AFK:
I recommend that you stop sitting on the fence and buy both of them ASAP before someone else does.
Re: The Heald - B&S taper tooling is no longer common but can be found. NMTB (National Machine Tool Builders) taper tooling is very common on the used market.
Getting it home: U-haul open-top trailer. Alternately, any flat deck trailer of sufficient capacity. Trailers are generally easier to load and unload by non-mechanized means because the decks are lower and they can be carefully tipped.
Alternates: A roll-back flatbed can winch up a skid-mounted machine.
I moved a 13" lathe by jacking up one end at a time and building a skid underneath. ( I put heavy-duty casters on the skid, which in retrospect was a mistake because it raised the center of gravity. No harm done, but raising the C/G is never a great idea. )
The decision to buy: You're looking at a deal the likes of which you may never see again!
One of the world's foremost tool collectors once remarked to me that NON-buyer's remorse is far more painful than buyer's remorse. If, after this purchase, you decide that these machines are, after all, not for you, you can sell them off and recoup all or most of your money. If you don't buy them, you aren't likely to ever see such machines at such an affordable price.
John Ruth
Who can describe in painful detail tool- and machine-buying opportunities that he passed up decades ago. Still stings!
