# Story of a Road Trip for That Special Machine



## bcall2043 (Mar 12, 2013)

I don't know if this is the right spot for this topic. Kind of off-topic but related to the hobby. Sorry for being so long winded but then it is a story.

Today while helping Uglydog load and prepare for the trip back to Minnesota with his new (old) Cincinnati milling machine the subject came up of driving to get that special machine. I thought it might be interesting to see how far some of us have driven to haul a special machine home.

If you have done this then tell us your adventure.

I will start with a trip to get my Brown and Sharpe #1D universal horizontal milling machine from Milford ME and move it to middle Tennessee. I won’t include all the miles as I was working in the area and did not drive all the way from Tennessee just to get the machine. Does that make me not as sick as someone who drives longer round trips just to get a tool? I would like for the wife to think so!

My adventure started with an addiction to Uncle Henry’s classifieds http://www.unclehenrys.com/ where I found an ad for a horizontal mill. I had alread purchased one horizontial mill and moved it to Tennessee (another story?). However it was not a universal model which was what I really wanted and I still had a real bad fever for a universal.  A few questions on the phone with the seller made me think I had to go to Maine and look at this machine as soon as possible. That weekend I drove the 186 miles from where I was temporarly working and living in NH up to Milford ME and met with the seller. This is what I found:


*B&S #1D Universal Horizontal Milling Machine as Found*

Just what I had been dreaming about and had given up hope of finding so I bought it on the spot. I did not have a trailer with me to load it so I made arrangments to return for it later. All the way home I worked on my story for the wife. I needed a good one for why I needed (had bought) a second horiziontal milling machine. 

The following week I returned with a trailer but forgot the camera so no picture of the load. The loading would have made a good one. The seller picked the mill with a large tracked excavator that reached all the way across my trailer and lifted the mill from his warehouse door pad and set it on my trailer. He could have probably loaded my 16 foot trailer with two scoops of gravel with that machine. It had no problem lifting the little mill. 

The photo below is of the mill on a layover in New Hampshire where I was living at the time. At this point the machine was sprayed with rust preventive and a tarp placed over it until I could get off work and take it to Tennessee.


*B&S #1D at Layover in NH*

The next photo is of the machine in Tennessee after unloading and a little cleaning, oiling, and placed in the garage. I promised the wife I would rebuild it and get rid of the first horizintal mill. I still have both.


*B&S #1D Cleaned and Stored in Tennessee

*Miles driven for this machine:
376 miles round trip to look at and purchase.
1573 trailer miles to haul it from Milford ME to Middle Tennessee

The last photo is not machine porn. It is a screen clip of the route taken getting the machine to Tennessee:



Benny
The Orphanage Never Closes

_PS - Uglydog has promised to add his trip when he get back home_


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## jpfabricator (Mar 12, 2013)

I took a Saturday in January for a road trip to Fort Worth to pick up the Millrite mill AR1911 had for sale. I took my father , and young son along for company. We did a total of 400 miles (give or take) to bring the mill home. Unfortunatly with the new job schedule the mill still waits , patiently for a power supply to be wired in.


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## Analias (Mar 13, 2013)

So far I gotcha all beat for milage, 1900+ miles round trip. From Albuquerque NM to Barksdale CA and back, all in one weekend.  All for my Sieg X3 CNC mill I bought on EBay.  

In retrospect, not the wisest road trip. It was unplanned and rushed, and at the end of a pay period. A bad combo.  My wife is a saint, and I don't deserve her. The trip was long and rough and to my embarrassment we made it home with less than a quarter tank of gas and no cash.  Along the route, gas got more expensive and as we pulled the uhaul up to Flagstaff my milage went from the normal 25 mpg to 12! All through it, my wife stayed positive despite my grumpy disposition. Like l said, she's a saint.

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2


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## xalky (Mar 13, 2013)

I'm pretty lucky that i live in an area that was pretty heavily industrialized. So far i haven't had to go more than 30 miles to get stuff. I can't imagine driving 1900 miles in one weekend ...thats just insane.


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## alabamaed36046 (Mar 13, 2013)

In 12 2011 my youngest son and I drove 12oo miles from South  Alabama to just South of Houston to pick up a 1946 Hardinge TL. It was apart, Now for the fun time of a complete refurb.
Thanks
alabamaed36046


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## Tony Wells (Mar 13, 2013)

Well, I have just been authorized to sell some old machines that I need guys like you to buy. They're cheap, but here in East Texas. If you're willing to drive, I can load. I'll try to get some pictures and descriptions up tomorrow. I'll put them in the classifieds section though.


