I got a new toy

[Kevin54]

Well, new to me, but a very well taken care of used toy. And I don't have it yet, but I'll have it Tuesday. It's a three axis Bridgeport CNC Mill.

I've been looking, wishing, and missing out on the ones I called about, or the prices were out of my range. Then lo and behold, I checked CL Tuesday morning, and here is a mill, super clean, for the low price of $4800 I couldn't call the number fast enough. So I ended up calling like 4 time, left messages, then sent probably three e-mails. The person called my back yesterday morning. Luckily I made it there at the time I did, because 15 minutes later another person pulls in and also really wanted it. But I was there first, put a deposit down, and even got it for a little less than the asking price as the monitor needs to be adjusted to coincide with the phase converter. He was going to have it done for his converter, but it would have to be done again for mine, so he knocked off some of the amount and will give me the name of the guy to service it, once I get it hooked up.

Now the bad part. It's 6" too tall to get into my garage. The guy told me that the top will unbolt to give me enough clearance. It also means that when the rigger comes to take it off of the trailer, once the top of the mill is taken off, there will still barely be enough room, so it will have to be slid. Never again will I have 7' garage doors.

I also am going to have to brush back up on my G-Codes for programming, plus purchase a CAD-CAM program. I haven't programmed anything in a few years, and before that, the mills at work were all conversational programming, so this will be like going back to school for awhile.

So if everything works out the way I plan, I may have a real clean Lagun Mill (same as a Bridgeport practically) coming up for sale.

I really need to get it into gear now, and get my garage back in shape and get the bumpout started and on the side of the garage. I may just have to cut a large hole in the side of the garage just to get the mill in.

 

[Techie1961]

That's cool Kevin. I really want one as well and even found one that I lost $2,000 on due to it being a scam. Learned a tough lesson on that one about online ads and buying from a different province.

Make sure to post lots of photos once you have it.

 

[aka Larry]

Awesome Kevin. I'm sure I can come up with some more work for you to 'practice' with your new toy.

 

[bsaint]

:thumbs:

 

[MP&C]

Congrats Kevin! So the shop roof will need a lift kit now?

 

[Farmall450]

Congrats!

 

[Kevin54]

Congrats Kevin! So the shop roof will need a lift kit now?

I'm fine on my roof, but not at coming through the door. Once I get it home Tuesday, I'll tear into the top of the mill and see what it entails to shorten things up some. I'm going to have to get things in gear and get the bumpout added onto the side of the garage, and if worst comes to worst, I'll cut a hole in the side of the garage. I'll get something figured out. The addition is on hold for this year. It's already August, and I still haven't found anyone willing to do things, plus I still have to get my shed moved. I need to rent a skidloader to level out some ground and get some gravel in to set the shed. And before I do that I have a few other odds and ends to get done around the house. This year is just going by too fast.

 

[aggierailroad]

Might be a dumb question, but will the head rotate around and give you the clearance?

Glad you finally found one, I know you've been looking.

 

[iajonesy]

Do you have a chainsaw? Might be one way to make those slight modifications to get that mill in there. I think a little suckage is in order,too. YOU ****.

Mike

 

[Kevin54]

Might be a dumb question, but will the head rotate around and give you the clearance?

Glad you finally found one, I know you've been looking.

No, the head doesn't rotate. This is an actual CNC and not a retrofit to a mill. If it was a retrofit, I wouldn't have a problem.

Do you have a chainsaw? Might be one way to make those slight modifications to get that mill in there. I think a little suckage is in order,too. YOU ****.

Mike

No chainsaw, but I have a few new demo blades for my sawzall.

 

[srmofo]

I saw that on CL also. I don't have the room or time for it right now or you would have been racing me as well. Glad it found a good home with a fellow member. It certainly looked like a clean machine, probably because it was only used on delrin.

 

[signcrafter]

The problems of trying to put a full machine shop into a residential garage!

Nice score Kevin. What does your electric bill look like when you run these machines a lot in a month?

