Very nicely done. I have a BP S1 I converted to Mach3 several years ago and want to convert to close loop steppers and Acorn. Any thoughts on how to keep the steppers from back generating when running the machine with the crank handles?
The steppers I used have so much breaking when powered up you can't turn the cranks without breaking something. I bought Centroids wireless pendant (which was amazingly easy to install) so I just crank the pendant and put the table anywhere I want. I didn't plan on a pendant, but now that I have it I would not want to be without it. I can literally move the table in .001" increments when I need to, or up the speed and t moves damn fast.
Nice conversion! Did you replace the leadscrews with ball screws? What is your backlash and accuracy? I’m looking to do the same with my manual bridgeport.
X and Y already had ball screws from Bridgeport so I didn't have to change them. The Trax SX was a 2 axis machine with a huge computer and DC servo motors. It ran on 3 1/2" floppy discs.🤣
I have a nearly Identical build on a YCM-30 mill. Currently battling with a way to get the control system to account for the low / back gear of the head in order to spin the motor in the opposite direction. Do you use the low gear at all?
Ah, yes that was something I learned along the way. In high gear the spindle turns one way, but it turns the opposite way in low gear because of the gear reduction they use. I thought that my VFD was giving me grief and switching output on the 3 phase. I just set the VFD to run clockwise when I'm in high and counterclockwise when I'm in low.
I'm working a similar project with a ca. 1980 Bridgeport Series 1 Boss 5 CNC. I've been stuck on the wiring of the VFDS and drivers. I'm using DM860H drivers with, not sure of the VFD brand. I have a breakout board and am now trying to figure out the needed power supplies. I am using the original motors for now. Are separate power supplies needed for each driver or is it possible to power the 3 from 1? If your willing I'd love to see a video with some discussion and close up shots of the wiring between the drivers/motors/computer.
I am using a separate power supply for each motor but if they are smaller motors I've seen it done with common power supplies. The Acorn board to the VFD took me a few lay outs and changes since I set it up so I can use the Acorn SW to run everything, but also kept the ability to run the motor speed, the reverse and the safety stop all manually if the board or the PC is offline.
I didn't put together a build list for everything. To be honest I changed a few things as I built it and either found alternatives or figured out a couple issues in the build. The closed loop steppers, the drivers and the power supplies I got from Lead Shine. They are pretty good at putting together the stepper components you'd need. I used the Acorn CNC board. There are cheaper boards but so far none that I have found are as trouble free and easy to set up.
What size stepper motor are you running on the knee? They have quite a few selections on stepper motors they go by Oz or newton meters. Nema 34 to nama 42.
I used NEMA34 closed loop steppers, 9.0 Nm on all axis. They are more that I need on X and Y but pretty decent on Z. I don't lift a lot of big steel items on the knee though. Mostly make aluminum parts. If I needed more power I can change the 2:1 drive do a 3:1 drive and probably nothing would stop it before the drive nut broke.
Nice setup, I did the same on a supermax Bridgeport clone . The Centroid Acorn system is more expensive than most but worth every penny. I am curious though, where is your Z axis stepper? Mine is right on front of the mill head and takes away most manual quill control.
I put the z axis motor inside of the knee so I could drive the screw directly from the motor. I was worried that I'd have to much backlash if I ran it off the crank outside since that runs thru the bevel gear. I only use the quill feed for boring now and use the knee for NC in the z direction. IDK if that is the best but working good so far.
I have Hardinge 2007 2 axis cnc mill with an ez vision controller. This mill looks identical to the one in your video. The machine it’s self is in great shape, but the ez vision controller quite working. This is a common issue with the e vision controller. I would like to retrofit this machine into a 3 axis cnc mill with the quill as my 3rd axis. Do you have a video of your work that you done on your machine, or advise me on what I should do if you were me. What would it cost to do this myself and what would cost for me to have it done. Because my machine is identical to yours would you be intrested in taking this on. Your thought would be greatly appreciated.
