Seldom found - and with little information to go on - the Barker ram-head vertical milling machine was of a rather unusual configuration. Heavily built, the main column was machines on its top face with dovetail ways on which could be slid, forwards and backwards, a heavy casting positioned to the right of the column's vertical ways. The top of the upper casting was formed so as to carry a round bar, able to be slid in and out, on the end of which was a V-belt driven, vertical head that resembled the ordinary early Bridgeport type. Of conventional arrangement, with a vertically disposed, flange-mounted motor, the head had four speeds and a quill that could be moved by both a quick-action lever for drilling, or a fine-feed handwheel for delicate work.
The reason for the vertical head being positioned to one side of the column's vertical knee ways was to be found in the machined faces on the left-hand face of the upper sliding casting, these being formed in such a way so as to allow the mounting of a secondary head that could be rotated on a horizontal axis. In addition,, bosses formed on the opposite face were bored to accept through shafts, indicating that some form of lever control had possibly been installed - this being done in order to make swivelling the head easier before the bolts on the left-hand face were tightened. It is just possible, but unlikely, that some sort of adapter might have been provided to allow the standard vertical head to be fitted on the side mount, though its very shape appears to exclude this possibility. In its layout and design, the Barker does somewhat look like the various well-known American Van Norman machines, the Swedish-built Abene - various models of which can be seen on this page and others linked to it - and also the interesting English miller by Parkinson, the Parkson "Adapta Mill". Unfortunately, the Barker shown below lacks all the fittings for the head's side mounting so,, until a similar but more complete example is found, the details of this arrangement must remain upon to speculation.
Of utterly conventional arrangement, the knee and table assembly was strongly built but, in the form shown, had only hand feeds with no evidence that the column - in the way of being able to accommodate an internal gearbox or with unmachined bosses or other locating points in the correct, relative places - could accept a power-feed attachment as an optional extra. Although open at the front and with an internal longitudinal bracing shelf, the knee, together with the robust table, would still have been relatively heavy unit, but was raised and lowered by a screw that appears to have been quite out of proportion to the load it was expected to carry, especially if a heavy job was mounted.
If you have a Barker milling machine like the one below, the writer would be pleased to hear from you..