Machine tool junkyards?

With older machine tools being cheap to buy, and machine tool parts being quite valuable to the people who need them. Are there any machine tool junkyards that strip machines of usable parts for resale?

Not really, since they would have to deal with cheapskates and there is therefore no money in it ! The "money" is in junked CNC control/drive/servo motor parts....don't take up much space, lightweight, lots of need with standardized (Fanuc) parts that span many different makes of machines, and dealing with industry that are willing to pay the prices.

The other thing is that the availability of cheap machine tools is very regional- in probably 80% of the country, older machine tools are neither cheap nor plentiful- even ancient horizontals go for big bucks in all the western states.

The glut of cheap manual machines is almost over- they are worth more for scrap than resale, most places, and there just arent going to be many left in another few years.

And the trend in junkyards is the exact opposite- Schnitzer, the largest owner countrywide of auto junkyards, with something like 200 yards, has computer software and scan tags to make sure no car stays in the junkyard more than 30 days- yep, out to the crusher in one month.

My local junkyards, here in Washington, all take whatever scrap they get, and load it right into the truck going to either the local Nucor mill, or to ships sailing to China. Nobody keeps any junk any more around here- real estate, labor, and good business sense has told them that warehousing scrap iron is a losing proposition.

Realistically, the big boys, who actually think old machinery is valuable, like Joe Micheals who posts here and works at a power plant, will pay to have their old tools rebuilt and modernised- his company paid 50 grand or so recently for a Leblonde rebuild- and they are not going to fuss around mail ordering $10 spare handles.

And Home Shop Machinists- well, relying on them to make money will get you broke quick. When somebody pays $200 for a mill that cost $10,000 new in 1955, and would cost $100,000 to replace today, they just arent willing to pay current prices for parts.

I figure out here on the west coast, it would probably run you $5000 to $10,000 a month, minimum, to run a decently stocked machine tool junkyard. You would want monthly sales of at least twice that, just to pay yourself a bit. Not a business model that makes sense.

I can see your guy's points.

Though the thought of classic American iron being shipped to China as a raw material, only to be remanufactured into a POS still makes me ill.

yes indeed,tell me aboutit. it's easy to plop a part in the chip tray of an "export lathe",even if it is for a different aplication than to sell it stateside to the cheapskates. surf

obsolete old stuff that did not used to be as obsolete as it is now. best to recycle and put the iron to use. Nothing lasts forever, machine tools have useful lives and sentiment goes just so far. There are lots of good new machine tools available and we happen to be living at a time when there are lots of very cheap but not as good ones also available. Obsolesence is positive it gives room for newer, more productive machines to take over. THere are many who say that the poliferation of very durable, underutilized machines after wwII hurt America in the long run, making it hard to justify updating machinery until it was to late. Don't cry for old iron, naustagial is not only hard to spell but it is a negative emotion.
THer is a difference between appreciating history and wanting to relive it, one is a positive learning expereince the other is a negative reactionary force. Save a few southbends melt the AC1s and replace them with the current iron, use it up, and replace with better. That is what will make the world a better place.
Also, I used to have a 10,000 sq foot warehouse full of old iron, I quickly learned that I could not let in guys who just wanted to look around, biggest waste of time and they wrecked and stole stuff. Some flicking tire kicker snatched an Aloris set right off a lathe, I can't spend half a day with some guy who has a hundred bucks to spend.

If its any consolation Nucor currently has something like 18 steel mills in the USA, all american owned and operated, specialising in making new steel from scrap.
Each one likes to keep, on average, about 1 Million tons of scrap in the yard as raw materials.
So a whole lot of those old machines are being remanufactured right here into good ol' american POS's.

So now I know who purchased the Nichols for $17.00! I was going to bid on it for parts as I was recently given one but mine does not have the original motor, motor pulley, and pulley cover. Hopefully it is nice.

You can not buy any machine tools from junk yards period. Don't even think about doing so as it's a waste of time.

Cool- another one for the Nichols Collective...

Regards,

Greg

I must be different.

I have parted out several scrapyard lathes, bandsaws & mills. Some times I just pluck off the tooling, head, motors and the frequently missing parts like the mill overarm supports.

I wish I could take more but just don't have the space.
Most of the parts are ebayed away quickly and I helped keep a machine running.
Win, Win.

I must be different.

Click to expand...

Nope, there are hundreds of small timers doing what you did. But the original question was about machine tool parts junkyards where that is their full time business, which is not even remotely your situation I presume since "you don't have the space"

Hey- I think it would be GREAT if somebody did open up a 50,000 sq foot building full of old machine tools, and sell parts online for reasonable prices.

I am just discussing why its unlikely to happen- theres no money in it, and shipping old iron gets pricy fast.

I suppose if you were in the heart of the rust belt, and had a really cheap warehouse, and your own trucks, then you could start gathering stuff in- but people who really try to do that quickly realize that keeping trucks and forklifts and cranes running, paying for a few million dollars in liability insurance (required by auctioneers if you want to remove serious quantities of your own iron) and paying rent, taxes and utilities on a big space, not to mention paying helpers- it adds up quick.