 

[bsaint]

What if you laid it down and stood it up inside?

 

[Kevin54]

I saw that on CL also. I don't have the room or time for it right now or you would have been racing me as well. Glad it found a good home with a fellow member. It certainly looked like a clean machine, probably because it was only used on delrin.

I made it just in time, because the guy that pulled in behind me wanted it. He gave his phone number to the guy that has the mill in case I backed out, and he told him to give the phone number to me just in case I want to sell it in the future. The guy that has this one will be a guy to look out for in a few years though as he says when he hits 62, he'll probably sell his other equipment, and he has some very nice equipment. He has a large CNC lathe, a Bridgeport CNC mill, both with Conversational programming, plus presses, shears, brakes. And his shop is absolutely spotless. He actually has two parts to the shop, and this mill was in the front portion all because the shop had been added on to and his doorway is 7'. I spoke with him for awhile, and asked what he made on his equipment but didn't get to speak with him about the cars. I'm fairly certain that he's a gearhead. He had a Pontiac up on the lift, and there were heads sitting up on the bench along with some other engine goodies.

This is a little off thread, but we were talking about business and injuries, as he saw I couldn't move my arm. He was telling me that he thought he was having a heart attack one day as his chest was hurting. The squad took him to Miami Valley which I took it as a branch hospital, then they transferred him to the main Miami Valley Hospital to have a heart catherization. In doing so, something went wrong during the catherization and they caused him to have a stroke. He lost everything on his left side. He said he's been through extensive therapy and has gained some use back but still has to wear like a TENS at times to shock the muscles. And the ***** of it is....they only found 10% blockage in one artery. He told me he talked to 5 or 6 lawyers and not a one would touch it. Yet if you spill hot coffee in your crotch, you can get awarded $6 million from MickyD's.

Anyways.......Did you look at the other one that is closer down your way? IIRC, it is a Lagunmatic and he is wanting $4 bills for it.

I found it. http://cincinnati.craigslist.org/tls/4589637852.html He said that it is not under power currently because they moved it and they have not run power to that section of the shop yet. Lagun makes a pretty good mill and some say they are built better than Bridgeports, at least for the manual mills. The mill I have now is a Lagun FTV-1 and it is tight and quiet. Sadly it just isn't a CNC.

 

[-Brent-]

Congrats... if you need some small projects - I am your man!

 

[Kevin54]

The problems of trying to put a full machine shop into a residential garage!

Nice score Kevin. What does your electric bill look like when you run these machines a lot in a month?

You know really, I haven't noticed a big jump at all in electricity. I don't run the machines everyday, but even when I do run them for a few days in a row, there is not much change. I think our hottub we had used more electricity than the machines do, or when the wife runs the air conditioner for the house. The lathe is 220 single phase, and the mill is 220 three phase running off of a Rotary Phase converter. I haven't got my grinder hooked up yet because I want to get it cleaned up and painted. But running the machines periodically doesn't use much electricity at all.

 

[nanofrog]

Congratulations.

I don't get the need for brushing up on g-code though, as the software package will generate it for you (CAM portion).

No idea of your software budget, but MasterCAM is rather popular on the professional end (not cheap, and varies drastically between retailers, so be careful & shop around if you go this route). Might want to see about getting an Educational version for a lower cost, even if it means enrolling (or teaching) a class at Community College to qualify. Another, likely more attractive alternative, would be a free online course. They usually qualify IME, and is easy to do (i.e. EdX might have something you're interested in).

I've heard good things about Magic CAD/CAM Sweet v. 16, so might be worth checking into as well. Best part, it doesn't cost a fortune ($180).

Also, Practical Machinist's forum can offer a lot more info than I can (particularly more up to date), but hopefully this helps a little.

 

[bsaint]

Well Ive noticed with my experience in CNC machine tool, sometimes post processors aren't so smart. You still need to know G/M code.

 

[nanofrog]

Well Ive noticed with my experience in CNC machine tool, sometimes post processors aren't so smart. You still need to know G/M code.

