Any Machinists on the board?

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seige101

Minister of Fire
Mar 25, 2008
622
Western MA
All these machines are in the Maintenance shop where i work. They were originally part of a small machine shop when the building we are in had multiple tenants, now we own the entire building.



We only use the drill press, lathe and bridgeport horizontal mill the rest need to go to free up valuable floor space.



So what the heck do we have down there and what is it worth? It will be sold for scrap prices but i would like it to go to a machinist who can use them!




Every thing runs, and all the tables etc move freely.

Thanks in advance
Tim



I know this is a grinder, but what kind?


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Name Plate

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Big lathe

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Mystery Machine #1

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Another of #1

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Some kind of horizontal cutter?

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I think it said chip cutter or grinder on the other side

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Mystery Machine #2

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Other Side

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Mystery Machine #3


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Forgot to put the voltage specs down. All machines are 208/480v 3 phase
 
Shipping would be a killer! But i was told by my boss 'i don't care what you do with them make them go away' trying to find a machinist who could use them, but if not going to the scrap yard, which is such a shame! This old iron still has lots of life left.

Any help identifying them?
 
The "horizontal cutter" is a horizontal milling machine.

#3 looks like a drill press.

The really green one looks like a cutter grinder to me.

First machine is a small surface grinder.

#1 looks like it's sitting on a surface grinder bed. I'll take a guess and say it was used to grind some kind of shafts.

Just semi-educated guess, I worked on NC machines all my life. Let's see if anyone agrees with me...
 
There is a market for used machines like these...because they're stoutly built and continue to do what they were designed to do. You just need to find that market and advertise what you've got. You may end up selling to a broker who buys them to re-sell. Do a little research with whatever shreds of info you can glean from the machines, and identify them the best you can. Then start talking with folks like these:

http://www.machineryvalues.com/harig-surface-grinders-s/1686.htm

It would be a shame to just scrap them because someone's in a hurry...these things still have productive life in them. Google is your friend. Rick
 
Bigger Tree Service guys might be interested in the grinder in the first pic. Surface grinders are awesome to re-sharpen chipper blade sets.
 
You should contact some tool makers. Maybe automatic screw machine shops. And there are companies that buy and sell that kind of machinery. Looks like that is what most of the grinders are for. I'd love to have a surface grinder, just because. They are old, but you might find somebody interested. I've been out of that line of work for ten years or so.
 
My brother is a machinist and I'm sure could explain what all those do but you guys chased him away when he was looking for help after he had a chimney fire.
 
The stuff looks really old, that may hurt the value due to parts availabilty. My plant just scrapped a surface grinder (very top picture) very similar to that one, used for flat surface grinding, bed is magnetic to hold the part, it moves back and forth hydraulically and as it does feeds the other direction to surface grind a flat area. We used it to size multiple parts, can be used for a variety of jobs including precision sharpening and sizing of multiple blade attachments like MM said. More accurate than a mill, ground finish is very smooth and razor sharp if you do blades, and with a diamond wheel it will grind very hard steel.
Our last "machinist" retired a few years ago and it wasn't touched since.
It's a shame equipment like this will go for scrap while jobs go overseas.
Most state of the art shops are CNC and I guess that what is being taught these days, but, is there a school district nearby that would accept a donation of this stuff for basic vocational training?

What type of manufacturing is done at your plant? It may help someone identify some of this.

The Hauser looks like a precision drill press, used for drilling and tapping, free's up the Bridgeport for parts milling.

Hard to tell what the very bottom pic is of.

Van Norman is a name common to automotive engine parts machining. They make cam and crankshaft grinders for that discipline.
 
1. - surface grinder
2. - Lathe (as you state)
3. - (mystery machine # 1) - its a bit puzzling because of the current setup, but I would guess an internal boring machine that also has the ability to have an internal grinder on it.
4. - Horizontal cutter is actually a keyway cutter or horizontal mill (I have its baby brother).
5. - Mystery machine #2 is a precision jobber drill press. Usually they are setup to do a "run" of a product - then reconfigured to do the next.
6. - Mystery machine #3 possibly a shaper, but the pic is not very telling.

You have your hands on some quality that is rarely seen these days. There IS a market for this stuff.

One example:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Harig-6x12-...070?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item58928eefbe

There are plenty of places that deal with this type of stuff.
Another:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Van-Norman-...396?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item564831660c

I would make it "go away" into my shed and then make several thousands of dollars off of it -the buy the boss the biggest steak he could consume.
 
I had a surface grinder similar to the first pic.
It had flippy levers and cams to run in semi-auto mode. You could put a grinding blade on the shuttle table and set it up to grind the blade in .002 increments or so for several tenths and go do something else while it did it's thing.

Also had a full manual one and tended to use the manual one.
 
What ever you do, DON'T scrap these machines, you have the potential, like mentioned above, to make some good pocket change selling them to someone who knows how to use them. It is my opinion that machines like this will be needed again here some day in the future, in crazy times crazy things can happen and if for some reason out trade links to Asia are broken, the owners of these machines will make a fortune making quality parts to replace the junk ones that are currently being sold here these days.
 
Yes, Van Norman made both horozontal and vertical mills as well as combos. Unfortunately, they are valued pretty low due to the flood of Brigeport mills on the market, but they are decent mills.
The other downside to the Van Normans is they use weird "football" collets rather than the more common and interchangable "R-8" collets used by Bridgeports.

Some of the other stuff includes an O.D. grinder and what looks like a small Jig Borer. A Jig Borer is very similar to a vertical mill (bridgeport style) only quite a bit more accurate.
While a Bridgeport is known to be able to hold to a thousandth of an inch (.001) a Jig Borer can easily hold to half a tenth (.5 x .0001) or aproximately 40 times as acurate as a Bridgeport. (depending upon operator skill of course).

Unfortunately, here in Mass the market for these machines is weak (but not hopeless). I have seen truckloads of machine tools bid on only by scrappers. Hobbyists are what is left of the market for the most part.
The horizontal mills are (in todays CNC world) obsolete, even though they are often the best tool by far for certain jobs.

Some of this stuff may be marketable in Mexico as well, and there is always the chance that a jobber (such as myself) could need a given machine. Unfortunately the used machinery dealer's warehouses ar full, and buyers are few and far between.

The accessories are in high demand though, and being smaller can be more readily shipped long distances. Marketing should include close up photos and as many details as possible.

I would list them all on both Ebay and Craigslist.

Oh, and keep the big lathe if you can. If you have a use for a small lathe, you certainly have a use for a big lathe as well. My lathe swings 26 inches, and I use that space on a regular basis.
 
I place I used to work at ran 4 lathes like the one you have pictured (first lathe).
Great machines for sure... very first manual lathe I ever used. I'm not a machinist and even I could use it ;)

ALL that shops machinery was old like this... They swore by the stuff. Their maintenance guy was about as equally as old and could fix any one of them in no time flat. He would just take it all apart and put all the bolts/nuts/washers/springs etc all in one bucket to clean... Then knew where each and every part went when it came to putting it back together. Not the most sociable of guys I've met... but damn good with machines.
 
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