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:
Service Manual
Personal Tooling and Learning Resources
Equipment
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 |
Learning
- Tubal Cain Bridgeport mill parts, part A and part B.
- MIT milling machine videos: Machine Shop 4, Machine Shop 5, Machine Shop 6, and Machine Shop 7.
- Machine Shop Practice, Volume 2. This book is available in the lounge library and in the cabinet next to the mill.
- Machinery's Handbook. Three copies of this are available in the cabinet next to the mill.
- Milling Machine Operations. This is published by the United States Army, and is therefore in the public domain and freely available online.
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
tilting table
Authorization
This tool requires authorization for use
Authorization on this tool requires previous Tier 1 Cold Metals Authorization. Because of the inherent danger of using a large milling machine, authorizations on the Bridgeport Mill will only be given by members with significant experience with mills of this type. A list of members who can authorize on the Bridgeport mill may be found below.
Authorizers
Mike Warot |
Ed Bennett |
Ryan Pierce |
Derek Bever |
Everett Wilson |
Tucker Tomlinson |
Alan Baker |
Todd Allen |
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 |
Anna Yu | Ed Bennett | Ed Bennett |
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 |
Ron Olson | Derek Bever and Everett Wilson | Everett Wilson |
Michael Skilton | Derek Bever and Everett Wilson | Todd Allen |
Alan Baker | Tucker Tomlinson | |
Tom Judge | Everett Wilson | Everett Wilson |
Ron Bean | Todd Allen | Todd Allen |
George Shaw | Todd Allen | Todd Allen |
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 |