• Scam Alert. Members are reminded to NOT send money to buy anything. Don't buy things remote and have it shipped - go get it yourself, pay in person, and take your equipment with you. Scammers have burned people on this forum. Urgency, secrecy, excuses, selling for friend, newish members, FUD, are RED FLAGS. A video conference call is not adequate assurance. Face to face interactions are required. Please report suspicions to the forum admins. Stay Safe - anyone can get scammed.

Greetings from the West Coast.

T

Towforce

Member
As a bit of introduction, I'm going to fully admit I am by no means a "machinist"! I would go as far as to say I could probably make a Millwright cry? I took a few bits of education acquired from my high school shop teacher forward through life and built the things I wanted... many times over?.. In fact I'm likely considered a "barbarian"! Through the years of various projects I was inspired to purchase a lathe, welder and so on. I jammed this stuff into my basement and forced them to achieve my goals.

Anyway, at 63 I'm heading for a crossroads and was reaching out for a bit of advice.

My situation, retirement and a move is in the near future and I have two big beasts in my basement (A metal lathe and milling machine) that I need to deal with.... Getting these things out of my basement is going to be feat but I'm sure many on this forum have faced harder moves. Reluctantly, and just being honest, I think I should just sell or ? what I have. Then if my new home can accommodate, search out smaller and newer equipment (back in the day, I had no money... so this kit is not exactly quality stuff).

The two items I need to get rid of are:

-14x40 Dashin Studturn metal lathe (Your typical Chinese Gear head Lathe) It's got the Cam Lock head, Rapid tool post and the usual list of stuff.

-NON-RUNNING Elliot 00 "Multi Mill". This one is kind of special as it was a project I'm never going to get to. I inherited this from my Dad, The electrical was a total mess and I had intended to rewire/update but like many things in life, could not get to the task. Currently, it's electrically stripped, and lots of cheap tooling to go with it.

My reason for posting here is not to try and sell anything (tho... this is an option). I'm looking for advice.

I feel my options are to "Sell" (is there a market?).... Donate (is there place out here on the West Coast that could use this type of donation?) or Scrap... (would make me cry... but not having a place to move the equipment "to" at this time makes this option a rather distasteful). The metal lathe is one thing I will really miss with so many dumb little projects being solved by heading to the "lathe".

Anyway, thanks for letting me post here and any advice... well almost "any" advice is welcome ;-) Feel free to PM me or reply in this thread.

Martin
Abbotsford B.C.
 
First of all welcome to the forum from Hamilton Ontario!

I think a few points are not clear enough to give good advice. For example is a new place lined up or not? Would new place have any space at all for your machines? Would new place be close by or on the other side of the country/planet?

In any case I would say there is definitely a market for such machines out there. Mind you machines that are not working won't fetch much money if any but someone might be found who would be interested in a project or in the parts if it were free or a reasonable price.

On the other hand being retired myself I would advise hanging on to the machines if at all possible. It seems clear from your intro that you enjoyed these machines a great deal and when retired such a hobby could do wonders to keep your mind busy. Just my 2 cents>
 
Welcome from Lillooet BC.
I second the recommendation to keep your tools if possible, including the milling machine. Now that I have had a lathe in my life, I can't imagine living without one, and with retirement looming just around the corner, you might find the time and desire to get your dad's old mill back doing what it was made to do.
If that's not possible, I am sure you will find a buyer in fairly short order.
 
Welcome from Ontario.

I second both pieces of advice above.

Sounds like you are gearing up to retire or at least actually doing so. (confusing statement intentional).

I've been retired over 15 years. I had the same two choices that you probably have.

1. Relax, enjoy watching movies, play a little golf, bitch at the bride, and die soon after.

Or 2. Do useful productive things that keep your mind and body heathy and happy.

I chose the latter, expanded my workshop, got some more tools, and also started farming again. I was born a farm boy and now I plan to die a farm boy too.

I'd keep your tools for now. Put a plan together to fix that mill, make some more cool stuff, and keep your mind busy. Even if you decide later that you would really rather move to an apartment and watch tv all day, at least your mill will be worth something if it is running. And who knows what love a mill might inspire on your heart in the meantime. Obviously, you learned to love your lathe. Given half a chance, a mill can easily inspire the same love and happiness.
 
I retired last year, live in a townhouse with my shop taking up 1/2 of the single-car garage. I’d be going nuts without having a shop.

