Us machine co by mill

[1Bender]

Weight: the manufacturer said 1 ton (approx) shipping weight. If you haven't found this yet go to vintagemachinery.org and search for Burke Machine Tool Co. There are 2 U.S. Vertical Milling Machine publications there, one a manual, the other a sales brochure which has the weight. If I understand the serial number mine would be made in '53, towards the last. Yours is a later style, with the vertical axis crank offset from the table crank. I've seen pics of early ones with those in-line, knuckle busters. No need to bolt to the floor, unlike a lathe, mills don't twist of their own weight. My pallet is of oak 2x6's I had, it also brings the controls closer to my height. Also watch where the cherry picker's legs stick out. It was hard to dodge them and still have a clear area to lower the mill.

I’ll have to look that up…my cherry picker will handle a ton without issue…serial number on mine is 2763 although I don’t know how to decode it to find when it was made although I’d love to know just out of curiosity alone…I think the table on mine is bigger than the table on yours but honestly I wish I had the smaller table…been thinking about maybe cutting it down but not sure if or how one would go about that…if I remember correctly my table is 18x48? But not 100% sure on the width…I do know it’s 48” long

 

[RrhatBruce]

I’ll have to look that up…my cherry picker will handle a ton without issue…serial number on mine is 2763 although I don’t know how to decode it to find when it was made although I’d love to know just out of curiosity alone…I think the table on mine is bigger than the table on yours but honestly I wish I had the smaller table…been thinking about maybe cutting it down but not sure if or how one would go about that…if I remember correctly my table is 18x48? But not 100% sure on the width…I do know it’s 48” long

Memory says the VT is bigger than my V2, although I could be wrong. Just checked, my table is 36" long x10" wide. . Even at that it was all I wanted to slide off. I have an old machine stand that I built a table on top of. Drop the knee all the way down, pull the ends off the table and slide it onto that. Can't emphasize enough staying safe. You're handling lots of weight, take your time, wander off and let your mind stew on things, and especially double check how it can go wrong.

 

[RrhatBruce]

Took a closer look at your picture, definitely a bigger table. You also get the power downfeed head, a feature I'm going to have to invent for mine, plus the part I'm really jealous of, the lightning bolts embossed on the belt guard. I know it doesn't really matter at all, but I've squandered a lot of brain power trying to suss out a cheap and easy way to acquire those for my machine.

 

[1Bender]

Took a closer look at your picture, definitely a bigger table. You also get the power downfeed head, a feature I'm going to have to invent for mine, plus the part I'm really jealous of, the lightning bolts embossed on the belt guard. I know it doesn't really matter at all, but I've squandered a lot of brain power trying to suss out a cheap and easy way to acquire those for my machine.

That’s easy to do…I’ll try to pm you my phone number and I’ll tell you how to go about it…I’ve been doing bodywork and sheetmetal fabrication for 35 years…I may not know a whole lot about machining but I can make sheetmetal do anything I want…

 

[1Bender]

Well after a 17 hour round trip day yesterday mill is now sitting in the floor of my shop…it needs a good cleaning and a couple belts replaced on the head…for future reference it does weigh about 2,000 pounds…the only thing I removed was the belt guard and motor from it…I can foresee that I’m going to remove the power feed from it already since it was set up for 3-phase…I have a new single phase motor sitting on the shelf in a box so I’ll be putting that on it and overpowering it a bit but I don’t see that as a bad thing…better overpowered than underpowered…updates to come as I get into it…kids are wanting me to work on dirt bikes today although I think I’m gonna make them do the work while I supervise…

 

[RrhatBruce]

Congratulations, you got it down safe. You got a power table feed, and the spindle sheave doesn't seem to have any pieces busted out of it (unlike mine). It even has the original handwheels. All in all it looks like you got one that's been well cared for.

 

[1Bender]

Congratulations, you got it down safe. You got a power table feed, and the spindle sheave doesn't seem to have any pieces busted out of it (unlike mine). It even has the original handwheels. All in all it looks like you got one that's been well cared for.

The radial arm is very stiff to move…upon inspection it appears they used a big honking pipe wrench to set angles as it has jaw marks on it…nothing that I don’t think I can get to come out but still…everything seems to move as it should so that’s a plus…I’m currently on the fence as to if I should order a vfd or change it over to single phase as I have a 5hp compressor motor sitting in a box on the shelf…overkill I know but the price is right…if I go with the vfd I will have to rewire the entire thing cause the insulation on the wiring just crumbles when you touch it…again that’s a non issue…currently it’s sitting in the floor in the middle of my shop which I’ll have to find a spot for it shortly…I told the kids this morning that they was cleaning my shop when we got home this evening since their dirt bikes are now scattered across my shop…which I have to put one of them back together as their putting away tools…it’s good to make them do such things I think…teaches them how to care for their stuff…