Moving the ram on a milling machine.

[tonyfoale]

I was just discussing moving the ram on a Bridgeport with a friend. A while back he had problems moving his and about a week ago I needed to move mine, which is an unusual occurrence. I thought that my solution might be of interest here.

The ram just didn't want to move and I was fearful of shearing a drive pin (just guessing that there was something like that in there) between the external lever and internal pinion. I placed a bottle jack between the ​table and the head and took the load off the slide. That let me squirt some very thin oil in there, It had been lubricated with grease. I then switched to the rear end, where I added a long lump of wood to the jack to reach from floor to slide, and repeated the oil squirting. It still didn't want to move after removing the jack so I jacked up the front again and managed a small movement with the jack in place and the load off. Then I removed the jack and the ram moved OK, albeit a bit stiff. I cycled it fully several times washing the old lubricant off and putting new on. Smooth as silk now, but for how long? If the ram is not moved for a long period the weight gradually squeezes the lubricant out.