Bridgeport Maintenance

CNC Bridgeportis Got Sold!!!

The CNC Bridgeport Torqcut 22 was sold in July 2014 to make room for the new CNC HAAS VF-3. This page can be archived / deleted.

This page will be used to capture the maintenance items preformed on the Bridgeport Torq-Cut 22 CNC Mill.

Main Page for: Bridgeport CNC Mill

To-Do on Next Maintenance Day

1. Gunk Removal
   • Continue to remove gunk from all surfaces of the machine.
2. Plastic Door Pocket
   • Use some foam double face tape to reattach the plastic door pocket which recently came off. The door pocket is located inside the electrical cabinet on the back of the machine.
     • The old gunk tape was removed from the inside of the door. Remove the remaining gunk from the plastic frame and reattach with new foam tape.
     • All the old electrical drawings, which are stored in the plastic door pocket, should be electronically scanned for the future. If the originals become lost today it would be hard to find replacements.

Maintenance Notes

1. Coolant System Cleaning
   • The coolant reservoir would be much easier to clean with a power washer! Cleaning the inside of the reservoir is difficult.
   • Bring your own garden hose - the i3 hose is not the best.
   • Wait for a warm day. Spraying a lot of water through the reservoir makes for a cold and wet experience.
2. Inside Work Lamp Bulb Replacement
   • The bulb is replaced by taking off the back cover plate. There are two spring rods that can be unclipped to release the bulb.
   • There is no way to pull the bulb out through the front reflector. In other words, the bulb is NOT replaced by pulling on the glass envelop. This will only break the bulb. It is a waste of time to remove the glass cover on the front of the lamp.
   • New bulb link: HELLA H83135211 24V 70W H3

Maintenance Day 4/29/2012

1. Removed all the old coolant from the sump. Cleaned and replaced with 10 gallons of new coolant.
   • Used a ratio of 6 cups of concentrate to 10 gallons of water.
   • Old coolant will be placed in plastic gallon milk jugs for disposal.
2. Removed all the old cutting chips from inside the machine housing.
3. Purchased a "wiggler" for edge locating. The wiggler also has a locating point that can be used to find scribed locations.
4. Purchased a set of "wavy" parallel blocks from Production Tool.

Maintenance Day 12/01/2012

1. Removed sand blaster bench and equipment from the Bridgeport area.
   • Removed the large electrical disconnect box behind the work bench. This allows the bench to be pushed closer the wall which facilitates using the peg board behind the bench.
2. Reworked compressed air line which dropped down from the ceiling into the machine.
   • Moved shutoff valve to the bottom of the standpipe. The old shutoff valve, being so high up, was hard to reach.
   • Added a three-way air manifold to the bottom of the airline.
   • Replaced the coiled airline hose, to the machine, with a solid hose.
   • The replaced coiled hose can now be used for the new air gun.
   • In the past, an air hose was pulled across the floor to provide for blow-off in the machine. The new changes removes this trip hazard.
3. Cleaned around the machine a bunch.
4. Installed Z-Axis coolant splash guard and external toe kick plate.
5. Installed new 24V / 75 Watt bulb inside the machine.

Maintenance Day 11/12/2012

1. Flushed Coolant System
   • The old coolant was removed from the reservoir into a 5 gallon pal. The old coolant was capped and disposed of by our friendly next door neighbors who were also taking some nasty chemicals to the dump.
   • The reservoir was refilled with 9 gallons using a ratio of 35:1 water to oil (Edit: replace "oil" with name of the actual solution).
   • A new 1/4 turn ball valve was added to the spindle coolant pipe which lacked one. It's now possible to turn off the valve so that coolant will not drip while working inside the machine.
2. Repaired Left-Hand Sliding Window
   • The window was binding in the window track. The window and track were removed from the machine. The track was cleaned, straitened, and reinstalled in the machine.
   • The window was cut down 1/8" to better fit in the machine.
   • The Bridgeport metal housing had also become bent. As much as possible, the housing was straitened.
3. Gunk Removal
   • Small amounts of Mineral Spirits were used on rages to remove large amounts of gunk from the machine.
   • Alcohol was used to remove tape residue with good success.
4. Spindle Air Leak
   • The brass air fitting on the side of the spindle was leaking large amounts of air.
   • A new fitting was purchased (Thanks Steve) and installed to replace the failing one.
5. Troubleshot Non-Working Internal Lamp
   • Inside lamp uses a standard 24V H3 75 Watt Halogen bulb.
   • The old bulb was found with a blown filament.
   • A cheap ($3.50) bulb was installed as a replacement. However, the new bulb failed to light. After much troubleshooting, the new bulb was found to have a cold spot weld internal to the bulb itself.
   • A new Hella ($6.50) bulb was ordered as a replacement.
     • Amazon link to Hella bulb.

Replaced Top Z Axis Ball Screw Bearing - July 2012

1. Replacement Ball Bearing
   • New bearing was purchased from "CHINA WIKI BEARING CO.,LTD".
   • Bearing Part Number: ZKLF2575-2RS
   • Cost $281 USD.
   • Email Contact at China Wiki Bearing: Eric Yang -> "Sales @ BearingWiki dot Com"
   • NOTE: The bearing was held up in US Customs because of a US embargo on Chinese bearing manufactures.
     • The shipper (DHL) required a large amount of extra paperwork before the bearing could clear US Customs. Basically, the paper was required to prove that the bearing was not going to be resold in the US for a profit.
2. Bearing Installation
   • The bearing was installed by a local machine repair company called "DB2 Repair Group".