Hello I would like to know if anyone out there can help me understand a little more regarding the performance of A Bridgeport M head,,, I recently purchased one from me friend whose father owned it who actually was the original owner ,, it has the standard 1/2 hp motor that came with it back in 1940 I believe and the machine is in wonderful condition hardly any backlash at all everything tight and beautifully taken care of,,, The maximum end mill size is 1/2 inch And when I throw in a brand new 4 fluted end mill it seems I can only take very small minimal cuts with it like 1/16 at a time,, any more than that and the machine just bogs down and eventually comes to a stop .. my travel speed is very slow and it just seems that it should be able to do you a little better than that ,,, I just have to slowly nibble away at whatever Im cutting which was aluminum and some brass,,, I can imagine if I were cutting some much harder material like stainless steel or something ,,,is this Whats to be expected with this machine and its 1/2 horse power motor..?
I know this is the first machine Bridgeport came out with and all the others seem to have gotten more powerful as the years have going on is this what I can expect as far as any work I plan on doing with it ,, just take a very small little cuts and work my way through it without going too deep while traveling very slowly,,, I took the motor in thinking that it might be worn out but they told me the motor is working fine and I had them put new bearings in it anyways ..I thought the belt might be slipping Explaining why it would slowly slow down and come to a stop but ive locked it down as tight as it will go and the belt seems like its tight enough .. The machine also came with a VFD which converted it to single phase power .. I dont know much about the operation on that other than just speeding it up or slowing it down but when I looked up the manual online there was a category that talked about torque and I was wondering if that meant that the torque of the motor can be adjusted also thinking that maybe thats why its not cutting through and bogging down to a stop ..???
Anyway Im very new to this stuff and I know there are professionals out there that know much more about these machines and any help on the matter would be greatly appreciated thank you ..
I know this is the first machine Bridgeport came out with and all the others seem to have gotten more powerful as the years have going on is this what I can expect as far as any work I plan on doing with it ,, just take a very small little cuts and work my way through it without going too deep while traveling very slowly,,, I took the motor in thinking that it might be worn out but they told me the motor is working fine and I had them put new bearings in it anyways ..I thought the belt might be slipping Explaining why it would slowly slow down and come to a stop but ive locked it down as tight as it will go and the belt seems like its tight enough .. The machine also came with a VFD which converted it to single phase power .. I dont know much about the operation on that other than just speeding it up or slowing it down but when I looked up the manual online there was a category that talked about torque and I was wondering if that meant that the torque of the motor can be adjusted also thinking that maybe thats why its not cutting through and bogging down to a stop ..???
Anyway Im very new to this stuff and I know there are professionals out there that know much more about these machines and any help on the matter would be greatly appreciated thank you ..