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Becker/Brainard horizontal #3 milling machine

I have a #2. Let me know what you need to know. I haven't run it, but I have done a total disassembly, cleanup, and repair of a couple broken parts.

Eric
 
Eric - I have an older one (think it's between 1888 and 1898) that is only labelled as Brainard. I'd be interested in seeing pictures of yours. Do you have any you can post?

If you haven't already, you can see pics of mine here:

Brainard Mill

Steve
 
Well, I finally got some pics taken of my mill. I'm not happy with them though, as the flash seemed to magnify every flaw in my cleanup and repaint. It looks rusty in the pics, but it isn't. Everything moves very smoothly. First, here's how it looked last winter:

beckerbrainard.jpg


And after the cleanup, repaint, and reassemble:

bb1.jpg


bb2.jpg


bb3.jpg


bb4.jpg


Not perfect, but as perfect as it's going to get for now.

Eric
 
John,

All I did was hand a can of Oneshot sign painter's paint and some small paint brushes to my wife. She took care of the lettering. I use that paint on the lettering of all my old machines. I also used it to pinstripe my wood planer.

Eric
 
Lenny,

Yeah, the teardown took me forever and the reassembly of the knee was awful. It took me a week of 8 hour days to get it back together. I kept putting the parts together in the wrong sequence, tearing it down again, and reassembling until I got it right. It was probably more difficult a restoration than the Sweepstakes planer.

Eric
 
the reassembly of the knee was awful. It took me a week of 8 hour days to get it back together.
Wow. Now I'm grateful that the prior owner of mine talked me out of disassembling the knee for transport.

All you guys with Brainard and Becker/Brainard mills: We need to get together a bunch of good quality pictures to Tony at www.lathes.co.uk . He's got nothing on these and would be very interested. I promised him pictures of mine when I get it set up.

Eric - thanks for the pictures. When I go to assemble mine, I''ll probably be coming back to you for some details and pictures, especially the table feed. I have a box of parts and no information as to how it goes together (sort of like your "before" picture.

Steve
 
Steve,

I can walk you through the reassembly of the table mechanisms. Is the top of the saddle still on the knee or is it removed also? The major problem with this machine is that you have to remove all the guts of the knee to get the lower part of the saddle off the machine. That's the only reason I took it completely apart.

As for getting pics to Tony I'll go back over the ways of mine with some scotch brite until I can get more satisfactory pics. I tend to be very conservative in how much I work on the ways of metalworking machines due to fear of removing metal.

Eric
 
#3 Becker mill

I have a #2. Let me know what you need to know. I haven't run it, but I have done a total disassembly, cleanup, and repair of a couple broken parts.

Eric
Dear sir,
Sorry I'm replying so late. I've seen the work you've done on your machine and I have to say It looks pretty good.Haven't torn down mine yet, I have nearly finished the re-assembly of my Cunliffe&Croom mill.Can't tear down 2 at the same time(not enough room to prevent parts mixup). One question I have about your mill, how were you Intending to drive the flat belt pulley? My mill has an "auto drive", four speed, two handle gear box mounted above the mill, with the motor above the gear box. It turns too fast and as luck would have It, the back gears (large and small mating gears) are totally ruined. I've tried to send pics to this site, but haven't had any luck so far.Hope to hear from you soon,
Scott MacKenzie
 
no.5 vertical becker-brainard mill

Wow. Now I'm grateful that the prior owner of mine talked me out of disassembling the knee for transport.

All you guys with Brainard and Becker/Brainard mills: We need to get together a bunch of good quality pictures to Tony at www.lathes.co.uk . He's got nothing on these and would be very interested. I promised him pictures of mine when I get it set up.

Eric - thanks for the pictures. When I go to assemble mine, I''ll probably be coming back to you for some details and pictures, especially the table feed. I have a box of parts and no information as to how it goes together (sort of like your "before" picture.

Steve

I;m looking for specs for my no. 5 vertical mill (becker-brainard).I gotitW 25 years ago in Detroit
I worked in a forging plant were we made connecting rods for Ford&Chrysler.We would get the master dies from Toronto and Detroit then sink a whole bunch from those masters on a mill identical to the one I have.I know I`ll probably never find a work shop manual for it but I would greatly appreciate any info on this mill.
Clem
 
Just as a point of interest here is a picture of my Brainard "STANDARD UNIVERSAL NUMBER 5"

Made by; Brainard Milling Machine Company
Boston, USA

Patented Oct. 1 1872

As near as I can figure, this predates Brainard's merger with Becker. I suspect this mill is about 1890 vintage.

It is in pristine shape and shows little use.


P1010009.jpg

P1010002.jpg
 








 
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