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Who has dealt with HGR in Cleveland? Good, bad, or ugly?

Finegrain

Finegrain

Diamond
Joined
Sep 6, 2007
Location
Seattle, Washington
I'm shopping for a toolroom lathe and see that HGR has several, with some listed on Ebay. It seems that they don't overinvest in cleanup :rolleyes5:. They also have pretty sparse info on their website and Ebay posts, so it's hard to make any judgements. Here's an example:

LEBLOND 0 LATHE 16" X 48" - eBay (item 230520564646 end time Oct-03-10 12:54:05 PDT)

This is the type of machine I'm looking for, and I've resigned myself to having something shipped in. Just need to figure out which dealers I can trust.

Thanks, and regards.

Mike
 
I bought a 24 in. heavy duty cincinatti shaper from there two years ago great machine and a great price even saved around 1300.00 letting them do the shipping machine was exactly what they said it was and no they don't do pretty paint jobs call em up and tell em to send you pics
 
I bought several linear scales from them. Packed well and sales guys were easy to deal with, not too much pressure. I didn't deal with them on a whole machine.
 
HGR is great for NOS industrial items, or NOS machine parts.... but usually a terrible place to buy used machine tools. I have bought a few rare Euro machines there, but mostly for parts, such that the condition didn't matter so much. But they sometimes have screamin deals on new stuff....or almost new, like electric pallet jacks just a few years old...that sort of thing.
 
They know nothing about the machines, and don't pretend to. They don't get wired up and tested, they just get photographed and parked on the sales floor. Kind of looks like an indoor junkyard. They aren't machinery dealers, they are surplus sellers. Big volume, fast turnover, the prices get real negotiable after a month or more on the floor, don't be afraid to make an offer, but plan for the worst if you can't inspect it or have someone inspect it. Nice enough people to deal with, they will look for serial numbers and such if you can tell them what to look for and where.
 
Mike,
I bought a Hypneumat dbl. spindle drilling unit and a Cammann Disintegrator from them, along with countless other stuff. You can dicker with them..... sometimes really well, if the piece has been a hasbeen. They wanted $1995 for the disintegrator. 2nd. month $1295, then $995, finally $495. I asked if they could do better than that. They laughed.....until I started to walk out the door. I got it for $400. Works like a new one. Not to say that lathe will! What became of the 15'' Sheldon in (I think) New York?
 
Mud said:
They know nothing about the machines, and don't pretend to.
Click to expand...
Sometimes that can work to your advantage, but usually not. One rare instance where it did, were some robots that I found out digging thru paperwork and looking at hour meters, were used less than 500 hours at a training facility only.

But one was missing the pendant ($8,000 for new pendant) and another one missing some critical electronics in it's cabinet. But they are so dumb about machines they had the same price on the one missing things as the complete one.

Another time they had a pristine Moore no. 1 1/2 jig borer at a good price...but it was missing the entire X axis screw and handwheel ! Then I found the screw and handwheel on another pallet two rows away priced seperately. :dopeslap:

But where their lack of knowledge works to detrement of all parties are the huge machines they get in that are worth absolutely nothing... like Acralock machining centers and 1980's magazine bar feeds. Just amazes me they will waste the rigging time and space to deal with such worthless stuff.

Also, if you buy anything don't let it sit around long as there is high probability that parts will get stolen off it.
 
Bought a nice industrial grade hot stamper off of them.
Great deal, easy to deal with.
Of course I let it sit till they threatened to scrap it.
They removed if off the stand and skidded it for
us real good. We did alright considering
I was so bogged down at that point :rolleyes5:
I'd buy again from them for sure.
Hugh
 
Ray Behner said:
What became of the 15'' Sheldon in (I think) New York?
Click to expand...

It took no bids first time around and is now relisted, still at $2k. I'm still interested, but also still have no idea about its condition. I e-mailed the owner about the machine but all I got was a terse 1-line response that left me cold, so unless I can find some trusted agent to look at it, it's a pig-in-a-poke.