Keep the tools. Rent a storage locker and store the lathe and mill until you’re 100% sure you can’t fit them in your future. Worst-case you’re out a bit of coin for rental, best-case you find a new home that allows you to putter away to your hearts content on gear you already have and know.
 
whydontu said:
Rent a storage locker and store the lathe and mill until you’re 100% sure you can’t fit them in your future.
Click to expand...
We've all made the mistake of selling stuff and then regretting it later. Have you looked at the price of new/used equipment?, it may be tough to replace what you have depending on where the move takes you.

Is this the mill?, if it is, to me that's a keeper and once up and running would be a real treasure.
http://www.lathes.co.uk/elliott-omnimil-00/

Oh, and welcome from the island.
 
Welcome from SK.
I second the advise the other guys have given, hang on to the the equipment you have until your future plans have been made.
 
Thanks all for the comments, I get it, stuff like this is very hard to replace and you have to keep yourself "busy".... but "retirement" is not going involve slipping into the old folks home! Its more about "to heck with work" and get on with "life"! (After all, as it stands, hobbies include Hang Gliding, Paragliding, Mountain Biking, Road biking, cross country running, snow boarding and head mechanic for my aging fleet of vehicles..... ;-) )

I guess my challenge is, I don't know where my move is going to take me. We want to sell on the Coast (and be homeless for a period of time... ), and shop the southern interior (BC) to find something that suits us. The big lathe has been in the basement for at least 30 years, the mill I inherited from my Dad was your typical English electrical mess, was stripped down and unfortunately not rebuilt (a project that I have wanted to get to for many years, but never found the time).

Before we put our place up for sale, we need to clean out the basement and prep the place.... not sure how much of selling feature having a machine shop in the basement would be! For sure, the both beasts are going to be a gong show to move from the basement/back yard, up a hill to a suitable landing...

The Mill is a project, the lathe is pretty loose, but probably my favorite go to when a project gets strange (given I have never used the mill I suspect its something I can learn to live without. The lathe might be better downsized to another Chinese variant (10 x 36?) I will also contemplate storage.

Thanks!

Martin
 
YotaBota said:
We've all made the mistake of selling stuff and then regretting it later. Have you looked at the price of new/used equipment?, it may be tough to replace what you have depending on where the move takes you.

Is this the mill?, if it is, to me that's a keeper and once up and running would be a real treasure.
http://www.lathes.co.uk/elliott-omnimil-00/

Oh, and welcome from the island.
Click to expand...
You got it. It is the "00", The electrical was simply too far gone to continue to play with. My dad had bypassed the overhead setup with a drum switch. the Horizontal was working but sketchy. The overhead motor ( Spec 3/4hp ? 1ph) is a bit bit of an odd frame size and was the source of a vibration in the head, turns out it had a poorly repaired output shaft so I was on a search for new motor, have yet to find anything that fits the odd frame size... (most standard frame sizes do not allow the full articulation of the overhead as the "horizontal support" is in very close proximity to the tail of the overhead motor). .... If anyone has any ideas on a super short 1hp/1ph 220v ? (a simple drum switch and a running table feed and this becomes a working mill).

"Somebody" put some pretty good gashes in the table. Tooling got beat up pretty good, as my dad hit his 90's.... he got pretty rough on stuff.

For sure it is a cool, super well built "little" mill.

Martin
 
Towforce said:
Its more about "to heck with work" and get on with "life"! (After all, as it stands, hobbies include Hang Gliding, Paragliding, Mountain Biking, Road biking, cross country running, snow boarding and head mechanic for my aging fleet of vehicles..... ;-) )
Click to expand...

Is that ALL you have on your plate as it stands??? That's a pretty slim list for an old guy!

Most of that all seems to be exercise related. Too much exercise will kill you just as fast as becoming a couch potato! With that piddly little list of brain activities (basically just head mechanic), you are gunna be bored to death! You better go buy more tools! And more toys to fix with your tools!

OK, I've had my fun. Sorry about that. But quite seriously, that's more or less what my list looked like when I retired too. Mostly all activities. Maybe not hang gliding and paragliding, but I did add swimming, fishing, hunting, camping, and hiking to my list at the time. They are all still there.

But the trouble is that activities don't usually last all day, all week, all month, all year. You need things to keep your mind busy without being an activity. Hopefully that doesn't become TV, or spectator sports. This is where shops and tools and other hobbies enter the picture.

My list of hobbies is huge. Prolly way bigger than most, and prolly bigger than I can actually handle. But I like it that way. Heck, I even took up farming!

Another way of looking at it......

Welcome to retirement!
 
Yes, I hate letting any equipment go... don't know how many times I have had a project in my head that ended at the "lathe"! The Mill is something I have never used but still, hard to part with.

