The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest awsome machine shop auction

i went to a small auction today and they had some great buys. they had tons of machinist stuff a bridgeport mill, clausing lathe, tons of small stuff. i bought a couple of smaller atlas lathes and a bridgeport boring head and lots of other stuff. this was one cool auction! i wish they had these every few weeks. i would have bought more if i had been off today but i only got to stay for 3 hours and didn't take a trailer.

Just a reflection of the state of our economy. Good deals are great for the buyer, not so much for the seller.

Be careful what you wish for, the next auction could be yours, or the company you work for.

John

i'm cool with havin' a auction like that as long as i'm in my box! auctions are a very fickle thing, and i sure don't wish financial hardship on anyone. the whole summer- no good auctions in this area. i haven't seen a season this bad for them in 10 years. i'm not saying the economy has nothing to do with it, but it always seems like more to do with the auctioneer they pick, timing, location, etc. i have seen auctions where they are practicly giving stuff away when the economy was "goin' strong", then in a week- high as a cat's back. i was going thru the stuff today that bridgeport boring head set is pretty sweet. i also got a r8 chuck for my mill. i always wonder if anyone from here ever hits the auctions.

Whart kind of atlas lathes did you get. I've got a 12 by36 that I like to have a taper atchment for.

no, the 2 atlas i got were the much smaller atlas/craftsman. they had a larger clausing lathe that went pretty cheap. i would have bid more on it if i had been off that day. ttodd, if you are close to spfd you should have checked it out. they didn't really tell all they were going to sell and just decided to go because it worked out. it was a personal estate and they even had the bridgeport listed as a drill press. i almost got a 12" rotary table but didn't. hr

I very seldom go to auctions.Seems like the auctioneer farts around all day selling junk and holds the good stuff til late in the day.And if there is something I am interested in there are always a lot of other bidders running the price up.Many years ago I was in the market for a 225 amp AC weler,commonly referred to as a buzzbox.At the auction there was a Lincoln just what I was looking for. it went for $135.and at the time you could buy a new one for $85.I dropped out of the bidding at $65.cause it looked like it had been well used and abused.Same thing on a Crsftsman radial arm saw one at the auction that was pure junk,all rusted up and nothingon it would move. It went for $425. I bought a newer one about a month later for $300,in like new condition.I still have that saw and use it a lot.

oh i've seen that plenty of times too. i couldn't even remember all the times i have seen stuff go higher than the price of new one. or cheap foreign crap go higher than good stuff just because it's dirty. man, i bet the auctioneer gets a thrill when he sells something for more than the price of a new one. i hardly ever go with just one thing in mind or you'll usually get dissapointed. but as far as getting quality stuff cheap, i have bought on ebay, craigslist, yardsales, closeout sale, instore sales, classified adds, and b boards- a good auction beats them all hands down. unless it's a bad one then it wastes your whole day. hr

I agree with JLucas. I have owned trucks for 44 years and was in banking for 35 years. Thank God I'm no longer in banking. I'm still in trucking, but I have scaled back. I have been fortunate enough to get a premium for the ones I sold one at a time. I have bought a lot of stuff at auction. Especially in the early 80's after deregulation and again in the late 80's when we had a real bust in Texas. I haven't attended an auction in 6 months. I have seen people buy themselves into the poorhouse buying bargains. We are a long way from the bottom of the credit bust we are in. My father who was born in 1901 was living in New York in the 20's and 30's. He always told me "you have to hit bottom before it gets better." I'm afraid there is going to be a lot of truth in that in the next few years.