Quote:
Originally Posted by DeepWater
I'm assuming you are referring to a typical residential two car garage here?
Ok, I have heard similar stories from countless others over the years and I know they exist out there but I have just never been able to luck up on one of these $500 Bridgeport mill deals to save my life. I have been looking high and low for years but we just don't live in an area with a lot of manufacturing so these deals just don't seem to happen around here.
How does one get and move something like this to a home garage? I don't know of many homes with a forklift so just in case I ever do luck up on one of these deals I would sure like to know how others have manhandled a Bridgeport into their garage. Seriously, where is everyone finding these $500 Bridgeports and how are they moving them to their home shops?
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Yes its a typical residential 2 car garage (24x24?).
I probably should have been a little more detailed about the price of the Bridgeport. We got the machine (J-head Bridgeport 1964) without the DRO for $500 with a 6" clone Kurt mill vise. I added a $450 2 axis DRO from ebay later, and then an import powerfeed for the X axis for $200. Also, its not entirely necessary for some people, but I did swap the 1 HP 3 phase motor for a 1.5 hp 1 phase motor, since we don't get 3 phase power where I live.
To move the machine we rented a moving truck with a power tailgate. The people we bought the machine from loaded the machine in with their fork lift. Once we got home, we moved the machine onto the power tail gate using a pry bar and steel pipes placed under the base of the machine so it could roll. Once on the ground you can just keep up the same action of using the steel pipes to roll it where ever you like. Its not easy work, but it is doable.
Finding these machines all depends on where you live. Like here in New Jersey there is another
$500 BP selling on craigslist.
So in total its more like $1500 after add-ons and rental charges for us, but that is still far less than any similarly sized and equipped benchtop mill (thousands less than a new knee mill, Bridgeports (2J) new are around 12k).