Suggestions for improving manual mills

If the manual lathe is the king of machine tools, then the manual milling machine must be the queen. A machine shop is just not a machine shop without at least one manual mill.

When machinists think of a vertical milling machine, their first thought is a Bridgeport. This is the milling machine by which all others are judged. I have run a few Bridgeports in my time and have to say they are nice, well-made machines. The levers turn and lock smoothly with just the right click and feel. The height, width and depth lend themselves to machinists of average height and reach. But Bridgeports are far from perfect.

What happened to the Bridgeport mill is what often happens to an average design that achieves high demand and sales: The design stays static and all the design flaws are faithfully reproduced in the army of clones marching out of the factory. Worse yet for the original developer is competitors have a chance to correct the problems in their own knockoff brands.

When machinists think of a vertical milling machine, their first thought is a Bridgeport.

If I had been the president of Bridgeport, I probably would have done the same thing. Why mess with success? Bridgeport had the manufacturing capacity and most-evolved design when there was a high demand for the machines.

However, the design should never have become static in the first place. Anybody who has spent time on a Bridgeport or clone can relate to the basic design flaws.

The Y-axis dovetail ways are much too narrow in relation to the table length. The entire X-axis can be rocked back and forth when the gibs are not snugly set. But set the gibs too tight for minimal play and your arm is dead at the end of the day.

The Y-axis ways should be extended to double their current length. This would have the added benefit of covering and protecting the exposed ways behind the table where all the chips land, damaging the ways. If you have ever looked at a clapped-out vertical mill, this is one area that shows the mill’s age.

The head tipping feature is grossly offset from the head’s center of gravity. Heavy cuts can easily knock the head out of tram. The pivots should at least be on the centerlines of the spindle. At the very least, the front-to-back tilt feature should be eliminated and replaced with a right-to-left tilt.