I was thinking he meant in terms of writing it from scratch (blank screen, start typing text), not checking output in a viewer/editor to catch and fix any mistakes before committing to material (visual, not just code text).

I guess if you do it 5days/8hrs, the actual code would become second nature. But I wouldn't expect this to be the case as much for occasional/hobbyist use.

 

[Kevin54]

Congratulations.

I don't get the need for brushing up on g-code though, as the software package will generate it for you (CAM portion).

No idea of your software budget, but MasterCAM is rather popular on the professional end (not cheap, and varies drastically between retailers, so be careful & shop around if you go this route). Might want to see about getting an Educational version for a lower cost, even if it means enrolling (or teaching) a class at Community College to qualify. Another, likely more attractive alternative, would be a free online course. They usually qualify IME, and is easy to do (i.e. EdX might have something you're interested in).

I've heard good things about Magic CAD/CAM Sweet v. 16, so might be worth checking into as well. Best part, it doesn't cost a fortune ($180).

Also, Practical Machinist's forum can offer a lot more info than I can (particularly more up to date), but hopefully this helps a little.

Well Ive noticed with my experience in CNC machine tool, sometimes post processors aren't so smart. You still need to know G/M code.

nanofrog......a lot of times, especially when I was running the ProtoTraks with Conversational Programming, I could program the mill faster than sitting down at the computer and drawing it up. Plus with a lot of the canned cycles, there was no reason to draw things up. I watched other at work just dicking around and ******* away a couple of days just drawing a part up. The majority of my work was designing a tool for a specific part, then making the tool itself. Others absolutely hated work, so they would screw around on the computer drawing the part, then drawing the tool, then tweaking everything. You would have to see it to believe how some can actually work harder at getting out of work than just doing the job and getting it over with. With Conversational programming, I could program a lot of the jobs directly from the print and no need to do the CAD portion. Plus I like to use my head a little more than depending on the computer to do everything for me. It just helps, or at least to me, to keep the mind sharp.

And I will have to get a CAD-CAM program. I will look into the ones you mentioned. But I want to brush up on all of my codes again, so I can program from the head instead of from the computer. It's been maybe 15 years since I sat down and wrote a program using G & M codes.

Bsaint....I know what you mean. Even as simple as the ProtoTraks were, you could still stump them at times with certain programs. That is when one has to put the thinking cap on to figure out what is going on. The three axis ProtoTrak I ran had a problem running a simple 5 block program, with a subroutine of running the same move in the "X" axis 99 times. All the program consisted of was a "Y" move on the "Z" zero plane, angle down at 45 degrees, make a slight radius, angle up at 45 degrees, then another "Z" zero, straightline move. I programmed in all of the coordinates, then subroutined it 99 times of an "X" positive move of .010. It would run something like 25 times, then all of a sudden it would make a complete loop with the radius in the "Z" plane, then just bury the cutter. Southwestern Industries, who makes the ProtoTraks couldn't figure out why the program was doing it. It was a glitch with how things were being processed. At the time, we were using SmartCam for our CAD-CAM. There was something wrong with how the machine and the computer talked to each other. So for me, it was easier to just program things from scratch by punching in everything manually.

So I'll have a little learning to do, but sort of looking forward to it. Plus I'll have to do it anyways until I find a package that I want to use. The person that I bought the mill off of said to keep an eye out on Ebay for a copy of BobCad, then buy a seat from the company. I guess they are up to Version 25, but he said that you can get Version 23 fairly reasonable, then a seat is a couple hundred, or that the company will come way down off of their prices if they know that it is for home use and not for a business. So I'll have to look into that.

 

[captain14]

Are Delivery pictures possible if not too much trouble? And moving it into the garage?

 

[Kevin54]

Are Delivery pictures possible if not too much trouble? And moving it into the garage?

I'll see what I can do about that. I'll have to remember to bring my camera.

