Moving a 2200 lb. Bridgeport J-Head Without Heavy Equipment

[@DK-vx1zc]

great job. took your time and gotter done

[@TBJK07Jeep]

Man never seen a Bridgeport moved that way. Looks like it worked well, good job. My neighbor helped me 3 times so far move milling machines. Lift gate truck the first time, that was the sketchiest. So much so my kids went in the house telling my wife we dropped it. (3600 lbs Kondia/Bridgeport combo). The other machines we used a skid steer

[@samuelwiltzius]

Yeah… I absolutely hate moving machines over 1000lbs. This one went well. The 5000 lb lathe I moved next slid off the machine skates when loading and thinking about the sound it made still raises my heart rate - I didn’t mess around unloading that one, I called up the neighbor with the front end loader.

[@DeanBateman]

That was impressive, kudos to you

[@Anderson-HandForged]

bigtime props to you for moving that by yourself i just bought same exact mill and a 6ft lathe for $1000 with all the tooling and a rotary table just need to get them home i have a buddy thats gonna use his excavator to lift onto trailer for me did you get yours up and running ? Mark 👍👍✌

[@samuelwiltzius]

Thanks! Loading the lathe was also a trick. Bridgeport is great and is up and running. Went with a VFD from Jack Forsberg and am very happy. I’m in the process now of cleaning and painting it. Just moved and uploaded a video moving a 5000+ lb lathe which is getting the same treatment. Lathe came with a lot of quality tooling.

[@TKC_]

Nice. Tough doing that by yourself with no machines. General moving advice is lower the z axis and rotate the head upside down to put the motor by the table to lower the cg of the machine as much as possible to prevent tipping. Controversially people block under the table then lower the table to lift the base to get stuff under. There are only 4 smaller bolts holding that on so not really recommended but people do it.

[@samuelwiltzius]

Spot on advice. I lowered the table, but not all the way - an oversight on my part. I thought about rotating the head, but due to my unfamiliarity with the machine and knowing it was already perfectly calibrated I figured the the cg wouldn’t be that much better - I also had a bit more confidence in the stability (whether warranted or not is up for debate) with the wood planks.

[@TKC_]

@@samuelwiltzius Lots to learn with these machines. Mine was coated in grease and put away to protect it. It was so petrified I had to disassemble the whole machine… what a learning experience. Get used to calibrating the head though it takes 5 minutes once you get the hang of it. I use a back plunge indicator. I’ve knocked mine out and have had to tilt things a few times.

[@lesp315]

@@TKC_ 5 minutes to trim the head? You are a genius. To what tolerance -/- .005"?

[@TKC_]

@@lesp315 I go for like +-.001 on a 6” circle. I want my fly cuts looking clean. Snug your bolts to the point that it’ll just move with a decent mallet tap. The snugging part makes it easy so things don’t move as you tighten the bolts at final alignment.