Is anyone in Dallas?

[bluwolf]

Specifically close to this address?

13020 TI Boulevard
Dallas, TX 75243

This is the address of Texas Instruments. They have a lathe for sale that I might be interested in. But I'd like to have someone that knows what they're looking at take a look at it. Strange request I know. But you never know unless you ask.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[wquiles]

I am in the Dallas area. Send me email (in my signature), and I will see what I can do ;)

Will

 

[wquiles]

Mike,

Like we talked on the phone after I saw it in person, definitely not a good buy. Upon close inspection it was clear to me that this machine was used a lot, never cleaned, and just plain not cared for.

The lathe can't be evaluated under power, so I don't know if the DRO display even worked:

This was actually a mister of some sort - it looked in OK shape, but no way of knowing if it was operational or not:

The lathe had 3 chucks, this one (about a 5" or 6") was mounted:

When I removed the external gear cover, I found out that somebody had tried to hide how dirty this lathe was by partially cleaning the external surfaces, but they forgot to clean the inside!. The one belt (instead of the TWO it should have) was almost broken off as you can see to the right/front side of the motor:

I did not take a photo as good as I wanted (this was not my nice camera, but a small, pocket camera), but this motor was actually mounted at an angle relative to the spindle, something like 5-10 degrees:

The main levers all worked OK - definitely looser than in my fairly new lathe:

All of the original manuals and extra parts were available, but the holders, cutters, etc., had numerous dings - they were not very well taken care off:

The threading rod was loose - you close the threading lever and as you try to move the carriage, you can move the screw left-right like an 1/8-1/4" !!!:

There was even debris under the carriage, visible as you move the carriage, and most everywhere:

Will

 

[LuxLuthor]

WOW, Will that was more than awsome for you to have gone all the way over to a location and inspected/photographed so many aspects of that mill for him. Just awsome!

Consider this a major Cheers thread 'in situ' from me.

 

[Mirage_Man]

WOW, Will that was more than awsome for you to have gone all the way over to a location and inspected/photographed so many aspects of that mill for him. Just awsome!

Consider this a major Cheers thread 'in situ' from me.

I'll second that! Very nice of you Will. Too bad the lathe wasn't in good condition.

 

[bluwolf]

I can't thank Will enough for what he did for me. I know because I tried.

After I emailed him the first time he didn't waste any time. He asked for the contact info and took it from there. He let me know when he was going to be there and that he would call me when he was standing in front of the lathe.

One of the many things that he didn't mention was that there were several boxes of "stuff" that were supposed to be included with the lathe. From the pictures I had forwarded to him before he went we knew that many of the things in the boxes were for a mill, not a lathe. He took the time to sort out all the boxes so we knew what was what. After he did that they back pedaled and said that the stuff for the mill was not included. Nice of him to do their job for them, eh?

We talked about a few things while he was there. Then he said he would call me back later. Later turned out to be about 10 or 15 minutes later when he could talk openly without someone standing over his shoulder.

Long story short, (oops, too late)it didn't take long for him to convince me that it would be a mistake to buy this lathe.

So how did I thank him for this kindness? Well, of course I started to pick his brain, on his dime no less, why he had chosen the lathe he did. He answered all my questions and in the process spoke highly of a lot of people on this forum who have helped him along the way.

I've been working towards getting a bigger lathe than my 7x12 for longer than I care to admit. I had already decided before Will went to look for me that if this one didn't work out I was going to bite the bullet and get a new one.

But that's a subject for another thread. One which I'm sure Will hopes a few of you will help me with so I don't bore him to death.

Again, I can't thank Will enough for doing this for someone he doesn't even really know.

Mike

 

[Mirage_Man]

Mike, as a fellow Floridian I know hard hard it is to find any decent used equipment in this state. I searched for months for a lathe in good shape for a reasonable price but what I found was either worn out or waaaaay overpriced. So I decided to go the new route as well and am very glad I did.

 

[bluwolf]

Mike, as a fellow Floridian I know hard hard it is to find any decent used equipment in this state. I searched for months for a lathe in good shape for a reasonable price but what I found was either worn out or waaaaay overpriced. So I decided to go the new route as well and am very glad I did.

And you know what you're doing. Another reason I decided to go the new route is that is that I make a newbie look experienced. I figured the learning curve is going to be steep enough without worrying if something not going well was me or the machine.

Yes, I agree, living down here is nice. Especially with the time of year that's approaching. But it seems to be a big, black hole when it comes to good used equipment as well as people with the same interests.

BTW, I've decided to join the PM ranks. I'm gonna get the PM1236. But you probably saw that coming.

Mike

 

[darkzero]

Awesome gesture Will! BTW, if I may ask, how much were they asking for it?

 

[precisionworks]

how much were they asking for it?

According to the auction listing, $1800:

http://www.keysurplus.com/iinfo.cfm?ItemNo=113008

That machine is around $2800 new, so a used one in excellent condition should bring $1400. From the photos, that one is worth a lot less :shakehead

 

[wquiles]

You are welcome Mike - glad I can be of help :thumbsup:

Will

 

[wquiles]

You know, compared to this "find" here in the local craig's list, the Enco lathe was not in that bad shape :crackup:

Large, heavy lathe ...

 

[bluwolf]

Will,

And you wonder why I had you looking for me in Dallas. 85% of what I could find around here looked like that. Some of them actually thought they were worth some serious money.

Mike

 

[precisionworks]

You can easily put a lot of time & money into a used machine, even one that is not too old. I just finished tearing down an older Jet BD1340, around 1985 vintage. Running 8 hours x 5 days x 20+ years, it was tired & heavily worn. Replacing the head stock bearings took the longest time, then quite a few new gears went into the QC gear box, plus a shaft & gear on the compound - a little over $1000 in parts & over 20 hours in labor. Runs nicely now, really quiet & sweet.

Value on that machine is probably $1500 now that it's repaired :thinking:

 

[bluwolf]

You can easily put a lot of time & money into a used machine, even one that is not too old. I just finished tearing down an older Jet BD1340, around 1985 vintage. Running 8 hours x 5 days x 20+ years, it was tired & heavily worn. Replacing the head stock bearings took the longest time, then quite a few new gears went into the QC gear box, plus a shaft & gear on the compound - a little over $1000 in parts & over 20 hours in labor. Runs nicely now, really quiet & sweet.

Value on that machine is probably $1500 now that it's repaired :thinking:

Barry, when I saw your post I went looking for a couple of examples of what I was talking about. They're gone now. But one guy was asking $2000 for an Enco 12x36 that he said was in excellent conditon. I wanted to show you a pic of it but suffice it to say it was awful and disgusting. I have been going round and round for two years now. I think that's long enough.

Put it this way. Even my wife said, "Will you just buy the new one and put us both out of your misery".

Mike