Bridgeport Knee Mill
Description
A recent model Knee Mill made by the Bridgeport company. This is the gold-standard small shop manual milling machine in the US. Most other mills of the same size are direct copies of the bridgeport design. This particular machine is a Series I, J-head with a mechanical variable speed drive. The machine has a power quill feed built into the head, in addition to the additional equipment listed below. This machine is capable of facing, surfacing, drilling and slotting in materials ranging from plastics to mild steel. Harder metals may be cut if special cutters and coolant are available. This machine is not equipped with CNC controls, consequently curved paths are limited to circular arcs. These can be cut on pieces that can be mounted on the 8" rotary table or approximated to a desired precision using the simple or smooth arc functions of the DRO.
This tool may require training to be used correctly.
Training Resources
Links:
Video introduction part A
Video introduction part B
MIT shop videos
Book: Machine Shop Practice, Volume 2
Book: Machinery's Handbook
Book: Milling Machine Operations; US Army Combined Arms Support Command
Service Manual
This tool requires authorization for use.
A Danger committee consisting of Mike Warot, Ed Bennett, and Ryan Pierce is currently working out details for authorizations. DO NOT USE THIS MILL WITHOUT CONTACTING THE DANGER COMMITTEE
List of Currently Authorized Users
Qualified Member | Trained By | Proctored By |
---|---|---|
Tucker Tomlinson | Danger Committee | |
Mike Warot | Danger Committee | |
Ed Bennett | Danger Committee | |
John-Paul(JP) Debauge | Danger Committee | |
Ryan Pierce | JP Debauge | Ed Bennett |
Everett Wilson | JP Debauge | Ryan Pierce |
Derek Bever | JP Debauge | Everett Wilson |
Elizabeth Koprucki | JP Debauge | Ryan Pierce, Everett Wilson |
Dean Anderson | Ed Bennett | Ed Bennett |
Bart Dring | Ed Bennett | Ed Bennett |
Greg "Nerobro" Teiber | JP Debauge | JP Debauge |
"Colorado" Rob Riggs | JP Debauge | Everett Wilson |
Jeremy Bloyd-Peshkin | Ryan Pierce | Ryan Pierce |
Todd Allen | JP Debauge | Everett Wilson |
List of Provisionally Authorized Users
These persons have completed the classroom portion of the authorization and have started their authorization project. They are provisionally authorized to complete their authorization project under supervision of a proctor who may be any of the authorized persons, listed above.
Provisionally Qualified Member | Trained By |
---|---|
David Fell | Ryan Pierce and Ed Bennett |
Michael Leinartas | Ryan Pierce and Ed Bennett |
Sergey Nekrasov | Ryan Pierce and Ed Bennett |
Available Equipment
Power feed (x axis)
Digital Read Out (DRO) (X-axis and Y-axis are functioning, Z-axis needs to be mounted)
Kurt 6" vise
Hold down set
collet set
Palmgren 8" Rotary Table
boring heads
fly cutters
assorted 2 flute end mills (dull)
tapping heads
Suggested Personal Tooling
Item | Description | Supplier | Cost |
---|---|---|---|
Cutting bits | A set of sharp cutters you don't have to share | can be purchased from McMaster, Enco or Shars | ~$50 and up |