I bought 1400-1500 lbs of handheld/portable bandsaws, qty ~70.
I was bidding on some items at an auction ~90 minutes from home, at a large fabrication contractor that was downsizing inventory. Specifically a smoke filtration system for welding, and a few other things.
Once I won my first items and knew I was making the drive, I figured I would bit on a few other items. Some friends commented on the crates of bandsaws they were selling (no quantity, weight, model, or condition information), saying that they might want one or two if someone was to win th lot. I put in an optimistically-low bid based on some assumptions about quantity, condition, capability, and how many I could repair based by using parts from damaged units.
As usual with auctions I went prepared to load my own items, in this case with a pallet jack and winch to haul it into the trailer. However, they loaded it for me with a forklift which was convenient - they had a lot of people coming through and wanted people in and out quickly at their active warehouse.
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At this point I could tell it was more than the ~30 saws I estimated from the insufficient listing picture. There were 2 lots of bandsaws like this, one of them estimated the quantity at 16 and the crate was not nearly as full.
Normally at home I have to winch things out of the trailer down the ramp, however this was a good use for the new gantry procured a month or two ago
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Tipped the scales around 1400-1500 lbs depending on whether I had the additional saws on top of the crate
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I estimated around 70 saws, if they were 20lbs each (and allowing 100-150 lbs for the crate itself). A few days later I unloaded the crate and sorted by model. Most of them were Milwaukee 6225 (two-speed, aluminum or zinc housing); and about another dozen were various variable-speed (dial or trigger) models, including a few Dewalts.
They all appear to be in fundamentally working condition, with minor repairs needed: the occasional missing blade, tire, guide bearing, maybe a bad bearing in the idler wheel. But at least 85% of them can be picked up and put to use.
I've sold a handful of working ones to friends cheap (and at friend prices they were worth shipping to a few handy friends in Chicago), and still have upwards of 60 sitting in the garage. I need to figure out what to do with them long-term -- I think they will be difficult to sell due to the contractor-special Anti-Theft paint job, and did not factor long-term storage in when bidding.
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Car was a real handful and I was exhausted by the time I got home. Thankfully it's back to normal now it doesn't have 2000lb of tools in it!
Like a lot of auctions, some stuff goes for way more than I expected (bin of somewhat rusty ER collets for $100) and others for way less (bin of mostly new carbide endmills for $10). I didn't even win the thing I really wanted, a Kurt 4" vise, as I tapped out at $200 + fees. Not a terrible price (would have been ~$256 all in) but not great either as it didn't have any jaws and my current vise works pretty well. Still sad though..
