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Thread: Pacific Mill upgrade
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28th Aug 2020, 10:54 PM #1Intermediate Member
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Pacific Mill upgrade
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Thought I might document and share a project just started. While in hibernation these last few months we (= 2 old crocks ) thought about doing something serious with our 70`s vintage Bridgeport Mill that was showing its age . Wish list included power drives on Z and Y axis feeds, ball nut feed screws, 3 axis DRO, repaint ect, head was ok but table ways probably needs re machining ,not much of the gib adjusters showing , machining of this nature in FNQ is a bit of a challenge . Well that's pretty much the refurbishment side, next is looking at replacement ,new First Mill and similar up around $ 14-15 K plus freight , other secondhand units with a decent size table and all the bells and whistles up around $ 7-8 K plus freight. Result...brings us to the subject at hand . We have a seldom used Pacific FU 1250 universal mill complete with Huron head in VGC with 1250 x 280 slewing table, power feed with rapids to 3 axis, 3 axis DRO and a ram just begging for a Bridgeport type head. Another clincher for this option is no more floor space required, pendant power present.
Looking around for a head some 2nd hand units available in the U.S. not cheap plus freight being a killer, ending up approaching a company in Taiwan . Brand new 3 HP 3 Ph 2 speed motor unit with 85 mm quill R8 spindle $ 1500.00 USD ( really good people to deal with ) plus all the usual costs including Scomo`s cut another $ 2000.00 AUD The Taiwan people however could not supply the Ram adapter as they only make the head units , these adapters are available SH again not cheap and as the new head is still on the water we are hanging off on this part which we will probably fabricate anyway. The electricals are going to be a bit involved so in time I will get a thread going detailing them in the shocko forum. Stay tuned.
Photo 1 Shows main 25 mm mounting plate on end of Pacific Ram . 2 of 25mm slots were milled 3 mm deep to locate 25 mm outriggers precisely 3 M12 x 30 cap screws on each outrigger plus min. welding.
Photo 2 Shows detached Bridgeport head with ram adapter.
Photo 3 Shows for and aft adjusting worm gear being cut.
Photo 4 Shows Pacific with Ram adapter housing fitted .
Photo 5. Shows Pacific with Bridgeport head fitted to know how it was all going to pan out. Used this time to workout new control panel position.
Photo 6. Shows new head being boxed up in the works in Taiwan.
Photo 7 Shows a general view of the selected head.
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29th Aug 2020, 09:20 AM #2
Nice work, coming along great
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29th Aug 2020, 04:09 PM #3Most Valued Member
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Did they give you a choice of spindle tapers? Wonder what the cost increase would be for 40 taper.
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29th Aug 2020, 05:58 PM #4Intermediate Member
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Hi caskwarrior,
I would expect it to bit more expensive as quill dia. goes to 100 mm and 5 HP motor with NT 40 spindle . I will post a link and if you go so far to ask a question they usually respond same day.
E-catalog - YIH KUAN ENT CO., LTD.www.yihkuan.com › e-catalog-en
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29th Aug 2020, 08:26 PM #5
Just wondering why you only went with 3x M12 bolt's over say M16 in 25mm plate?
I know from my late grandfather who was a shipbuilder that a tack weld can carry 1 ton so shouldn't be a problem.
I'm heading down a different but similar path soon myself with a oddball head riser for my H/V mill.Using Tapatalk
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29th Aug 2020, 10:32 PM #6Intermediate Member
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Hi Dave, Min. welding meant not fully welded, trying to keep distortion down
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29th Aug 2020, 11:28 PM #7Golden Member
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Nice project; you may have seen my graft of a J-head onto a Victoria U2, it's probably buried several pages back here by now. I decided to forego the tilt function to both simplify the conversion and improve rigidity. I put hundreds of hours into that project and have not regretted it for an instant, the versatility of a Bridgeport plus all the functions of a full universal machine along with power feeds on all axes. About the only thing lacking is rapid feeds and you have that covered.
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30th Aug 2020, 12:02 AM #8Intermediate Member
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Not quite covered Pete O, don't look at my thread in electricals VFD Outputs or you will get a head ache. I checked out `Frankenmill `a while back that was quite involved I can't remember who posted it
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