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Bullard VTL

The overwhelming number of responses you have gotten might be the answer but I suggest that you might consider posting this on the Antique Machinery and History forum. Dave
 
John said it right. Bullard has had a long run; their successive models led developments in part manufacture for nearly a century. Re-conditioned and retrofitted with CNC controls thousands of Bullards are still productive assets all over the world.

Old Bullards, even really old Bullards if in operable condition can be productive in the right setting. I once tuned up a 36" Spiral Drive for a truck shop to bore brake drums, face heads, and turn flywheels and clutches. It could outproduce a drum lathe about 2 to 1 and it took up a lot less floor space than the three dedicated machines it replaced - and you could cut threads with it. A twenty man shop could keep a good Bullaards hand hopping.

I love Bullards. They are fast, accurate workhorses. Borg Warner, back in the day, had humdreds of them making automatic transmission housings for GM. Look in WW II War Production footage. There's probably a Bullard featured at least once in every segment. I used to run CutMasters for weeks on end. If the job justified the time, I could tool it up and run it like a turret lathe, a 15 HP turret lathe and the stops are acurate to 0.001".

If your workload runs to parts suiting a Bullard (or any good VTL for that matter) and you don't have one, you're shooting yourselg in the foot for every day you don't.
 
Yes there is demand . A local shop is actualy looking for one with 70" capacity. Of cource as others have said old is a very relative term but even the very old ones can still be found in productive use. I know one shop that has a 1921 vintage bullard that they still use and make money with.
 
Size and age mater most. A Dyn-U-Tape 84" high column is worth a lot more than a 36" spiral drive with a side head. A larger, high column machine, with table bearings, will bring at least $50K as a rebuild core.
JR
 
Borg Warner, back in the day, had humdreds of them making automatic transmission housings for GM. Look in WW II War Production footage. There's probably a Bullard featured at least once in every segment.

A dozen or so years ago when they ramped down the Army Base at Romulus, NY, I made several excursions there to wander the storage buildings and marvel at the
Machine Tools in storage. BIG stuff mostly. Every building (I think there were over 15) I had guessed was something like 150 x 300 ft. Broken into 2 or 3 sections with dividing walls. Almost every section had 'bullards'...from a couple to 6 or more. They were like clay pots grouped near and 'decorating' the door and entrance ways.
I think the smallest would be 36" and the large ones were probably 42" or 50-ish. Many manuals, and some tape-a-trols with ball screws too.

dk
 
bullards

the company i work for has 3 Dyna au Tape 66" bullards with retrofit cnc Fanuc controls. They have side head and ram. We also have a manual dynatrol 76" vtl and another CNC Retrofit bullard with a 76" chuck on it and side head and ram. We had all these machines running 2 shifts and 3 of them on 3 shifts for most of last year. With the economy we are down to 1 shift on all of them except 1 on 2 shifts.
 
A dozen or so years ago when they ramped down the Army Base at Romulus, NY, I made several excursions there to wander the storage buildings and marvel at the
Machine Tools in storage. BIG stuff mostly. Every building (I think there were over 15) I had guessed was something like 150 x 300 ft. Broken into 2 or 3 sections with dividing walls. Almost every section had 'bullards'...from a couple to 6 or more. They were like clay pots grouped near and 'decorating' the door and entrance ways.
I think the smallest would be 36" and the large ones were probably 42" or 50-ish. Many manuals, and some tape-a-trols with ball screws too.

dk

I was at Romulus( Seneca Army Depot) in the late 70's and marveled at all the machine tools in storage for"just in case".
You would drive thru the buildings in a pickup truck......
 
I can't remember if it was Western Land Roller in Hastings or Dempster Manufacturing in Beatrice, Nebraska that sold 10 or 12 of them along with the Motch equivalent (tri-turn or something like that). That was back in the mid 70s when companies were climbing on the CNC bandwagon. Don't forget, you needed a couple of Kingsbury rotaries to drill holes in those parts and half a dozen Acmes or Cones to make the rest of your parts. How many out there know that Davenport is not just another word for sofa? And if somebody asked you what kind of equipment Joe had and you answered; "A row of double-ought Brownies", they knew you weren't talking about girl scouts.
JR
 
After seeing the giant VTL's in the shop where JRIOWA runs amuk,I decided I wanted (needed) a VTL. Just got one into my shop last week- a KING 42 Inch VTL. Made in the fifties, in like new condition, came out of a school, where it was a ready reserve machine. So now the fun begins!
 
I'm going to look at our VersaMil again to see which parts need to run on a VTL :-)

Gray bought King to get into the VTL business. About 1960 IIRC. Your King should bear a close resemblance to the 60" Gray that you were working on here. Do you want me to send Jon out to help you run it? Better yet, we're trying to get the money to get that machine retrofitted. There's a tracer on it!
JR
 
After seeing the giant VTL's in the shop where JRIOWA runs amuk,I decided I wanted (needed) a VTL. Just got one into my shop last week- a KING 42 Inch VTL. Made in the fifties, in like new condition, came out of a school, where it was a ready reserve machine. So now the fun begins!

What sort of school has a 42" Vertical Boring Mill ? We were lucky to have an 8" by 15" Myford centre lathe. Regards Tyrone.
 
Tyrone- "WHAT kind of school has a 42 inch Vertical Turret lathe" A school that also has it's own foundry, pattern making classes, it's own RADIO station. The machine shop HAD a 32 inch swing Axleson, a 20 inch swing Axleson, a 12 foot Planer and a 14 X42 inch Surface grinder with a 20 inch wheel on top of the 42 inch VTL. The SCHOOL is Benson High School in Portland Oregon. Probably the premier industrial arts school in the state of Oregon. At least it USED to be.

JR- VersaMil doesn't JUST make VersaMils. I wanted a VTL to turn a very similar casting to what you turn in Iowa. I make FIFTY taper right angle heads, that are 38 inches long that needs to have the OD turned for 20 inches. These either need to swing on the above mentioned 32 inch Axleson OR be turned on the VTL. From the flange to the centerline, they're 14 inches. Either machine would work, but as far as my wife is concerned, I NEEDED the VTL to do the job. Is Jon the guy with the "abrasive" personality? When you want it Retrofitted, maybe you should have me come out and make the TEE slots a size bigger. I have MUCH larger mills than the VersaMil. You can't "clean up " tee slots if there's NOTHING left to cleanup!
 








 
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