Bridgeport Manual to CNC conversion...

[Davek0974]

Yes, that would my choice, there are a lot of head options - roller, plunger, lever etc with that switch type.

Need to choose where to mount them sensibly too.

[Davek0974]

Got the knee back on tonight, new lift bearing makes it silky smooth after years of grinding up an down...



Anyone know how to adjust gibs properly? The books just say tighten until you feel resistance but on the knee that could be very tight?

The vise-grips are only there to crimp off the feed to the saddle so i can prime the way lube pipes ;)

[m_c]

Dial/DTI gauge, magnetic stand, and a big lever.

You don't want to adjust it up to the point there's no measurable play as you risk it binding and no room being left for oil, but you also don't want it flapping about.
When adjusting slides that I can't try moving by hand to test resistance, I usually aim for around 0.02mm of movement on a DTI. On older machines, you may need to allow for worn areas, so you ideally want to adjust things at the least worn part of the travel.

[Davek0974]

How is it measured though - the distance the measurement is taken over will vary the reading etc, is it measured up/down or left/right??

[m_c]

You want to be measuring the lift in the slide (forward/backward movement on a knee), however you need to judge the best way to achieve that for each machine.

For a knee, I'd probably mount a DTI on the side of the body pushing against a feature/block mounted on the side of the knee, and try rocking the knee side to side, and pivot it up/down. You obviously don't want to be measuring the play in the knee nut/screw mounting, so you may need to try levering a few different ways to work out what will work best.