Regards.

Mike
 
I can't complain about my experiences. I had heard the "no offer will insult us" so I tried it. Offered $100 on a mill that was $399. Got it for $200 out the door.

30 day return policy, can't complain about that either....except for the 3 hour drive :-)

As Don said though, it's your knowledge of an item that's going to get you a deal. 99% of what they have is junk to me, the 1% that I like is so random that nobody else knows what it is, so I get it at a helluva a deal.
 
Mud hit the nail on the head ,,,,, "They aren't machinery dealers, they are surplus sellers." I'm only a hobby machinist and I have bought several items from them over the years. Several drill presses, a Cincinnati No. 2 horizontal mill, a 13x5 South Bend lathe, 12" shaper, and misc. tooling. Their prices usually start out high, but they will definitely deal on price if the item has been on the floor for a month or so .... it's sort of like a reverse auction in slow motion!! They periodically keep dropping the price over several months until somebody bites!

That all being said, I don't think that I'd buy anything from them without seeing it in person or having a dependable friend take a look for me. They test nothing and make no claims or condition or accuracy. Some of their stuff is junk the day they sit it on the floor so you are really buying a "pig in a poke" if you can't see it for yourself. They aren't out to screw anybody, but what you see is what you get. I really don't think that I'd buy something from them sight unseen and pay to ship it all the way to Seattle, but I'm not a gambler.

I love just walking through their warehouse ... it is huge and you never know what may be in their inventory on any given day. A fun place to visit and there are a few gems to be found if you know what you are looking at.
 
I used to visit HGR a couple of times a month just to wander about seeing what was what. They are the exact opposite of Reliable in CA.

I have bought stuff from them, but I would never buy unless I could get all touchy-feely with the machine I was interested in.

Nothing is wired up, nothing is tested. AS IS, WHERE IS.


Rex
 
Here's what the place looks like in person. Machines are piled in any which way, according to general type, just to get them off the truck. The forklift jockeys seem to value speed over care, but most things get out unscathed it seems.
 

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I'm about 5 hours from them. I've been there several times. Lots of stuff is junk but there are the jewels in the rough too.

Machine tools are impossible to judge by a few pictures. As others have said the buy it, cut the wiring loose, haul it in with the chips & grunge still in/on the machines, & sell.

I have never bought anything from them without first inspecting it in person. Unless it was cheap enough to afford the loss. Everything I have bought that way has in fact been serviceable as is, or easily repairable.

They have always been honest with me. However most of their sales staff is just that, a SALESPERSON. Not a former machinist & no one there that I know of to honestly appraise machinery. That's why it's usually much less than from a dealer that has hooked it to power & tested.

Just my 2 cents
 
In my previous life, when I lived 2 hours from HGR I bought my Van Norman mill, Rockwell grinder a sweet die filer and tons of tooling there. There is a foot shear there now I would look at but too far away. I wouldn't buy anything from HGR I couldn't look at and touch myself. Paul C is a great guy to deal with.
Do they still have the doughnut wagon on Saturday?
 
I have been there 4 or 5 times. I bought a granite surface plate and a large steel surface plate attached to a stand (which I pretty much took for scrap pricing, although it was definitely in "used" condition). The place is huge, and it is confirmable that there is not much rhyme or reason to the order of things. They have some interesting pieces of machinery that are very job specific, along with the run of the mill stuff. I was a bit disappointed to make the drive up there to find that the tooling I saw on the website did not exist ... at least not at HGR. Not to mention, they had quite a bit of stuff that was not listed on their site. I suppose it is pretty tough to keep track of things as a large liquidator. Many of the mills/lathes, etc. that I saw were pretty rusted and neglected looking for the money they were asking. All in all, what you see is what you get. There are some good buys to be had there ... I hope your's is one if you buy there.
 
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