As I said before- where I live, its strictly impossible.

As for bridgeports like candy- well, maybe in San Jose, although the last time I was there, the last few big used machinery dealers were closing down there too- but up here, they are scarce and pricy.

Today's Craigslist for Seattle, a town of 2 million or so- absolutely zero milling machines, back about 800 posts or so in tools. One 13x40 Jet lathe, for $2800.
No other industrial machine tools to speak of.
There is one used machinery dealer in all of western washington now, Hallidie in Auburn- he has 4 bridgeports, from $3750 to $12750. Thats about it, aside from Bidadoo at Boeing Surplus, for about 5 hours from me.

So this sure would not be the place to start that business.

But if one of you guys lives someplace where you are tripping over machines, by all means, go for it.

And keep your eyes out for a nice K&T 2D for me too, while you are at it- I figure $1000 shipping to get it here, minimum.

I talked with a mach'y dealer a while back when I was looking for some cheap used machines I could rebuild and use. (I had some time on my hands) He brought up a point: It seems there were some old Brown &Sharp screw machines from the 1920's or so that had been partially broken up for scrap. Some bozo got the frames, made them into completely different machines, wire forming/cutoff or some such. No OSHA safeguards. The originals didn't have anything, this guy wasn't about to spend money on that for his undocumented workers. One of them got killed, his family sues, not the guy that made the machines into something else since he didn't have any money, but instead sued Brown&Sharpe for MILLIONS of $$$. AND WON!!! Needless to say, machine dealers don't even want pre-1980 or so machines on their property.

One of them got killed, his family sues, not the guy that made the machines into something else since he didn't have any money, but instead sued Brown&Sharpe for MILLIONS of $$$. AND WON!!!

Click to expand...

Urban legend. Keep in mind most machinery dealers are FOS

Sort of along these lines - is the issue that you love old machines, or is the issue that you want a mill, or a lathe, or horizontal, or whatever, and new ones are impossibly large/expensive/power hungry?

If what you really want (as I do) is machines to learn on, play with, do things with, make practical, experimental, and artistic parts with, then the issues are size/price/power, not how old it is.

And in the last year or two a wave of small CNC mills intended for hobbyist/inventor/labs has appeared. I suspect this trend will continue in one way or another, we'll see.

(My perspective on this may be a little warped...)

bmw

Speaking of obsolete (surplusjohns statement above ebay dreamer extraordinare

Ebay is full of horizontals at NOWHERE near this price. This is one of the more clueless ebay sellers

apples and oranges are being compared here. You can not compare a 1941 Monarch 12"ck lathe to a new grizley. A Grizley is what it is, hobby grade, which is a hell of alot better than the old hobby grade atlas lathes that Sears sold in the past for a hell of alot more per pound. It really only shares a name [lathe] with an industrial machine. If you were to able to buy a domestic equivalent to a Monarch today I bet it would be 10 bucks a pound at least, probably 15, so that 3000 lb lathe would be 45,000 dollars. Kinda like comparing BMWs with Smart cars, both

Speaking for myself, I think there are more than one reason. The primary reason that I prefer older vintage machines is that you can buy them for pennies on the dollar, especially 3 phase machines.

Click to expand...

Which is precisely why the "old machine tool junkyard" fantasy will never become a reality. If one can buy whole machines for pennies on the dollar, the same folks are going to want the parts for said machines for fraction of pennies on the dollar, which after all the overhead doesn't leave the owner of said junkyard with enough money for a Pop Tart !

Also, to add a bit more perspective, in the modern world most all of the machines are being produced in China

Click to expand...

That is total BS unless one has the curiously narrow perspective that "in the modern world most all of the machines" are the machines that beginners and home hobbiest are drawn toward's buying.

For the machines that really matter in todays "modern word" of manufacturing and production, CNC machines, China is a minor player so far, mostly suppling the raw castings for some CNC machines assembled in other countries. China actually does alot of *importing* of European, USA, Japanese and Tawainese made CNC machine tools. It's my understanding that (USA) Haas, for example, sells thousands of machining centers to Chinese companies.

OK guys, can we let the nay-sayers get away with their philosophical reasons of why there are no old iron parts dealers, or could they be right and there just aren't any, dang-it! I'd LOVE it if they were dead-assed wrong ..screw errant philosophy, just the parts ma'am..

In the past, I've seen postings about scrap dealers that allow scavenging, that all gone? I can't believe it, there are plenty of odd-balls that skipped philosophy 01 and carry on obliviously...

Come on fellow scroungers, let's don't let the vaunted nay-sayers win this one, report in..... Or are you secreting away your private treasure trove? C'mon, we need stuff too..... Remember the opening post, location, location, location....he..he..he..

Rabble rousin' Bob