Depends on what you have now for lead screws and X, Y and Z drives. You need good ball screws but if it was already NC it may have good screws. If it is a Bridgeport clone the spindle probably already has power down-feed so you'd need to disable a fair amount of the gear drives for that and replace with a stepper or servo. I chose to make my Z the knee. That way I still have the quill power feed but the Z has CNC control thru the knee. My A axis is a removable rotary table.
Can you share homing, as to the position of the table. I'm converting my floor standing knee mill and want to place my proximity switches in the right place.
I put my homing switches to set the table almost full positive X, mid travel Y and 12" down on Z (my knee is my Z axis). That gives me the table room I need for set up and for part removal, then I translate to the part coordinate system and machine in those coords.
One day I'll switch my Eagle/Anilam over from mach 4 to centroid. I rather like my mori sl1h oak retrofit. Centoid with a touch screen is so very pleasant to operate.
Can you disclose what kind of cost to expect to convert one of these machines to CNC? I am looking at either buying a new manual/CNC machine for about $15k (CNC Masters) or I can get an old BridgePort about $3K to $6K and convert it. Old American iron would probably be a much more substantial machine than a new one but also an overkill for my needs.
I did all of the research, bought the parts and did all of the assembly, so I'm into the whole CNC conversions right at about$1500.00. But honestly I didn't add every item up, some stuff I had here in the shop. I wanted a very heavy commercial Bridegeport for the stability. The newer clones or the smaller mills were just not rigid enough for my liking.
Thank you so much. I have decided to get an old BridgePort and recondition it. It will come out much cheaper and I believe I will end up with a better machine, plus the fun of rebuilding it. It looks like I can get a decent one for about $3K to $4K, about $5K to $6K for one that has 2 or 3 axis control. I would of course update all the electronics. From what I understand your machine had two axis motorized. You did not show how you converted the third (I guess the Z) to motorized. Can you show that? I am looking to do very similar to what you have. I am new to the whole vertical mill thing and machining but will be starting to put together a small machine shop at my home for personal use. If I start with a manual bridgePort, can I convert it to a full CNC or would it be much better for me to start with a bridgePort that is already 2 or 3 axis motorized. I do want the option to switch from CNC to manual as well. I think that if I find a decent 2 or 3 axis CNC BP, I would have to pay a little more upfront but the conversion may cost less? But, like I said, I am new to this so I don't know much. Any help would be greatly appreciated and thanks for responding to my inquiry.@@ilrperformance7152
This started out as 2 axis CNC from Bridgeport so It has ball screws in X and Y already. I have not changed the Z to ball screw and so far it works fine since the weight of the knee minimizes backlash. The Acorn CNC has backlash compensation as well.
I put the z axis motor inside of the knee so i could drive the screw directly from the motor. I was worried that I'd have to much backlash if I ran it off the crank outside since that runs thru the bevel gear.
Just curious why you believe that it's not a knee mill? Only asking because the paperwork I have with it and the repair manual call it a Bridgeport Series 2 Knee Mill.
I'm working a similar project with a ca. 1980 Bridgeport Series 1 Boss 5 CNC. I've been stuck on the wiring of the VFDS and drivers. I'm using DM860H drivers with, not sure of the VFD brand. I have a breakout board and am now trying to figure out the needed power supplies. I am using the original motors for now. Are separate power supplies needed for each driver or is it possible to power the 3 from 1? If your willing I'd love to see a video with some discussion and close up shots of the wiring between the drivers/motors/computer.
a 1980 Boss would probably have servo motors and not stepper motors. It's a very different set up so not sure my closed loop stepper wiring would translate well.
Such a tidy looking machine, id love to have one like this alongside my manual BP for the more common tasks.
Thank you. It's a really sturdy machine. Way nicer to work with than my older manual Jet mill.
Fresh Bridgeport and a worthy candidate for the conversion, why not start from the best possible base.
Tidy job well done. Nice!
Many thanks!
Very nicely done. I have a BP S1 I converted to Mach3 several years ago and want to convert to close loop steppers and Acorn. Any thoughts on how to keep the steppers from back generating when running the machine with the crank handles?
