Bridgeport true trace ?

[becker_atc]

So my dad calls and said he found us a mill. Turns out it's a true trace Bridgeport . Are these of any use ? I know some have conventional controls, some have a manual mode and others have none of that just tracer. Can these be converted to conventional operation?

In the pic it almost looks like the y axis is a hydraulic ram for the movement and not a screw .

Only one head now one has been sold, it's 3 phase but that can be delt with, and supposed to have a good amount of tooling. Was told 1970s vintage

Not bought it yet just researching to see if worth having and was useable. We already have 16x52" lathe.

 

[Fcvapor05]

Personally, I would pass unless it's an EXTREME deal.

Yes, a true trace mill can be converted to manual control, but it's expensive.

You can also jury-rig 'manual' control on a true trace by using straight edges for x or y moves but it will be much slower than a normal mill and setup can become complicated even for simple operations.

To my knowledge, any True Trace mill that has manual controls is a regular Bridgeport that has had a true trace add-on. I don't believe they ever made a from-the-factory mill with true trace that also had manual controls. That may not be correct but I'm pretty sure that's the story.

 

[bsg]

The base castings will be the same, the knee casting and possibly the saddle castings are not. You would need so many components to convert to manual it would not be worth it.
The knee elevating mechanism would have to be swapped out as well, it's basically a hydraulic cylinder.
One nice thing about a T-Ram is you can slide the head to the extremes, one drawback the head is unable to nod, could be a problem.

I would not pay more than $750 for the mill, you could sell one head and recoup some of your money.

I would still pass unless your looking for a project.

Good luck.

Kevin

 

[becker_atc]

I think I have my dad talked out of it supposed to have a "ton" of tooling.

He was going to trade an older miller portable welder for it. But I more or less told him it's not what he needs due to the fact be a hassle to operate. He has never ran a mill and it's been 5 yrs for me.