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I am coming into possession of a Burke #4 horizontal/vertical mill, a smaller South Bend lathe, and assorted other things (small Craftsman horizontal band saw, stand grinder). This will give me the impetus to setup a hobby machine shop in my garage, something I have always wanted to do. The equipment was my father-in-law's, and his father-in-law's before that. Interestingly enough, the elder gentleman worked for a railroad and used the machines to make a backyard live steam train -- a similar story related by other posters in this forum.
Some pics of the Burke are below, and I'll take more pics soon, plus pics of the South Bend. I've been doing lots of research on the Burke, and Practical Machinist and this forum are wonderful resources for information. Thanks to all of you!
The Burke has the Benchmaster vertical mill attachment and motor. It runs pretty well as far as I can tell, but I will probably take it apart and check the seals and bearings, replace anything obviously worn, following the advice of some other forum postings. The horizontal feature has some issues -- the main shaft does not rotate -- probably frozen up with dead lube and micro-rust from decades of non-use. Given there is no motor to drive it, and probably no arbors nor cutters, it may have never been used. I'll try to free it up just to bring it back to life, but overall I am more interested in the vertical. The pulley for the table longways feed is there but various other feed parts are missing and it would need an auxiliary motor of some sort. If I stick with it I'll try to get the feed set up and working. There are some collets and a jacobs chuck, plus a rotary table.
The South Bend lathe looks like a Model A, cabinet # 1640W35NK2. The motor is mounted in the cabinet below the headstock. (Unfortunately it looks to be 240V so that's going to require rewiring the house. Heh! The upside is then I'll be able to get a bigger welder.) Sorry, no pics just yet. It has 3-jaw and 4-jaw chucks, faceplate, quick-change tool post, several tool holders, etc. The only issue I know of at this point is that the sleeve handles of the lead screw gear changers are stuck on their shafts -- you can't change the lead screw speed. Hopefully some WD40 and judicious encouragement will free them up.
All in all it looks pretty fun and will keep me busy as I head into retirement. My main experience has been with a Bridgeport vertical, but I love antique stuff and am looking forward to it. Any ideas / comments folks have are welcome. Thanks.
I am coming into possession of a Burke #4 horizontal/vertical mill, a smaller South Bend lathe, and assorted other things (small Craftsman horizontal band saw, stand grinder). This will give me the impetus to setup a hobby machine shop in my garage, something I have always wanted to do. The equipment was my father-in-law's, and his father-in-law's before that. Interestingly enough, the elder gentleman worked for a railroad and used the machines to make a backyard live steam train -- a similar story related by other posters in this forum.
Some pics of the Burke are below, and I'll take more pics soon, plus pics of the South Bend. I've been doing lots of research on the Burke, and Practical Machinist and this forum are wonderful resources for information. Thanks to all of you!
The Burke has the Benchmaster vertical mill attachment and motor. It runs pretty well as far as I can tell, but I will probably take it apart and check the seals and bearings, replace anything obviously worn, following the advice of some other forum postings. The horizontal feature has some issues -- the main shaft does not rotate -- probably frozen up with dead lube and micro-rust from decades of non-use. Given there is no motor to drive it, and probably no arbors nor cutters, it may have never been used. I'll try to free it up just to bring it back to life, but overall I am more interested in the vertical. The pulley for the table longways feed is there but various other feed parts are missing and it would need an auxiliary motor of some sort. If I stick with it I'll try to get the feed set up and working. There are some collets and a jacobs chuck, plus a rotary table.
The South Bend lathe looks like a Model A, cabinet # 1640W35NK2. The motor is mounted in the cabinet below the headstock. (Unfortunately it looks to be 240V so that's going to require rewiring the house. Heh! The upside is then I'll be able to get a bigger welder.) Sorry, no pics just yet. It has 3-jaw and 4-jaw chucks, faceplate, quick-change tool post, several tool holders, etc. The only issue I know of at this point is that the sleeve handles of the lead screw gear changers are stuck on their shafts -- you can't change the lead screw speed. Hopefully some WD40 and judicious encouragement will free them up.
All in all it looks pretty fun and will keep me busy as I head into retirement. My main experience has been with a Bridgeport vertical, but I love antique stuff and am looking forward to it. Any ideas / comments folks have are welcome. Thanks.
