Bridgeport Manual to CNC conversion...

[Davek0974]

Yes, its hard on the head and it sounds hard on the head, thats my reason to slow it down a bit, there really is no point in sudden stop on a machine with splined quill and all that other crap up top ;)

The chances are that most of the dog-clutch wear was caused by my using it for running a 12-1/2" dia fly-cutter when cutting the saddles on the traction engine cylinder block and chimney base and perch-bracket - these would take many hours of running in back-gear and really worked the old girl. It was a job for a HBM really but when you have a Bridgeport you can do pretty much anything;)

The tiny splines and those dodgy dogs are certainly a weak spot, rarely fail but wear a lot and get very vocal, you can wreck the dogs by being a jack-the-lad and changing gear while the spindle is running, would never do this but have seen the carnage caused.

The belt i have fitted is good for something like 60-70hp so i doubt that will be bothered ;)