All,
So I finally made room in the shed, built a dolly, and kept my eye on Facebook marketplace, waiting for a Series 1 to show up. Checked every day, finally saw one which looked like it was in great shape, made a call, and was second in line to see it. Fortunately, the first guy was a no-show, so I had a chance.
Looked too good to be true in pictures and actually seeing it, for under $5000. Appeared to be in pristine condition, with new paint, of course which doesn't mean much. Per the seller, it had one owner who had kept it in his garage since new and had little use. Supposedly the owner was the chief design engineer, machinist, blah,blah,blah, or whatever, of some company, and they gave him a personal machine for home use. All the micrometer dials, hand wheels, etc. look brand new and not a mark on them. Didn't have a lot of time to look at it, but it was powered and ran the full range of high speed and it sounded very smooth. (Note however, I am a novice newbie, and only have about 20 or 30 hours on a bridge port at a community college so I hardly know what I'm really looking at.) All the ways scraping looks impeccably good, although I also understand that somebody can touch this up fairly easily.
So I decided to take it, and the seller said there were three people waiting behind me if I didn't want it, I think I made a good call. Followed some pretty good advice from everybody online, and reserved a JLG 4610, drop deck, 10 foot trailer, from Sunbelt rentals. I didn't end up taking any pictures of the moving process. I had planned to, but just got too distracted in the whole process of moving that I never did it. A friend helped me roll it off into my shed, which was a bit tricky, because the total table width was wider than my shed doors.
I just tilted the head back upright today. Manually ran the table, X and Y to the stops, and very, very smooth, with hardly any noticeable friction loss toward the middle of the table. Ran the table X power feed back-and-forth, and runs very smooth. The table screw for X looks really good, very square threads. A couple times I did hear a short one-second chatter. Not sure what that's all about? So lots to do ahead of me. Need to run another wall outlet and get a plug to power it up.
I'm kind of ticked off at myself, for not wetting all the surfaces with oil as soon as I wanted to. It was dry as a bone when we loaded it up in the warehouse, and after 48 hours in my shed, I was alarmed at the surface buildup that had already attacked it. So I had an emergency painting task to wet every bit of unpainted surface I could find with way oil.
One further note, regarding Sunbelt rentals. I had a hard time finding a JG 4610 drop deck trailer. Sunbelt rentals, at least in the south New Jersey area, said that they are getting rid of all their drop deck trailers, in favor of using lift beds, which only tilt down in the back. They are auctioning them off. They had to find one at a distant location, and relocate it for me to pick it up locally.
Anyway, the jury still out to see just how good of condition it is. Here's some pic's.
So I finally made room in the shed, built a dolly, and kept my eye on Facebook marketplace, waiting for a Series 1 to show up. Checked every day, finally saw one which looked like it was in great shape, made a call, and was second in line to see it. Fortunately, the first guy was a no-show, so I had a chance.
Looked too good to be true in pictures and actually seeing it, for under $5000. Appeared to be in pristine condition, with new paint, of course which doesn't mean much. Per the seller, it had one owner who had kept it in his garage since new and had little use. Supposedly the owner was the chief design engineer, machinist, blah,blah,blah, or whatever, of some company, and they gave him a personal machine for home use. All the micrometer dials, hand wheels, etc. look brand new and not a mark on them. Didn't have a lot of time to look at it, but it was powered and ran the full range of high speed and it sounded very smooth. (Note however, I am a novice newbie, and only have about 20 or 30 hours on a bridge port at a community college so I hardly know what I'm really looking at.) All the ways scraping looks impeccably good, although I also understand that somebody can touch this up fairly easily.
So I decided to take it, and the seller said there were three people waiting behind me if I didn't want it, I think I made a good call. Followed some pretty good advice from everybody online, and reserved a JLG 4610, drop deck, 10 foot trailer, from Sunbelt rentals. I didn't end up taking any pictures of the moving process. I had planned to, but just got too distracted in the whole process of moving that I never did it. A friend helped me roll it off into my shed, which was a bit tricky, because the total table width was wider than my shed doors.
I just tilted the head back upright today. Manually ran the table, X and Y to the stops, and very, very smooth, with hardly any noticeable friction loss toward the middle of the table. Ran the table X power feed back-and-forth, and runs very smooth. The table screw for X looks really good, very square threads. A couple times I did hear a short one-second chatter. Not sure what that's all about? So lots to do ahead of me. Need to run another wall outlet and get a plug to power it up.
I'm kind of ticked off at myself, for not wetting all the surfaces with oil as soon as I wanted to. It was dry as a bone when we loaded it up in the warehouse, and after 48 hours in my shed, I was alarmed at the surface buildup that had already attacked it. So I had an emergency painting task to wet every bit of unpainted surface I could find with way oil.
One further note, regarding Sunbelt rentals. I had a hard time finding a JG 4610 drop deck trailer. Sunbelt rentals, at least in the south New Jersey area, said that they are getting rid of all their drop deck trailers, in favor of using lift beds, which only tilt down in the back. They are auctioning them off. They had to find one at a distant location, and relocate it for me to pick it up locally.
Anyway, the jury still out to see just how good of condition it is. Here's some pic's.
Im well aware of the issues of machines in garages on the east coast . My BP looked identical to yours when I pulled it into the garage . After a few years of oiling it down time and time again , it's turned darker and less shiny . Still nice , but hopefully I can move it down to the other house in a few months to my original shop location . Heat and AC is nice for the machines . Enjoy that machine , it'll last a lifetime.
You still running the Clausing up there ?