The steppers I used have so much breaking when powered up you can't turn the cranks without breaking something. I bought Centroids wireless pendant (which was amazingly easy to install) so I just crank the pendant and put the table anywhere I want. I didn't plan on a pendant, but now that I have it I would not want to be without it. I can literally move the table in .001" increments when I need to, or up the speed and t moves damn fast.
Nice conversion! Did you replace the leadscrews with ball screws? What is your backlash and accuracy? I’m looking to do the same with my manual bridgeport.
X and Y already had ball screws from Bridgeport so I didn't have to change them. The Trax SX was a 2 axis machine with a huge computer and DC servo motors. It ran on 3 1/2" floppy discs.🤣
I have a nearly Identical build on a YCM-30 mill. Currently battling with a way to get the control system to account for the low / back gear of the head in order to spin the motor in the opposite direction. Do you use the low gear at all?
Ah, yes that was something I learned along the way. In high gear the spindle turns one way, but it turns the opposite way in low gear because of the gear reduction they use. I thought that my VFD was giving me grief and switching output on the 3 phase. I just set the VFD to run clockwise when I'm in high and counterclockwise when I'm in low.
I'm working a similar project with a ca. 1980 Bridgeport Series 1 Boss 5 CNC. I've been stuck on the wiring of the VFDS and drivers. I'm using DM860H drivers with, not sure of the VFD brand. I have a breakout board and am now trying to figure out the needed power supplies. I am using the original motors for now. Are separate power supplies needed for each driver or is it possible to power the 3 from 1? If your willing I'd love to see a video with some discussion and close up shots of the wiring between the drivers/motors/computer.
I am using a separate power supply for each motor but if they are smaller motors I've seen it done with common power supplies. The Acorn board to the VFD took me a few lay outs and changes since I set it up so I can use the Acorn SW to run everything, but also kept the ability to run the motor speed, the reverse and the safety stop all manually if the board or the PC is offline.
Great video! Do you have a list of specs or model numbers for the steppers and other components? I have a manual Series 1 I'd like to convert. Thanks!
I didn't put together a build list for everything. To be honest I changed a few things as I built it and either found alternatives or figured out a couple issues in the build. The closed loop steppers, the drivers and the power supplies I got from Lead Shine. They are pretty good at putting together the stepper components you'd need. I used the Acorn CNC board. There are cheaper boards but so far none that I have found are as trouble free and easy to set up.
Timing Belt and Pulley you used
What size stepper motor are you running on the knee? They have quite a few selections on stepper motors they go by Oz or newton meters. Nema 34 to nama 42.
I used NEMA34 closed loop steppers, 9.0 Nm on all axis. They are more that I need on X and Y but pretty decent on Z. I don't lift a lot of big steel items on the knee though. Mostly make aluminum parts. If I needed more power I can change the 2:1 drive do a 3:1 drive and probably nothing would stop it before the drive nut broke.
Nice setup, I did the same on a supermax Bridgeport clone . The Centroid Acorn system is more expensive than most but worth every penny. I am curious though, where is your Z axis stepper? Mine is right on front of the mill head and takes away most manual quill control.
It's up inside the knee, driving directly off the crew. I was worried that the lash would be too excessive.
I put the z axis motor inside of the knee so I could drive the screw directly from the motor. I was worried that I'd have to much backlash if I ran it off the crank outside since that runs thru the bevel gear. I only use the quill feed for boring now and use the knee for NC in the z direction. IDK if that is the best but working good so far.
@@ilrperformance7152 do you happen to have any pictures of how you drive the knee?
I have Hardinge 2007 2 axis cnc mill with an ez vision controller. This mill looks identical to the one in your video. The machine it’s self is in great shape, but the ez vision controller quite working. This is a common issue with the e vision controller. I would like to retrofit this machine into a 3 axis cnc mill with the quill as my 3rd axis. Do you have a video of your work that you done on your machine, or advise me on what I should do if you were me. What would it cost to do this myself and what would cost for me to have it done. Because my machine is identical to yours would you be intrested in taking this on. Your thought would be greatly appreciated.
