Bought a Burke 4

[Rockytime]

This evening I purchased a Burke 4. It is in rather good shape. All controls work smooth as silk and all the ways are nice and firm. It comes with a rather poor excuse for a motor but I have a Baldor motor to replace it. It does not appear abused but rather has been in storage a long, long time. There is very little rust. Light rust on the table and on the overhead column. Everything works as well as the PTO. It does not have the vertical attachment but is OK. I have a Bridgeport for that. I just feel the Burke will be perfect for gear cutting. It will be a week or so before I pick it up. I have to work out the logistics with the seller. He will help getting it to my garage. The price, $200. seemed right.
Les

 

[itsme_Bernie]

Holy crap Les!!

$200??! That is a great deal for much more money! Did it come with any tooling?

Bernie

 

[Rockytime]

Holy crap Les!!

$200??! That is a great deal for much more money! Did it come with any tooling?

Bernie

Hi Bernie,
It did not come with much tooling with the exception some extra sheaves, motor mount and motor and belt cover. I won't do a restoration because I wish to use it soon but will do some refurbishing. Good cleaning, oiling, removing a little rust and that is about it. It needs a GOOD cleaning as it has a lot of saw dust on it as well as cobwebs and dust.
Les

 

[Ben]

Boy that is a beaut! I would gladly pay you a 50% markup on what you paid for it if you want to part ways with her).

What is that box mounted on the right side of the table? Is that a power feed?

Congrats on a great find, I am jealous!

 

[itsme_Bernie]

Hi Bernie,
It did not come with much tooling with the exception some extra sheaves, motor mount and motor and belt cover. I won't do a restoration because I wish to use it soon but will do some refurbishing. Good cleaning, oiling, removing a little rust and that is about it. It needs a GOOD cleaning as it has a lot of saw dust on it as well as cobwebs and dust.
Les

That is all I would do. Good luck man!


Bernie

 

[AR1911]

Nice score! And you got the version with the handwheels.

 

[Rockytime]

Boy that is a beaut! I would gladly pay you a 50% markup on what you paid for it if you want to part ways with her).

What is that box mounted on the right side of the table? Is that a power feed?

Congrats on a great find, I am jealous!

Hi Ben,
The box on the right is a PTO. It drives the table from a spindle on the side of the machine. I had the same arrangement on a Rotax mill I once had. It was similar to the Burke but was arranged as a vertical mill. I would show a photo but the mill has not yet been moved. Hopefully next week.
Les

 

[itsme_Bernie]

That's also how the Hardinge mills power the table feed.


Bernie

 

[Ben]

When you move it, I would love to see it. If you could get a video showing how the mechanism works that would be even cooler.

Thanks to Bernie's input I managed to find a video of a hardinge power feed in action. What a nice way to have the power feed set up so that you dont have any extra wires or motors hooked to the machine. Do they have a gear box for adjusting feeds?

 

[woodtickgreg]

Nice looking Burke, I scored one just like it a little while ago. I did get the original motor and gear reduction with it. If you do not have the gear reduction you might want to think about using a vfd to get the speed down. I think the output shaft speed on mine is around 200 rpm. Just thought you might like to know what the correct shaft speed was.