 

[deere2210]

Hey Kevin!! First time I've been on here in a while.. Congrats!! That's awesome!!! You need any help on the CAM let me know - be glad to help!!

 

[Kevin54]

Hey Kevin!! First time I've been on here in a while.. Congrats!! That's awesome!!! You need any help on the CAM let me know - be glad to help!!

Don't worry, I'll be talking atcha about it.

 

[96redtoy]

So I'll have a little learning to do, but sort of looking forward to it. Plus I'll have to do it anyways until I find a package that I want to use. The person that I bought the mill off of said to keep an eye out on Ebay for a copy of BobCad, then buy a seat from the company. I guess they are up to Version 25, but he said that you can get Version 23 fairly reasonable, then a seat is a couple hundred, or that the company will come way down off of their prices if they know that it is for home use and not for a business. So I'll have to look into that.

I use BobCad every day at work we have the latest one V26. Its is a complete rip off of master cam. It however is not as good, it has some quirks about it and there are certain things it doesn't like doing. However for the price we are pretty happy with it. V25 is almost identical to 26 from my understanding I forget what they changed but it was pretty small.

Now V20 is a whole other animal every thing is line matrix no 3d solids in models or programing. It also loves to crash for no reason when you get a little click happy. Also while programing you have to do a ton of fat ********* and tricking it into doing certain things. This is very apparent while creating 3d tool paths.

If you have any questions feel free to PM me. I still use both of these programs everyday.

 

[bullnerd]

Way to go Kev!

 

[NASTYZEN]

Hey that's cool Kevin! Congrats!
I think I saw someone who leaned his to get it under the door on Practical Machinist. Any how, be safe and take lots of pictures..
I started with EZ cam and still use it from time to time. Cheap and works.
I have Mastercam now and love it, but it comes at a price.
Can't wait t'ill Tuesday.

 

[Kevin54]

I use BobCad every day at work we have the latest one V26. Its is a complete rip off of master cam. It however is not as good, it has some quirks about it and there are certain things it doesn't like doing. However for the price we are pretty happy with it. V25 is almost identical to 26 from my understanding I forget what they changed but it was pretty small.

Now V20 is a whole other animal every thing is line matrix no 3d solids in models or programing. It also loves to crash for no reason when you get a little click happy. Also while programing you have to do a ton of fat ********* and tricking it into doing certain things. This is very apparent while creating 3d tool paths.

If you have any questions feel free to PM me. I still use both of these programs everyday.

That's good to know.

I'll have to do some shopping around and getting some various views on different CAM modules.

 

[toolchaser]

Kevin, take a look st ONECNC , not too bad on price, dongle style and you actually own it!

 

[BFBOB]

That's cool Kevin. I really want one as well and even found one that I lost $2,000 on due to it being a scam. Learned a tough lesson on that one about online ads and buying from a different province.

Make sure to post lots of photos once you have it.

Would you care to let us know what happened? I expect we can at least assume Nigerian Princes don't figure in. Might help someone avoid getting ripped off in similar fashion in the future.

And Congrats, Kevin!

 

[EOC_Jason]

Can you unbolt the upper half, like where usually they insert a spacer on the manuals?

 

[A_Pmech]

Cool deal Kevin!

I'm getting ready to add some CNC machinery myself. It's been a long time coming. Hopefully I'll have the first machine on the floor by spring, if the present workload holds.

First though, an electrical upgrade is in order...

In the meantime, I've been playing with the latest edition of Bobcad and I'm fairly impressed thus far.

 

[Kevin54]

Well, I have my new toy home and sitting on a fifth wheel trailer in the driveway. It was a major *********** getting it loaded. The towmotor was almost too small too lift it, then it had to lift high enough to load on to the fifth wheel trailer. So it's sitting there, in the driveway, strapped down. As soon as I cool off a little bit (it's hot out) I need to call a rigger about unloading it. But before that, I need to dismantle some of the head to gain 4", and that will be cutting it damn close.

