What is the best 3 axis retrofit for Bridgeport

[mike561h]

Hello Friends Merry Christmasm and happy New Year,

 

I will helping set up a small shop for a company.

They purchased a old Bridgeport and want it retofitted. WE will be using Mastercam to run it. I have used Acu-rite controllers before and Prototrak. I noticed Acu-rite has a 3 axis retofit. Does anyone have any input on them? I also saw Haas has a small toolroom 3 axis that starts at 25 grand. I can't find the prices on their website.

 

Thanks,

Mike

[Matt Berube at Ferron Mold]

I have used the acu-rite. If you're not expecting much you may find it adequate. I have run g-code thru it and that goes fine. It's biggest benefit is you can give it and a blueprint to any machinist and he can learn to run it easier than a regular cnc.

 

The biggest issue with the acu-rite is the z axis.

 

#1 The rotary encoder version z axis simply does not work correctly and faults out very often.

 

#2 You can upgrade to the glass scale z axis (which we finally did) but because of the way the retrofit is designed you get way too much slop on z depths. I have seen depths blown by .005-.007

 

You can get (sort of) accurate results if you want to fiddle around with it but you will waste lots of time.

 

If you're going to program with Mastercam anyway I recommend another look at the Haas (or anything else that is not acu-rite)

[New Job]

I would think the prototrak would be good. We have prototrak mills and love'em. Seem to me the retrofit would be about the same control and should be very powerfull. Then when they are ready to replace. they could move right up to the prototrak mills.

 

 

JM2C

[Roger Peterson]

What does the retrofit cost? These retrofit machines are not very rigid at all. Nor are their feedrates very fast. They definately have a place but most people outgrow these units very quickly. Milltronics and Haas both have knee mill style mills, and I'm sure there are others, that are just over $20,000 that are waaaaay more machine that what the retrofits will give you.

 

It depends on what you are looking for.

 

One last thing, any cnc is better than no cnc and once you have something it is usually pretty easy to justify the next step up.

 

good luck!

[ducati]

Mike,

Is the Bridgeport a Series I or Series II?

Was it a CNC type machine such as the Boss?

SouthWestern Industries makes a retro kit for many models. If it was a CNC already and the ball screws are good then that will save them a few bucks. The latest controls (SMX3) come with many options.. such as electronic handwheels, DXF input, G Code editing at the machine, etc.

The extra options of course cost extra. Thread milling is any example of a canned cycle that comes with the higher end package. Also, Route 66 makes retrofit kit with a nice Z axis. I believe the costs for all the options including electronic hand wheels is under 20K. IMHO

[ducati]

Hmm, hit return key ...

Anyway IMHO for a small shop doing short run production work the control is fine. Easy to learn and with MasterCam you can produce some very good parts rather fast. Like mentioned above it aint a 4/5/6 axis CNC but.. it offers many more jobs opportunities than the convential manual knee mill.

Good luck

[moldman7n]

These machines (prototrak and accurite) are great for prototype work and one of parts. They are not suited to production work unless it is small aluminum or plastic parts. The lack of a toolchanger, rigidity issues, slow feedrates etc., severely handicap them. They do have a place in quick 1 part work and prototyping,, no question. Unless it is a large or complicated part, a good machinist/toolmaker can have single part in your hand before the programs/set-up stuff is even complete on the big cnc mills.

[Sambo]

Have you talked to anyone from Hardinge(Bridgeport) yet? Hardinge links straight to Acu-Rite. I would sooner only have to go to one source if there is ever a problem instead of getting stuck in a game of pass the buck. So, if those two have a contract I would certainly go that route.

Haas, if somebody gave me one, I'd sell it without even looking at it, based on my own experience with them. Seriously, look at how many of them are for sell out there that are one or two years old. Then ask yourself, "Why are they selling them so soon?"

[Roger Peterson]

my biggest reservation about most of these units is the R8 collets. If you can find any way whatsoever to get "quick change" tooling it is a HUGE benefit. A toolchanger is obviously better but even manual quick change tooling is 1000 times better than using R8 collets.

 

 

JM2C

[Lee.]

Mike,

 

are just talking control?

 

I am retrofitting one of my routers at present and am going to run MACH3 on it.

 

You can check artofcnc.com or ask away and i'll do my best.

 

Lee.

[chris m]

Mike you should be able to build a quote on the Haas website and print it right out. There are other similar machines out there as well. IMO 3-axis CNCs on true knee-mill Bridgeports suck for all of the various reasons stated above. If you want a 2-axis I would go with the Prototrak because there are a billion in service and everybody knows how to run them. If you are going to spend the $$ for the third axis I would really look into a better machine.

 

C

[Bob Hedrick]

I'm running Mach2 with a Camtronics control and servos on a bridge mill (combination 3 axis mill & 2 axis lathe) and am very happy with the control software and the controller itself. It was so easy to set up and use, even a software engineer could do it

[Michael Sullivan]

"I also saw Haas has a small toolroom 3 axis that starts at 25 grand. I can't find the prices on their website."

 

TM-1 starts at about 22,000

HAAS is a great company

We have the minimills, they are great for prototyping and small batch production. start at 40,000 though.

[chris m]

quote:

---

HAAS is a great company

---

hahahahaha....the machines are OK but let's not get too carried away here

 

The MiniMill pricing has really gone up over the past few years, but then again business is good.

 

C

[Larry Westgate]

The best retrofit I have seen comes from a small company out east www.cncauto.com I have had 3 Bridgeports redone and bought a new 5 hp cat40.

The machines download easly have a great conversational system works great with mastercam.

Taught CNC programing classes on these for several years and have no complaints