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## bcall2043 (Mar 13, 2013)

Tony Wells said:


> Well, I have just been authorized to sell some old machines that I need guys like you to buy. They're cheap, but here in East Texas. If you're willing to drive, I can load. I'll try to get some pictures and descriptions up tomorrow. I'll put them in the classifieds section though.




Wish you had not posted this reply! I will be making a couple of trips to Texas in the next few weeks and I can see the trips getting more expensive$$$$

Is "guys like you" a good thing or bad thing?:rofl:

Benny
The Orphanage Never Closes


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## Tony Wells (Mar 13, 2013)

My what a question! Of course guys like me are the "good guys"! hehe


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## Analias (Mar 13, 2013)

Tony, if you post an old iron lathe that is near the price I paid for my G4000, your going to break my heart.  East Texas is doable from New Mexico, but folks forget just how big that state is.


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## Tony Wells (Mar 13, 2013)

Yeah, it's a long drive East to West. Sandia Park to Tyler is ~700 miles.  Good long day's drive.

Edit: Just looked at your G4000. Never had looked before. 9 x 19? Well, that's smaller than anything in this shop. More like 16 x 54 and up on the lathes. There's three of them.


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## Gary Max (Mar 14, 2013)

Tony with gas prices near $3.70 per gallon and my old 10 mpg truck, it's a long ways to Tx from Ky.:whiteflag:


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## GK1918 (Mar 14, 2013)

Oh Man, you went right by my shop in Mass in didnt stop in.?????????????????


whoooo     loook at that 79 Ford in the back


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## Tony Wells (Mar 14, 2013)

Gary Max said:


> Tony with gas prices near $3.70 per gallon and my old 10 mpg truck, it's a long ways to Tx from Ky.:whiteflag:



I know that's right. And it wouldn't get any better loaded with 8-10,000 lbs of old iron on it. But our gas has dropped a little back into the $3.40 range. For now. And that's maddening, as it comes out of the ground less than 100 miles from here, and is distilled right here in Tyler, then distributed. I guess they have to make it all balance out somehow.


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## Bobby Bailey (Mar 14, 2013)

My wife and I traveled from Arkansas to Penn. to pick up my 10L. We decided to make a vacation out of it and spent 2.5 days going each way. I never worry about how far to travel, when you live in rural Arkansas it's a long way to anywhere. But we like it.
Bobby


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## bcall2043 (Mar 15, 2013)

Bobby Bailey said:


> My wife and I traveled from Arkansas to Penn. to pick up my 10L. We decided to make a vacation out of it and spent 2.5 days going each way. I never worry about how far to travel, when you live in rural Arkansas it's a long way to anywhere. But we like it.
> Bobby



Bobby,
I know what you mean by "a long way to anywhere". I grew up in Texas where you could drive all day and never get out of the state. In the eastern part of our country you can cross several states in one day.

The wife and I have always try to package a machine fetch trip into an excursion or needed/planned trip. You may have noted in the original post about the fetch of the B&S mill that it had a layover. It was parked for a couple of months waiting on a planned trip for the longest part of the trip from NH to Tennessee. That way it kind of makes me think about the fuel cost being for the planned trip and not for the machine.)

Benny
The Orphanage Never Closes


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## Gary Max (Mar 15, 2013)

I just passed a heck of a deal on a BP mill because it was 1,250 miles from here.


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## Bobby Bailey (Mar 15, 2013)

Use to be, that would have been just a long day trip. Now that I'm older, 2-3 days. 
Bobby


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## Old Iron (Mar 16, 2013)

I drove to Norfolk VA. round trip 1635 miles to get my 13" South Bend. 

530 miles round trip to New Orleans to get the K & T Milwaukee 2CH Horizontal Mill. 

About 70 miles round trip to get the 13" LeBlond Lathe. 

125 miles round trip tp get the K & T Milwaukee Vertical Mill & the Jones And Shipman Surface Grinder which were free!. 

I went to Tenn. to pickup the Champion Drill Press about 740 miles round trip. 

 Total of 3100 miles to get machines and there are others.

Paul


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## 4GSR (Mar 16, 2013)

This Brown & Sharpe No. 1D horizontal mill is very similar to the No. 3 universal I had many years ago.  The age is around 1910, give or take a year or so.  Just look at the last patent date listed on the side of the base column just below the model number.  Serial number is located just above the spindle nose on the face of the column.


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