Depends on what you have now for lead screws and X, Y and Z drives. You need good ball screws but if it was already NC it may have good screws. If it is a Bridgeport clone the spindle probably already has power down-feed so you'd need to disable a fair amount of the gear drives for that and replace with a stepper or servo. I chose to make my Z the knee. That way I still have the quill power feed but the Z has CNC control thru the knee. My A axis is a removable rotary table.
Can you share homing, as to the position of the table. I'm converting my floor standing knee mill and want to place my proximity switches in the right place.
I put my homing switches to set the table almost full positive X, mid travel Y and 12" down on Z (my knee is my Z axis). That gives me the table room I need for set up and for part removal, then I translate to the part coordinate system and machine in those coords.
One day I'll switch my Eagle/Anilam over from mach 4 to centroid. I rather like my mori sl1h oak retrofit. Centoid with a touch screen is so very pleasant to operate.
I have found the Centroid to be a very good option. A lot of features and great support. Didn't really like Mach 4 on my router.
Can you disclose what kind of cost to expect to convert one of these machines to CNC? I am looking at either buying a new manual/CNC machine for about $15k (CNC Masters) or I can get an old BridgePort about $3K to $6K and convert it. Old American iron would probably be a much more substantial machine than a new one but also an overkill for my needs.
I did all of the research, bought the parts and did all of the assembly, so I'm into the whole CNC conversions right at about$1500.00. But honestly I didn't add every item up, some stuff I had here in the shop. I wanted a very heavy commercial Bridegeport for the stability. The newer clones or the smaller mills were just not rigid enough for my liking.
Thank you so much. I have decided to get an old BridgePort and recondition it. It will come out much cheaper and I believe I will end up with a better machine, plus the fun of rebuilding it. It looks like I can get a decent one for about $3K to $4K, about $5K to $6K for one that has 2 or 3 axis control. I would of course update all the electronics.
From what I understand your machine had two axis motorized. You did not show how you converted the third (I guess the Z) to motorized. Can you show that?
I am looking to do very similar to what you have. I am new to the whole vertical mill thing and machining but will be starting to put together a small machine shop at my home for personal use. If I start with a manual bridgePort, can I convert it to a full CNC or would it be much better for me to start with a bridgePort that is already 2 or 3 axis motorized. I do want the option to switch from CNC to manual as well.
I think that if I find a decent 2 or 3 axis CNC BP, I would have to pay a little more upfront but the conversion may cost less? But, like I said, I am new to this so I don't know much. Any help would be greatly appreciated and thanks for responding to my inquiry.@@ilrperformance7152
Did you change the ball screw?
This started out as 2 axis CNC from Bridgeport so It has ball screws in X and Y already. I have not changed the Z to ball screw and so far it works fine since the weight of the knee minimizes backlash. The Acorn CNC has backlash compensation as well.
Do you still have the old motors ?
I have the original 2 servo motors and all of the cabinet and electronics
@@ilrperformance7152 I am interested in purchasing them. My mill has had motors removed should I contact you at your web site?
Nothing on the Z motion?
I put the z axis motor inside of the knee so i could drive the screw directly from the motor. I was worried that I'd have to much backlash if I ran it off the crank outside since that runs thru the bevel gear.
Its not a knee mill, its a turret mill
Just curious why you believe that it's not a knee mill? Only asking because the paperwork I have with it and the repair manual call it a Bridgeport Series 2 Knee Mill.
But it has a knee…
I'm working a similar project with a ca. 1980 Bridgeport Series 1 Boss 5 CNC. I've been stuck on the wiring of the VFDS and drivers. I'm using DM860H drivers with, not sure of the VFD brand. I have a breakout board and am now trying to figure out the needed power supplies. I am using the original motors for now. Are separate power supplies needed for each driver or is it possible to power the 3 from 1? If your willing I'd love to see a video with some discussion and close up shots of the wiring between the drivers/motors/computer.
a 1980 Boss would probably have servo motors and not stepper motors. It's a very different set up so not sure my closed loop stepper wiring would translate well.