I tend to have a motto, why buy something engineered and in production when for almost 10 times the cost I can design and build it myself! ... What inspired the purchase of this lathe nearly 25 years ago was the building of a special towing system for my Hang Gliding.


One particular component of the "winch" that was well beyond my skills and something from a machine perspective that I have always marveled at was the Norco/Flennor "Ball Reverser" (used to preciesly store line on the winch)....


I happily spent $1200 (25 years ago) and purchased the part.... making it myself would have probably pushed the cost into the millions ;-)

Cheers

Martin
 
Towforce said:
Yes, I hate letting any equipment go... don't know how many times I have had a project in my head that ended at the "lathe"! The Mill is something I have never used but still, hard to part with.

I tend to have a motto, why buy something engineered and in production when for almost 10 times the cost I can design and build it myself! ... What inspired the purchase of this lathe nearly 25 years ago was the building of a special towing system for my Hang Gliding.


One particular component of the "winch" that was well beyond my skills and something from a machine perspective that I have always marveled at was the Norco/Flennor "Ball Reverser" (used to preciesly store line on the winch)....


I happily spent $1200 (25 years ago) and purchased the part.... making it myself would have probably pushed the cost into the millions ;-)

Cheers

Martin
Click to expand...
Nice mine is on a tricycle with an engine.
 
And welcome to the forums from --- Abbotsford! Sounds like you have a fun project with that mill!
 
Welcome from Winnipeg! I hope to follow you into retirement in the next 3 to 5 years…

My advice is to pull your machines apart and have movers take them to your new place.

Good luck with the move!!
 
Towforce said:
Thanks all for the comments, I get it, stuff like this is very hard to replace and you have to keep yourself "busy".... but "retirement" is not going involve slipping into the old folks home! Its more about "to heck with work" and get on with "life"! (After all, as it stands, hobbies include Hang Gliding, Paragliding, Mountain Biking, Road biking, cross country running, snow boarding and head mechanic for my aging fleet of vehicles..... ;-) )

I guess my challenge is, I don't know where my move is going to take me. We want to sell on the Coast (and be homeless for a period of time... ), and shop the southern interior (BC) to find something that suits us. The big lathe has been in the basement for at least 30 years, the mill I inherited from my Dad was your typical English electrical mess, was stripped down and unfortunately not rebuilt (a project that I have wanted to get to for many years, but never found the time).

Before we put our place up for sale, we need to clean out the basement and prep the place.... not sure how much of selling feature having a machine shop in the basement would be! For sure, the both beasts are going to be a gong show to move from the basement/back yard, up a hill to a suitable landing...

The Mill is a project, the lathe is pretty loose, but probably my favorite go to when a project gets strange (given I have never used the mill I suspect its something I can learn to live without. The lathe might be better downsized to another Chinese variant (10 x 36?) I will also contemplate storage.

Thanks!

Martin
Click to expand...
Welcome from lumby BC a paragliding and hang gliding hotspot you've probly visited, I too dable in paragliding not that good at it yet but working on it.

It shouldn't be hard to find buyer if you set a reasonable price for your equipment even in a shitty location if it got down there it can most likely be removed. If you really wanted to hang on too your equipment I would look into buying a 20' seacan and putting all stuff into it you'll be amazed how much stuff can fit in one and can be reasonable be moved anywhere or stored long term.

if you do sell your equipment I would probly keep the tooling if you have lots of it. If you don't mind waiting for a deal or have the money to buy new there is a lot of options available once you've settled in somewhere. But for used less options as you move inland the Okanagan is a equipment less waste land.

if you find your self flying in lumby maybe we will bump into each other good luck with which ever option you decide.
 
Don't sale those thing you will regret . I have a old press drill and I was suppose to sale for $ 200.00 what a mistake . The guy's on the site show me and explain everything to convert my press drill with a 3 phase motor and a drive for increase and lower de RPM I love it . These guy here are very nice.
 
Welcome Martin,

Keep the machine gutted from electronics and just run a VFD ? I am not familiar with that machine so I am simply shooting in the dark.
I am fascinated with how many millwrights are on this board.

Have fun\!
 
Yes, Torn about the whole process, still contemplating my options. Came across this reversible 1hp 1750 230v a Princess Auto. It's totally enclosed and requires airflow externally to cool. Likely the highest China quality that Princess can get?..... still the overall body and mount seems to be pretty close to the stock motor (and old Taylor). Simple drum switch to make it go and a relay safety might be the simplest solution?

20230314_094448.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top