Two fantastic tools for folder making!!!

[Ed Caffrey]

Although I'm still fighting the battle with UPS about the burgmaster turret drill presses they destroyed, I purchased another one and it arrived earlier this week. This thing is the cat's meow! I initally didn't like some of the high speed spindles on the machine, so I scavanged some of the lower speed gears out of the torn up machines and replaced the high speed gears in this machine with them. BINGO! The speeds on the spindles range from 350 rpm up to 1900 rpm. I can set up everything I need prior to starting a knife, and not have to fiddle with changing drill bits, reamers, counterbores or anything else during the entire process! That just saved me approx 1 1/2" hours on making a folder (yep, I kept track and I spend about 1 1/2 hours messing with a single spindle drill press during the process of making a folder)







Here's another item I recently aquired.....a small tapping head. I think anyone who produces folders would be doing themselves a favor by getting one. It takes less time to tap a hole than it does to drill it! No kidding. It takes me longer to drill a hole in either 15N20 or Titanitum than it does to tap it. I picked this one up from Enco, on sale. The press it's on is a Ryobi 10" bench model with a JT-33 taper. Just pop off the chuck and slip on the tapping head. A couple of light blows with a rubber mallet and it's ready to go. It self centers and reverses when you let off the spindle pressure. The "handle" on the back of the tapping head is through an anti-roation device that I fabricated to fit around the colum of the drill press. Two tools that took me a long time to aquire, but both are worth their weight in gold!

[GHNorfleet]

I have never seen a drill press like that Burgmaster, what an awesome set up. Six drilling attachments all at once!! How much do those things cost? I am not kidding, when I saw the photo I actually stared at it for several minutes just to take it all in. That is what I call the mother of all drill presses!

[Ed Caffrey]

I didn't know they existed either.......until I saw one on ebay for sale. I did some research and found that the original intent for them was drilling circuit boards. They quit making them in 1984. This is the smallest model they made (Burgmaster Model OB). They came with max capacity chucks of either 5/16" or 1/4". All the chucks on this machine are 5/16" capacity. Originally they sold for $4,100 new. The going price today for one in good working order is supposedly $900-$1200. I purchased this one off of ebay for $500. There are several listed on ebay right now for between $750 and $1350, but after talking to the outfit that has them, I would steer clear. I called to ask about the one listed for $950 to ask if everything was in working order.......they told me they didn't know! I told them that if everything operated as it should I would be interested. Their response was that the machine comes "as is" for that price........and it seemed they did not want to take the time to check to see if it was fully operational. So, my advice would be to locate one from a private party, and make sure that everything on it works before you buy. There are a couple of glitches in this one, but nothing that can't be ironed out when I get the time to completely tear it down. All parts and manuals are available from an outfit in California.
I for one am tickled pink with this thing. Not having to search for, and change bits, reamers and such is a BIG time saver, and makes building folders much less frustrating.

[Gary Hamilton]

I am envious, I been watching for these for awhile and they seem to consistantly go for over $300 which I set as my max. Congrats. I hear the little tapmatics are great, too. I have never used them on a drill press.

Gary

[Ray Rogers]

I was wondering if you had made any progress with getting a turret press, looks like you did. Glad to hear it worked out as you had hoped, too.

Congratulations!

[Ansoknives]

The Burgmaster is cool huh!...wish i could afford one....anyways i doubt I could find one in Europe.....I got a tapping head though...Tapmatic 30X....it is soooo cool and fast..I used to hate tapping holes as I would snap the taps fairly easy if I did not pay 100% attention....now I look forward to tap holes.. I also have it on a dedicated machine.....Mine came with a straight shank so instead of messing to much with it I just put it in the check...works fine!

[Don Robinson]

I'm so jealous, Ed.

When's the next time you're going away for a couple of days, and what's your address?

[Ray Rogers]

Ed,

Two questions on this beastie: When this thing is running, do all the chucks turn at once or only the one in use?

When making a folder, I use drill bits for a tapping hole, clearance holes, and countersinking as well as possibly needing a reamer. It would be cool to have them all mounted and available as this thing would allow but here's the second question: countersinking, and sometimes reaming is done to a specific depth (two depths may be needed if reaming) so how do you control the depth with drill bits and reams sticking out at different lengths?

[OutWest]

And I thought efficiency was when the second drill press came along. Cool multi head drill.

[Frank Niro]

That's sure a great machine Ed. It sure beats four drill presses in a row for space and has quality as well. Frank

[Jeff Higgins]

Congrats on that OB, Ed. When I saw that sucker on Ebay, I mulled it over and mulled it over, and procrastinated. When I finally pulled my head out and looked again, it was gone. I called the guy who had it in CT, and he said he "has it sold to some guy in Montana who makes knives." I said, "Oh yeah? Well I guess that'd be Ed Caffrey, eh?" He was astonished I knew you. Knifemaking is a small world, I told him. Anyhow, I am glad you got it. The Burgmaster is a fine machine. I suppose you have a whole ton of spare parts for it now, right? I mean what with the two trashed machines and all.

[Ed Caffrey]

Hey Jeff! Sounds like we were both doing the same thing! I mulled it over too....but when I called the guy (Jeff) to ask him a few questions, he was so nice about everything that I figured I'd better have that thing! I do have a few spare parts....but the other two machines were so badly damaged that about the only thing I could scrounge was the gears. Actually the day I got this machine I took all of the high speed gears out of it, and replaced them with the low speed gears out of the one good turret from the wrecked machines. About the only thing I didn't like was that as it came from the factory, two of the spindles ran at 3300 & 2900 rpm.....and that was on low range! In high range those two spindles ran over 5000 rpm! I figured all I would do with that would be to break bits.......so I slowed it down.
I'm very happy with the machine........today I was working on one of my 50lb Little Giants (finally getting it ready to run), and it was a pleasure to not have to fumble with drill bits...just walked up to the machine, cycled the turret to the bit I needed, and off we go! The only bad thing is that I can tell this thing is really going to spoil me....bad.

[Jeff Higgins]

I'll get one someday... or a whole mess of Clausings!

[Kevin Wilkins]

Originally Posted by Ansoknives

The Burgmaster is cool huh!...wish i could afford one....anyways i doubt I could find one in Europe.....I got a tapping head though...Tapmatic 30X....it is soooo cool and fast..I used to hate tapping holes as I would snap the taps fairly easy if I did not pay 100% attention....now I look forward to tap holes.. I also have it on a dedicated machine.....Mine came with a straight shank so instead of messing to much with it I just put it in the check...works fine!

Jens, therre are (or were) several makerrs of turret drill presses over here. I see them on German ebay sometimes.

Ed, looking at your pictures, get some keyless R?hm or Albrecht chucks and you'll save even more time!!

[tom mayo]

dude!!!!! Whats in that can you are chewing????????


A tool like that DOES NOT belong in a knife shop..........


You have been breathing diesel fuel for FAR TOO LONG!!!! 8o