Need A Second Opinion

I am aware of those things,Miller. We have operated a home business for more than 20 years. More like 25. Years ago I bought a little 10" (senior moment,can't think of the WELL KNOWN brand)lathe. It had been made in 1943 for the Navy. Unfortunately,the Navy did not ask for any spare parts to be made available. I called the company,and the only thing they had available was a cast iron cover for the gear train. BUT,they told me I'd have to PAY FOR STORAGE SINCE 1943. I said to heck with that and sold the lathe. Let them keep their blasted part and store it for 100 more years,and we'll see who came out ahead!:)
 
I would pass on it, and RUN as fast as you could from it! An older Jet lathe like this one, more than likely has more wear on the ways and cross slide, not making it worth while to rebuild. Especially with having to replace some of the untainable parts needed.
 
I have an older Jet belt drive lathe. It was made in Taiwan. New ones are now made in China. So far new parts have been close enough to be adapted. Same might be true of this.
 
If I were you id pass but if your really mechanically inclined and have access to othe machines to make or modify parts try buying it as cheap as possibly . There must be a reason they have it in the broken condition and not repaired. Take some proof of parts prices to show how much this money pits gona cost ya.
 
Well I had another talk with the guy. He's stuck at $600 and ain't gonna take no less. He's now claiming that he's gonna part it out and get more money since parts aren't available for it any more. Of course the problem is that the parts he got broke are the ones everyone would most likely need. Short answer is that I ain't buying that lathe. He can part that thing out or set in on fire and dance around it like a liberal at a book burning. Don't make a difference to me. I will say he got a bit miffed when he told me of his plan and I said he might have it all sold parting it out 2 years from now. He said I was rude. Na, rude was trying to sell me a dropped lathe for 1500 bucks and acting like he had no clue it had been dropped.
 
No kidding. Incredibly rude. And having parted out a couple of old motorcycles I can say that while a few parts will sell quickly it will take a very long time to get rid of enough to feel like he's done and scrap the rest. Every time he thinks it's done one more part will sell and he'll decide to keep the rest up a bit longer.

Or he'll get frustrated and just get rid of it. Either way, who cares? Like you said, he was really rude to not disclose the condition right up front. Shady at best.
 
Second part of this. I have a guy that buys and sells machining equipment as a side business looking for a lathe for me. We have been talking RPC's and he's needing one so now he's hunting a motor and some parts and I am gonna build him a 20 HP for running his CNC mill and lathe. Good guy, I am betting he's gonna have me something located in a month or two.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top