> Touchy, coolant control, lube, automatic draw bar come to mind too. This > should allow you to sell the Bridgeport as a first class manual machine, > then use the money to buy a real CNC machine that has a bad controller. > If you are patient, you should be able to find a CNC machine at a cost > that is close to the value of the Bridgeport. I got my Shizuoka CNC > mill, which is bigger and higher quality, for less than $2k and all that > was needed for the basic conversion was a parallel port interface, VFD, > DAC, plus other minor bits:
My opinion only: I mostly agree with Kirk. Converting a manual Bridgeport to CNC can be done, but is a very suboptimal approach. The value of these conversions usually is less than the value of original machines -- for a good reason. I would never recommend doing that. Wait and find a good used CNC machine. A used CNC machine with a bad control can be bought for peanuts, often less than a working manual Bridgeport. I bought a great condition Bridgeport Series II Interact 2 CNC mill for $500 (plus $500 for a lot of toolholders). Converted to EMC. Selling off the bad control components brought me $495. This machine is really a great CNC machine, not some kind of weird slapped together contraption. It was built for CNC from the start. EMC made it really shine. i ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF.net email is sponsored by Make an app they can't live without Enter the BlackBerry Developer Challenge http://p.sf.net/sfu/RIM-dev2dev _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