For anyone that is ever planning to build a garage, never ever go with a 7' tall door....ever. I'm hoping to gain 6" when I remove some head components. Either that, or a Sawzall comes out to cut a header.

So now, my garage is a major mess. I have a grinder I still need to strip and paint, a mill I will need to sell, but at least for the meantime, just get it moved out of the way. I have a bumpout to add on yet, and just some general organization. And I have to make sure the machine is off of the trailer by Friday morning at the latest as my buddy has to use it to take his tractor to the tractor pulls.

And today, what was going to be a fairly simple job, according to the person I bought the mill off of.......it was not going to be a problem loading it. Well, the forklift didn't have enough *** to lift it with a boom on the forklift. We managed to get it out onto the apron of the shop, then found some wood to get the mill up so we could get the forks under it. For some odd reason, lifting from the base wanted to throw the mill off balance. I was actually a nervous wreck.

But it is now home. I am reading through the books to see how to remove some of the top covers to gain some height, then waiting to call the riggers to move it from the trailer. Hopefully that will go better than today

And I think I will have a real clean Lagun mill coming up for sale, as soon as I get the other up and running. So any Ohio guys that may be interested, or even out of Ohio guys if you don't mind driving, I'll probably let it go for $3250 with a full set of collets. I'll post up pics when that time comes. Probably a couple of weeks from now.

I'll get a few pics here in a little while to post up, although it's not much to look at sitting on a trailer.

 

[A_Pmech]

For anyone that is ever planning to build a garage, never ever go with a 7' tall door....ever. I'm hoping to gain 6" when I remove some head components. Either that, or a Sawzall comes out to cut a header.

Glad to hear you got it loaded and home safely. Now don't get in a hurry to put it inside and you'll be fine.

You would have enjoyed the conversation I had with a Haas tech a few weeks ago regarding making a VF-2 fit under my 7' door opening.

 

[Kevin54]

Glad to hear you got it loaded and home safely. Now don't get in a hurry to put it inside and you'll be fine.

You would have enjoyed the conversation I had with a Haas tech a few weeks ago regarding making a VF-2 fit under my 7' door opening.

Okay, you peaked my interest....what do you have to alter or what do they have to alter?

 

[BLUE72CAMARO]

What model of bridgeport is it? I ran a couple old bridgeport mills in a shop I worked at while going to trade school and they both used Heidenhann (sp?) controllers that were goofy as could be.

 

[A_Pmech]

Okay, you peaked my interest....what do you have to alter or what do they have to alter?

The plan is to remove the spindle housing from the Z-axis ways and reinstall it once it's under the door.

 

[Kevin54]

What model of bridgeport is it? I ran a couple old bridgeport mills in a shop I worked at while going to trade school and they both used Heidenhann (sp?) controllers that were goofy as could be.

The Bridgeport is a Series 1, R2E4

The plan is to remove the spindle housing from the Z-axis ways and reinstall it once it's under the door.

Same here. That's what I'm getting ready to do in a short. I'm really hoping that it will give me enough clearance.

 

[A_Pmech]

Same here. That's what I'm getting ready to do in a short. I'm really hoping that it will give me enough clearance.

Just keep disassembling until it fits. You have a loader tractor to sling from, so you're two steps up on most everybody else.

 

[Kevin54]

Just keep disassembling until it fits. You have a loader tractor to sling from, so you're two steps up on most everybody else.

The Cub won't lift it. I think the limit on the Cub is like 2000# and this mill is 3550#.

I did call a rigger a little while ago. It's $150 to unload it and set it. He was ready to do it first thing in the morning, but I won't be ready I'll pop the top off of it tomorrow so we have room to scoot it under, and he'll be here Thursday morning. And while he's here, I have to get a price on moving the shed from behind the garage. It's a 12x16 and really well built. It gets moved about 350 feet onto the other side of the property. That was in the plans except I can't find anyone to add onto my garage, so that plan is on hold until next year, as far as the addition. The bump out is still going to be done this year. Slowly by surely we'll get things done and under control. HOPEFULLY