I have a few questions.

1. How did you conduct yor "Price Survey?" In the NY-NJ area I thought
$2500 was the very high end for a manual Series 1 machine. I knew
plenty of examples of one being sold for $500. Yes it is true not
every one is still in good shape, but if you can run a few operations
before you buy it, hop in the car and go see it.

Can someone recommend a good test regimen? Armed with this, does a non
expert really need to hire a technician?

2. Someone said that a vfd could be used as a speed control on a
Grizzly that runs on house current. That's wrong, right?

3. Is there anyone who would actually prefer a new Enco to a used but
sound BP? In '98 I bought both a 1979 series 1 cnc and a big Enco
lathe. I bet I spent fifty bucks just on band-aids from all the sharp
edges and burrs on the Enco. I also spent probably fifty hours just on
setup, adjustment and maintenance. In the end, it did do a lot of work
for me, and had a lot of guts, but I never overcame vibration problems
that left surface texture and increased finishing time. A guy down the
street, on the other hand had a very old, very big Clausing (12x60
maybe?)that was a dream machine. I used to rent time on it when
precision really mattered. I think he paid about $4000. $1200 more
than my Enco, but it came with a closet full of tooling and no plastic
drive gears.

The BP, on the other hand was true blue. The electronics on it were
****. After two $400 repair visits I invested in an Ah-ha controller.
That was very easy to install and get running. The machine
itself,however, ran like new. Ways, VSD, spindle bearings, steppers,
etc. I didn't even change the oil pump.

I have certainly used old BPs that WERE worn out. You need to spend
some time shopping, and be patient, informed, and a little lucky. In
my experience, low end imports like Grizzly and Enco will require tons
of service right from the start, and torture you for as long as you
own them. Good used domestic gear, on the other hand, in
non-industrial use, will easily outlive you!
Enough said.
Robobass


Richard J Kinch wrote in message ...
Bill Ross writes:

Are old mills on the market for $2,500 likely to be worn out?

Very likely at that price.

My Bridgeport Series 1 price survey has been: $1500 for serviceable but
with severe wear or broken head, $2500 for running but with moderate to
severe wear, and $3500 and up for running with light to moderate wear.

How much is it going to cost to get them into good running shape?

I am now working myself on scraping a well-worn (e.g., middle of knee
concave by 0.005", gibs shimmed with pieces of crate strapping metal!)
Bridgeport. It has been quite educational and a project of making tools
and gages in itself. Quite a few $100s in cash to buy books and tools,
and quite a few hours making and improvising some of the tools. Getting
this kind of rebuild done right is perhaps $3000 to hire out, and you
probably have to ship the machine to get it in the hands of someone who
does it. I figured out why some of these old machines have such pretty
body-shop repaint jobs on them: the effort to do that is a small
fraction of the effort to get the machine back to factory alignment.

The most valuable lessons of all are that I am now become knowledgeable
at evaluating all aspects of Bridgeport wear. There's no way you can
work on repairing alignment without knowing everything there is to know
about measuring it first. Sometimes you learn the hard way. I spent a
week rough and finish scraping the knee ways, and then discovered my
datum surface was off.

I am also converting the ways to teflon bearings, which should make this
machine last forever before realignment is needed again.