Hi,
Just joined the forum and apologize for yet another question on what is a fair price for a Bridgeport. I've read several past threads, but haven't seem to find anything recent on what I am looking for.
Here's my background.
I have run a mill some before, but not enough to really say I know what I'm doing. Plus it's been about 4 years and I've forgotten some of what little I knew. I remember using indicators and edge finders and stuff like that, and doing some basic milling/drilling, but nothing very technical or sophisticated.
I've wanted a mill of my own for some time, mostly for repairing things on my farm equip. I'm leaning toward a Bridgeport because my impression is that not only were they well made, and have a good reputation, but I think parts would be more available for a Bridgeport vs. other brands? Please let me know if any assumptions are wrong.
Additionally, my thought is that if I ever wanted to sell the mill (we all get old at some point and lose mobility) a high quality mill would be easier to sell vs. lower end stuff (at least that's been my experience with various equip in the past).
Here's my thought (again please tell me if any of my assumptions are wrong). So many times in my life I've bought equipment cheap only to spend a ton of time and money rebuilding it, when in the end if I had just spent more buying a decent piece of equipment in the beginning, I could have saved myself a lot of time and had a good piece of equipment at about the same price as the cheap piece of equipment I rebuilt. So would it be better to buy a better BP mill on the front end vs. trying to rebuild a more worn machine?
I don't need much in the way of features because it wouldn't be a production machine. Obviously no CNC. I don't need a power feed. A DRO would be nice but not absolutely necessary. I'd want the R8 spindle, which I think requires the J head? I don't have 3 phase, so I'd need to use a VFD. I think I'd want a one shot oiler (even though I'm not sure how to identify this) because I've read on here that units with one shot oilers are more apt to be lubed? I don't want a big table. A 9 X 32 would be ideal, but could go as big as a 9 X 42. I'm limited on space.
I'm not in a hurry to buy one, but at the same time I don't want to wait a year and a half hoping for the deal of the decade. I'm looking for a fair price for a good machine. What should I expect to pay for something like that, say on Craigslist? Prices seem to be all over the board. I called a guy the other day who had an old machine with a round ram (1/2 hp). It was a 1940 something model which looked like it hadn't been necessarily cared for very well and he was asking $3k.
Also I see advertisements from businesses on the internet who claim to completely refurbish BP mills and sell them in the $7K range. Do some of these folks really do a good job? Are they really pretty much like brand new after they rebuild them? If so, would someone care to share some names of reputable businesses who rebuild BPs and then sell them? Would I still need to inspect a machine from a reputable rebuilder, or could I trust they would give me an honest spec sheet on runout, backlash, or any other pertinent info.?
Obviously buying a brand new BP would make these questions moot, but I don't want to spend that kind of money on a mill for mostly farm use. Plus I'd like to have a little money left over for tooling, which I understand can be a very substantial cost.
I'm not quite ready to pull the trigger now. I don't know enough about a BP to fairly evaluate it, so I know I could easily be ripped off.
I'm sure I sound really ignorant about this, because I am.
If there is a past thread which would answer some of my questions, please point me in that direction, so I won't waste peoples time. There are so many threads on this forum, I hardly know where to begin searching.
Thanks.
Just joined the forum and apologize for yet another question on what is a fair price for a Bridgeport. I've read several past threads, but haven't seem to find anything recent on what I am looking for.
Here's my background.
I have run a mill some before, but not enough to really say I know what I'm doing. Plus it's been about 4 years and I've forgotten some of what little I knew. I remember using indicators and edge finders and stuff like that, and doing some basic milling/drilling, but nothing very technical or sophisticated.
I've wanted a mill of my own for some time, mostly for repairing things on my farm equip. I'm leaning toward a Bridgeport because my impression is that not only were they well made, and have a good reputation, but I think parts would be more available for a Bridgeport vs. other brands? Please let me know if any assumptions are wrong.
Additionally, my thought is that if I ever wanted to sell the mill (we all get old at some point and lose mobility) a high quality mill would be easier to sell vs. lower end stuff (at least that's been my experience with various equip in the past).
Here's my thought (again please tell me if any of my assumptions are wrong). So many times in my life I've bought equipment cheap only to spend a ton of time and money rebuilding it, when in the end if I had just spent more buying a decent piece of equipment in the beginning, I could have saved myself a lot of time and had a good piece of equipment at about the same price as the cheap piece of equipment I rebuilt. So would it be better to buy a better BP mill on the front end vs. trying to rebuild a more worn machine?
I don't need much in the way of features because it wouldn't be a production machine. Obviously no CNC. I don't need a power feed. A DRO would be nice but not absolutely necessary. I'd want the R8 spindle, which I think requires the J head? I don't have 3 phase, so I'd need to use a VFD. I think I'd want a one shot oiler (even though I'm not sure how to identify this) because I've read on here that units with one shot oilers are more apt to be lubed? I don't want a big table. A 9 X 32 would be ideal, but could go as big as a 9 X 42. I'm limited on space.
I'm not in a hurry to buy one, but at the same time I don't want to wait a year and a half hoping for the deal of the decade. I'm looking for a fair price for a good machine. What should I expect to pay for something like that, say on Craigslist? Prices seem to be all over the board. I called a guy the other day who had an old machine with a round ram (1/2 hp). It was a 1940 something model which looked like it hadn't been necessarily cared for very well and he was asking $3k.
Also I see advertisements from businesses on the internet who claim to completely refurbish BP mills and sell them in the $7K range. Do some of these folks really do a good job? Are they really pretty much like brand new after they rebuild them? If so, would someone care to share some names of reputable businesses who rebuild BPs and then sell them? Would I still need to inspect a machine from a reputable rebuilder, or could I trust they would give me an honest spec sheet on runout, backlash, or any other pertinent info.?
Obviously buying a brand new BP would make these questions moot, but I don't want to spend that kind of money on a mill for mostly farm use. Plus I'd like to have a little money left over for tooling, which I understand can be a very substantial cost.
I'm not quite ready to pull the trigger now. I don't know enough about a BP to fairly evaluate it, so I know I could easily be ripped off.
I'm sure I sound really ignorant about this, because I am.
If there is a past thread which would answer some of my questions, please point me in that direction, so I won't waste peoples time. There are so many threads on this forum, I hardly know where to begin searching.
Thanks.