Bridgeport Manual to CNC conversion...

[Muzzer]

I've got one of these and it's been controlling my Shizuoka 3 axis machine for the last 6 months or so. It seems to do most stuff you'd want but the Chinglish is too strong to understand in many places - it's just machine translated. It's not a bad solution but there are some areas I've just given up on. There are only so many hundred hours you can spend trying to figure stuff out.

I'm going to remove it from my main CNC machine and use it instead on my Bridgeport conversion. For the main machine I've just bought a Centroid Acorn. Didn't think I'd go this way but I really don't fancy the investment of time required to implement Linuxcnc but the Newker controller isn't working out for me.

I found 2 companies that seem to sell the exact same product. As ever, it's not clear who designed it and who manufactures it but they are different entities.

Newker is the brand I bought. The 4 axis mid range product is the 990MDb (M means milling, T means turning). I bought mine in China when I was there and brought it back myself. I paid about £350. That's not bad value....

Newkye is the other place. The manuals are identical and so are the products, so not much to choose between them.

There are some videos of the machine and controller in use on my YT channel.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo5..._as=subscriber

Murray

If you fancy a stab at the Baidu Chinglish Challenge, follow the link to the manual.

[Chaz]

Latest on this? I'm now looking for a 'CNC' Bridgeport type machine. Whilst I have Thor, Id like something more suitable for cutting harder metals.

[Davek0974]

Latest is that she is still munching metal :)

If asked, would i recommend anyone to convert?? The answer is no, the cost benefit is not there, I have spent probably around £8-9k on this now and at the end of the day its still a Bridgeport.

If you have the space, I would go for a VMC any time, even an old one. I do not have room or power for anything bigger so that was my reasoning to convert the Bridgy, but its not ideal - i can put the head out of tram easily, you still have to take "Bridgeport" style cuts so no hogging hard steel with big tools, you have to convert the knee to regain decent Z travel, it needs a servo drive spindle but that needs a lot of kW, and so on.

But it is capable of doing stunning things when compared to a manual machine :)

[Chaz]

Latest is that she is still munching metal :)

If asked, would i recommend anyone to convert?? The answer is no, the cost benefit is not there, I have spent probably around £8-9k on this now and at the end of the day its still a Bridgeport.

If you have the space, I would go for a VMC any time, even an old one. I do not have room or power for anything bigger so that was my reasoning to convert the Bridgy, but its not ideal - i can put the head out of tram easily, you still have to take "Bridgeport" style cuts so no hogging hard steel with big tools, you have to convert the knee to regain decent Z travel, it needs a servo drive spindle but that needs a lot of kW, and so on.

But it is capable of doing stunning things when compared to a manual machine :)

Thanks. My limit is 2.1m roof (perhaps another 150mm if I remove the sheet cover) and then power (60A if I upgrade my breaker, single phase).

Finding a small VMC seems impossible ....

[Chaz]

Would you say that the Universal 2S mill (or similar) has the same limitations?

[Chaz]

And, what about something like this?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CNC-Milli...torefresh=true

[Davek0974]

Yes headroom is the other big issue with me too, 6'6" max :(

At least you have some power - i'm limited to 32A without major wiring :(

I'm not familiar with the Parkson you linked but it looks sturdy, 40 taper is good, speeds are a little slow so better suited to steel than aluminium cutting but depends what you need really - looks a heavy machine and without all the flexible head nod & tilt should be useful.

[Muzzer]

Seems a lot of money for an old dog. Can't imagine (m)any businesses paying that for it - if anything fails on it, the thing is scrap - you'd never get parts for it. I'd suggest it's not worth much more than the cost of delivery. A machine that is over 15-20 years old is pretty much scrap due to the controller and electronics being obsolete. No sensible business would waste their money on something that could die at any moment. But that's ideal for the likes of us who can fit modern hobby grade drivers, a Chinese controller etc and get machining.

Machines this size are usually cheaper than ones that will fit in a garage workshop. It's rather like Transit vans costing more than 7.5t lorries - they are easier to use, service, repair and store etc.

I got an "old" Shizuoka from ebay for £1k (weighs 3 tonnes). I probably paid over the odds for it but it was in really nice condition. I've found most of the bearings etc are actually standard sizes so it's been easy to service and the components are very nice quality. Cuts really nicely.

I'd wait for something in better shape and / or smaller.