Barker mill

I have been looking for a small horizontal mill for a while. Just looking through e-bay listings I found a Barker model PM for $50.00. More important it was located close enough to pick up whle on a business trip..

Well I guess the thing they loaded into the back of my van looks like a mill under all the crud.

According to the information at the web site for Barker Mills this model weighs around 175 pounds. After trying to get it out of the van without doing any damage to myself or the van, I decided to break it down into a couple of pieces. Removing the motor was easy, but getting the table off of the base was a lot harder. This machine looks like it had been set up for a dedicated slotting job. The saddle was glued in place with a combination of rust and dried lubrication and metal fileings. After letting some penetrating oil do its thing and a little persuasion with a dead blow hammer I was able to remove the table assembly. The base, and saddle assemblies were now light enough to get out of the van and into the shop.

As you can see the saddle and table were pretty much held together with the accumulated "crud".
A lot of degreaser and work with a small wire brush and I was able to get everything apart. This model has a lever moving a rack and pinion system for table movement. I am looking at a way to incorporate this method ,and a graduated handwheel mechanism in the same space.