Bridge Mill??

Chevycummins

Chevycummins

Bad case of Tinkeritis!
has anyone ever dealt with a machine of this scale in there home or work place.

Eldorado Bridge Mill Combo Lathe / Mill / Drill w/3-Axis DRO

it appears to be a decent price and we are looking at it to expand our capabilities for our LLC on the side from our daily job. buisiness has picked up for us and are looking at doing some different contracts, and this machine would help us out a lot with some of the items we are being asked to build.


looking for advice and insite as if it would be worth it? if all works out and things continue to prosper we plan to offer our services to the fellow members of CompD. that is if the Mods are ok with that. after all the paper work is done of course.
 
It's hard to make money with something like that. They usually aren't very rigid and are kind of hokie to run. Just my opinion.
 
yeah i imagine. my brother is used to using equipment that is older than me and him combined. some of the stuff at his work is around 60-80 yrs old. i am sure it wont last with large scale production but hope it works for what we can use it for. depending on how it works he plans on upgrading it to full CNC.
 
those are pieces of ****. Never buy a combo piece of equipment. If you need a smaller mill, look at the seig super x3. 1600 bucks and well worth it. Add a cnc kit to it for another 1000.

either way a cheep mill and lathe will out do the combo machines out there.
 
i was a machineist for 3 yrs. would never waste that much on a machine like that. take that money and buy you a bridgeport mill with a rotary attachment. you cando a lot with it.
 
This machine is just for small parts. We have access to large scale machines at my brothers work. For all the large stuff.
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That thing will never hold any kind of tolerances.
If you have the room for it, I'd be looking for an older VMC.
If you hit the auctions you should be able to pick one up pretty cheap, but you need to thoroughly check it out before buying.
We picked up a Cinncinnati Milacron Sabre 750 a couple years ago for two grand at auction.
It had recently had all the motors rebuilt and new drivers (fanuc) and all new spindle bearings done.
Then all you need is a decent lathe ( I am partial to the older leblonds) look for something with at least 15" bed swing if you plan on actually using it for something.
 
This one will take up to 20" stock. A are looking at stuff like exhaust flanges maybe even mill the head off for the intakes. Nothing bigger than that. Will let him know about those others and see what we can find.
 
You can mill the intake off with a machine like that, but you better pack a lunch, and plan on spending double for tooling. Rigidity is important for tool life.
 
if this ends up not working for precise machine work it might work good enough for some other things. we are looking at other options, its just that the machines down at his work are a little oversized for some of the small things we are building
 
I second the Bridgeport motion. You can get an older one for dirt cheap, they're accurate(enough for almost anything), and can do a wide range of machining.
 
I would pass on that if it were me. A bridgeport would be much better for what your wanting to do. I dont think you would be happy with something that small chuck and lathe wise.

If you are going to go look at it I would bring a piece of 3" or 4" diameter with you and see if it will do what you want. you would be able to turn it then mill it. I would guess it wouldnt be very rigid. But theres only one way to find out.
 
he went and looked at it. it appears to be solid and work very well. its a 2004 model and only been used for a few hours. like said this is gonna be used for small stuff and all of our larger fab jobs will be done down at his work. a head job or something like that might end up at an actual shop or down at his work, but might play with one and see how good it works. stuff like our winch mounts for D6 CAT and fork mast for 500 Terex wheel loaders are done at his work. pieces like cam bearing installers, manifold adapters, and small stuff like that would be done on this. if we get this it comes with several tools and adapters. we may not be able to produce high numbers fast, but he believes that it will be as precise as a fancy machine if you just take your time. some of you along with my brother have dealt with and operated this stuff more than i have lol.
 
That is NOT a bridge mill. Bridge mills are used for things like machining dies for stamping out cabs and boxes.

I'm with the others, that thing is a heap on a good day. Your money will be much better spent on a bridgeport style mill and proper lathe if you need to do machining.

For manual machine tools anything Japanese, German, Swiss, Spanish or American is going to be good. Avoid Chinese and Taiwanese machines.

I run a Mazak turning center with sub spindle, live tooling, gantry robot loader with 7 or so pallets. A couple Matsuura VMC's and a Matsuura HMC with 180 tools and a 27 pallet cell:woohoo:
 
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