Bought a burke #4

[Al 1]

Greg,
Nice find. I was wondering if the motor on your unit has a oil type tag still intact. I have the same mill and the letters on my oil ID tag got washed out when I cleaned up the machine.

Thanks, Al.

 

[woodtickgreg]

Greg,
Nice find. I was wondering if the motor on your unit has a oil type tag still intact. I have the same mill and the letters on my oil ID tag got washed out when I cleaned up the machine.

Thanks, Al.

I don't think so but I will look, this topic has come up before, I have the original owners manual and it doesn't say in there either. I know mine has oil as I have checked it, and it weeps when I run it, but I too would like to know so I can change it. My Little burke works well for what I use it for, I still have not used it in horizontal, I usually just use the vertical attachment and the 3c collets with end mills. I like the little burke though, it is solid.

 

[Gary Ayres]

A very handsome machine, and in great condition.

Sadly, they are rare on my side of the Atlantic.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

And I couldn't stop playing with the mill so I had to give the change over to the vertical attachment a try. It was really quite easy, I cave it a wirl under power and she is very smooth and quiet even at the highest speed.

What she looks like with the vert attachment installed.
View attachment 51565

You can also see the collet arbor laying on the table.
View attachment 51566
The vert assembly can be mounted on either side of the bracket that the top column goes through, that would give a larger range than I thought it would have,
View attachment 51567

Here you can see the number graduations are quite clear and the head is in great shape.
View attachment 51568

I wonder if I can mount an electric power feed to this table instead of the original pto drive unit? I think the p.o. did this at one time, I can't figure out any other reason why he would have removed it. I think he then transfered it to the rong fu mill my friend purchased. My thinking of doing this is all the motor power would go to the cutter shaft and not the table feed.
View attachment 51569

beautiful machine Greg!!!!
:yousuck3:

 

[ksierens]

I've never been to the villiage, I can't seem to get out of the museum, it just fascinates me.

I love the machine shops in the village. I could stay there for hours.

 

[george wilson]

My first DECENT mill was a Burke#4. It was a real machine,capable of taking decent cuts out of steel. My table was a bit convex,which comes from years of tightening down stuff in the T slot. I had to have it re cut on the top,AND bottom,and the dovetail also. They did some more or less decorative scraping on the table,which was nice.

I can't tell if yours was re cut,since the rest of the machine looks so nice. I WISHED forever that I could have found a vertical head for mine,but never did. Did you see the slotting attachment another guy found?

 

[woodtickgreg]

My first DECENT mill was a Burke#4. It was a real machine,capable of taking decent cuts out of steel. My table was a bit convex,which comes from years of tightening down stuff in the T slot. I had to have it re cut on the top,AND bottom,and the dovetail also. They did some more or less decorative scraping on the table,which was nice.

I can't tell if yours was re cut,since the rest of the machine looks so nice. I WISHED forever that I could have found a vertical head for mine,but never did. Did you see the slotting attachment another guy found?

Yes I saw the attachment, pretty cool indeed. Thanks for pointing it out though. I still have not got the burke back together completely after the move, still working on other things in the house. I have to upgrade the fuse panel and get some real power into the garage, then I can start working on getting the shop set up again. Guy's, take a look at your shop and then think about moving it to a place that is not set up and has now power...........kinda sucks but it will be ok in the end.

 

[woodtickgreg]

So here's where the mill and my shop stands now. Wood shop is nearly done finally! Working on the metal shop side now. The switch on the Burke no.4 got smashed in the move. It was a forward- off- reverse switch, but it was only wired for forward. I have never needed reverse on the mill because I do not have the power feed hooked up. I have all the parts to do so I think, I just don't need it. Plus I have also acquired a bigger Powermatic/Burke mvn knee mill that will get a power feed. So rather than replacing the switch with an expensive rotary switch I went with a push button on off with a large panic off paddle. While I was at it I replaced the cord and wiring with a heavier 12 gage stranded flexible wire. Here's a few pics.
The original switch, that doesn't work.

I'm going to reuse the mounting holes since they are nice and high and drilled and tapped.

The p.o. did make a nice stainless steel junction box, but it wasn't grounded, now it is. That's the new wire installed.

I am going to reuse this box and outlet, nice to have power for a light.

The new switch box.

This is an extra deep box because the switch is quite deep.

I had to clearance a tab on the box for the switch about a 16th to 1/8th. Dremmel to the rescue!

 

[woodtickgreg]

Drilled a couple holes in the box and bolted it on.

Since this is stranded 12 gage wire I tinned all the ends for the connections.

I like the big paddle switch.

All wired up and tested, she is alive again!
Now I just need to run a couple of power circuits to the metal shop. This is about where it will go. New mill will go to the left of it.