zeroing

Upgrade then give it away... !!

I’ve always wanted to get into mill work, especially cnc, but the starting cost has been way too high even for the bargain brand stuff that has bad quality control. I’m sure someone will be super happy with it, just try to make sure it goes to someone who won’t just resell it and instead goes to someone who will love and cherish it like it should be. Don’t know how you would do that, a contract? A year check in video to see progress? No clue. But good luck to everyone if he decides to give it away. Fingers crossed I see the notification.

These deals are STEALS. Even if the machine didnt work theyre so heavy that you can probably make a profit from just sending it to a metal recycler/scrapper.

Push and hold green button. On left the one above it kills machine. That machine is no regular Bridgeport

Look at the wider ways.

I'm very interested in these machines it's a dream