Bridgeport Series 1 J2

 I live in an area that is a machine tool desert, not because there are no machine shops, but because there are plenty of them, almost all busy with government or maritime work. As such, older manual machines are either kept in production, worn out, or quickly acquired. So I was surprised when a local auction for a Bridgeport milling machine popped up. 

The machine was located in Hampton, VA at a company that manufactured warehouse conveyor systems, FMH Conveyors Inc. They had been acquired by a larger company and all manufacturing was being moved to another site and the few machines they had were being auctioned off.

The machine is S/N 140293 which, according to this table, puts its date of manufacture in 1971. The J-head S/N is 143884, which is not a number used to date the machine.

Originally sold by Jeffrey's Manufacturing, I was told that the machine's first owner was located not far from the FMH Conveyors site, had become surplus and sat outside for some time before being acquired.

The auction was handled through GoDove.com. All in, I paid US$950 for the machine and another US$300 to move it to my workshop. It was loaded on the trailer using a gantry crane after I had attached the 4x4 skids to it.

Logan Fire Apparatus handled the transport. Paul Logan's wife is a longtime friend of my oldest daughter and Paul is one of the nicest people I know and a dedicated fireman.

Unloading at my shop was handled by Carl from the adjacent business, a lawn mower sales and repair shop.

We sat it just inside the door of my workshop. My granddaughter added some class to the proceedings. I may get her interested in machining and auto body work yet.

While the machine was advertised as "running", it was disconnected on inspection. I should have realize that this was 2020 . . . and there would be work to be done.