Thinking of buying a Bridgeport Mill

ah, I see, good catch. I just saw the title and the lathe bit at the end, but didn't read the mill bit in the middle :)

Then most likely he'll be sitting on it until the day he moves, then he'll have $0. I still think it's worth going round and talking with the seller, leave your number and a price you'd be happy to pay. There's a better than even chance that you'll get a call back.
 
It's good to view "extras" with the same critical eye as the primary machine tool, especially if it's being used to inflate the cost of the package. I bought a lathe that came with "many extras", most of which have since been replaced because they were so worn out. It was almost like the seller added anything they were about to throw out and packaged it with the lathe to drive the price up.
 
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mattthemuppet2 said:
ah, I see, good catch. I just saw the title and the lathe bit at the end, but didn't read the mill bit in the middle :)

Then most likely he'll be sitting on it until the day he moves, then he'll have $0. I still think it's worth going round and talking with the seller, leave your number and a price you'd be happy to pay. There's a better than even chance that you'll get a call back.
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IMO, $1500 for the mill is probably about right, the mill itself is in so-so shape best I can tell. The pile of tooling is a mix of rusty and less-usable tooling (how many 1" tool holders do you need? Do you really want to buy 1" mills, instead of just an insert face mill/fly cutter?). The right-angle head is 'valuable', but I'm not sure I've really ever had a situation where I'd want/need one. So I think if I REALLY wanted a bridgeport, I might suck it up and go $2500-$3000, but $6800 is nuts. That said, no DRO and no x-axis power feed would dissuade me from doing that anyway.

Also, the 'visible flaking' at the ends-of-travel is always a hilarious picture to me. My millrite had that flaking, but also had a significant dip in the middle. Show me the ways in the middle, where it actually gets used!
 
Ad is pretty clear the mill is $6,800 and the lathe is $2,800
Not $6,800 for both.
From the photos posted I can almost assure you it’s a dirty run of the mill step pulley antique. $1,500 max. Also would leave the boxes of mostly junk tooling and buy specifically what you need elsewhere.
 
hey guys, not my mill or my money. I lived in SE Washington state for 3 years, it's a machinery desert. The idea of being able to get a BP for $1500 from someone who isn't a relative or a friend is laughable. Getting one for $3k with any sort of tooling will take some time and looking. But again, not my money and the OP can take whatever course he sees fit.
 
If the OP comes back to this thread, I'd tell him to hold off as well. I watched and waited in the Washington State Machinery Desert and won the lottery with a rarely-used Lagun FTV-3 that I got on auction just 3 or 4 miles from my house for $1600. They're out there. My advice for this area is to find the auction houses that liquidate business assets between Seattle and Portland. Ehli Auctions is one of them. They come up a few times a year, and sometimes people just can't seem to get the time, cash, and trailer to appear at the right place on the right day, and a lot of good equipment ends up left on the floor for the scrapper at the end.
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pontiac428 said:
If the OP comes back to this thread, I'd tell him to hold off as well. I watched and waited in the Washington State Machinery Desert and won the lottery with a rarely-used Lagun FTV-3 that I got on auction just 3 or 4 miles from my house for $1600. They're out there. My advice for this area is to find the auction houses that liquidate business assets between Seattle and Portland. Ehli Auctions is one of them. They come up a few times a year, and sometimes people just can't seem to get the time, cash, and trailer to appear at the right place on the right day, and a lot of good equipment ends up left on the floor for the scrapper at the end.
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I got a buddy out on the gorge that makes decent money running a trailer from central Oregon to the Portland area and back to buy the less expensive valley machines and selling them out near him!

If you keep an eye out and are willing to drive a bit, deals are to be had!

Interestingly, the guy who started Ehli auctions is my best friends FIL! He sold out a few years back after getting it off the ground.
 
Ehli moves an incredible amount of useful stuff for the home shop. Liquidations have not stopped for COVID, but it appears from watching their site that buyers have slowed down, leaving some incredible deals. They've merged with some other liquidators, one in the Portland area (Portland has a lot more machinery available than Seattle, unless you're after coffee roasting equipment). I just missed out on a few surface grinders that came up in Portland via Ehli. Snoozing and losing, what a regret!
 
It's R8. It's all cleaned up and running off of a 5 hp RPC. I spent the last two weekends working on the DRO install. I love that machine, especially after years of pushing the limits with my old RF-30! The FTV-3 weighs more than a BP Series 2 by about 700 lbs. It's a big one.
 
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