FILENAMES: BurkeNo4-1.jpg BurkeNo4-2.jpg BurkeNo4-3.jpg BurkeNo4-4.jpg BurkeNo4-5.jpg BurkeNo4-6.jpg BurkeNo4-7.jpg BurkeNo4-8.jpg BurkeNo4-9.jpg BurkeNo4-10.jpg BurkeNo4-11.jpg BurkeNo4-12.jpg BurkeNo4-13.jpg BurkeNo4-14.jpg DESCRIPTION: These are pictures of a Burke #4 horizontal mill. Posted by John A. Landry . The following description was provided: ================================================================= These pictures are of my Burke #4 horizontal milling machine I recently finished refurbishing. This machine is very special to me not only because it'll be perfect for many of the type metalworking projects I usually undertake, but also because of its somewhat mysterious and interesting history of how it came into my possession. Based on the serial number found on a government data plate present on the machine, I believe it was manufactured in 1950 possibly for the Air Force. The spindle taper on this particular machine was originally supplied from Burke in Morse taper #2 (as opposed to the standard Brown & Sharpe #9 found on most Burke #4 horizontal milling machines). It also features what might be called a two stage knee screw which doesn't project below the machine base when the knee is fully lowered (unlike most Burke #4's I've heard of). This alleviates the need for the machine to be placed on a table or cabinet with a hole under the mill to allow knee screw clearance. A brass plate on the machine column indicates that in 1957 it became the property of the Coastal Machine Engine Co. of San Francisco, CA. At some point thereafter it became the property of a school district in the gold country of California, presumably for some future use in training students. However it remained unused by the school district for many years until it was sold as surplus to the school district administrator who thought he might use it in his part time gun smithing business. Instead, it sat in his shop gathering dust for several more decades until a couple of years ago this generous friend of mine *gave* the mill to me once he became aware of my growing interest in metalworking. I completely disassembled, cleaned, repainted the mill and converted the spindle to Morse taper #3. Lest you thing I'm crazy for not converting the spindle to something like R8, understand that most of my tooling investment is Morse taper #3. So this conversion makes sense for me. The nicest thing is the mill's remarkably good condition for its age. After being cleaned up it's almost like new. The only items worth noting that I found during the refurbishing project were a cracked saddle gib (apparently common for thus mill), missing table feed gearbox cover and maybe 5 pounds of grime and hardened grease I spent a week getting off. I replaced the spindle bearings for good measure while at it. John L. Olympia, WA gyropilot@earthlink.net