Machine tool bar feed

Bar feed mechanism for feeding the leading end of an elongated bar of stock metal to a machine tool comprising a bar guide for supporting the bar at one side of the machine tool, a ball chain feed wheel having pockets to receive a ball chain the leading end of which has fixed thereto a rigid pusher for pushing the bar toward the machine tool when the wheel is rotated in a bar feed direction, a ball chain receiver for storing a length of the ball chain which trails the ball chain feed wheel, in which the feed wheel is a sprocket and the pockets therein each have a radius substantially equal to that of the chain balls, the balls being drilled to receive a cable on which the balls are threaded to be in contact with one another when the cable is straight with the ball diameter across the drill hole being less than that of the undrilled diameter, and said pusher being attached at one end to the cable by a lost motion connection including a spring means which allows the cable in effect to extend to accommodate the balls to the wheel pockets.