I just purchased my first Bridgeport J head mill real cheap from an R&D facility that was being shuttered, so I'm expecting some minor (hopefully) repairs are due. It's an older machine from the 60's with zirks so the morons have always greased instead of oiled and now the knee, table, and saddle barely move due to old hard grease, so I'll be busy cleaning out the oil paths and ways surfaces.
First thing I noticed after I got the machine into my garage and started to go through it was the retaining ring on the threaded shaft with the micro nuts was detached. Sure enough, the micro feed trip lever was also bent and not engaging the trip plunger. I straightened the lever temporarily until I see what other parts I need to order and proceeded to adjust the trip assembly.
During the adjustment, I noticed the cam rod sleeve assembly was not fully retracting to the left after the trip release. It was hanging up on something and I would need to manually pull the clutch trip lever by hand for it to fully disengage. I flushed the entire area with solvent while working it back and forth just hoping it was caked up swarf and it would move freely. No luck, I need to remove it from the head so I can examine behind it and all contact surfaces to figure out what is going on.
Here is where I am stuck. To remove the feed trip bracket, I first need to remove the handwheel clutch stop assembly. I removed the cap and spring to exposes the detent ball but the ball will not come out. I magnetized a small piece of drill rod and it sticks nicely to the ball but the ball will not extract. I feel the ball moving as I push and pull the plunger through the 3 positions so the ball is not frozen in place.
I was thinking about possibly using some epoxy on the drill rod and letting it fuse to the ball and trying to extract that way. I could see that going bad and digging a deeper hole than I am already in.
Any methods or tricks I can try?
Thanks,
MikeMM
First thing I noticed after I got the machine into my garage and started to go through it was the retaining ring on the threaded shaft with the micro nuts was detached. Sure enough, the micro feed trip lever was also bent and not engaging the trip plunger. I straightened the lever temporarily until I see what other parts I need to order and proceeded to adjust the trip assembly.
During the adjustment, I noticed the cam rod sleeve assembly was not fully retracting to the left after the trip release. It was hanging up on something and I would need to manually pull the clutch trip lever by hand for it to fully disengage. I flushed the entire area with solvent while working it back and forth just hoping it was caked up swarf and it would move freely. No luck, I need to remove it from the head so I can examine behind it and all contact surfaces to figure out what is going on.
Here is where I am stuck. To remove the feed trip bracket, I first need to remove the handwheel clutch stop assembly. I removed the cap and spring to exposes the detent ball but the ball will not come out. I magnetized a small piece of drill rod and it sticks nicely to the ball but the ball will not extract. I feel the ball moving as I push and pull the plunger through the 3 positions so the ball is not frozen in place.
I was thinking about possibly using some epoxy on the drill rod and letting it fuse to the ball and trying to extract that way. I could see that going bad and digging a deeper hole than I am already in.
Any methods or tricks I can try?
Thanks,
MikeMM