99 cent tools

what a buck will buy---give or take a penny

That would be a nicely disguised gloat, if you managed to take possession. The rest of the story?

My wife and two daughter like that store. Every thing they buy there breaks or doesn't work to begin with. For example dead 99¢ batteries, cashews that smell like sewer water, disintegrating toys, you name it. They even bought me some tools one time that promptly broke. Tools that break are unsafe. About the only thing might be worth it there are paper products and balloons, things that get thrown away. You pays you money and takes your chances.

I'd give 99¢ for the last item though.

so I got an ebay email---"enjoy your Makino A55"

the seller had no real sales history--so a concern here aside from token bid

I got email from seller that it is legit--after I raised the concern that it had scam aroma

but I spent the morning at an advanced manufacturing concern adjacent to Boeing heavy
plant in the Kent valley--I signed 2 page non-disclosure document--was allowed to snap pics of machine only

the A55 build year is 1995--it made good parts until a 20,000 rpm crash whacked spindle a few weeks ago

parts hoppers labeled "airbus" were in evidence --my rigger will need to back in 400 ft to load out-
and must avoid seriously expensive machine cells on either side

these folks do not care about sale price--but they very much care about safety security confidentiality

I will likely sell Fanuc control and 4th axis--then drop on Sundstrand rotary table and possibly EMC control

pics from today

jh

mach2 said:

My wife and two daughter like that store. Every thing they buy there breaks or doesn't work to begin with.

Click to expand...

They sell Awesome cleaner, which is the best thing going for certain cleaning jobs. The squeeze pump usually lasts as long as 90% of the contents or one month whichever comes first. I got some pocket sized aerosol can type air horns there that work great at the front counter for an attention noise maker for customers and the UPS driver. Only one didn't work right so far...


Terrific acquisition J. More pics please.

JHOLLAND1 said:

so I got an ebay email---"enjoy your Makino A55"

the seller had no real sales history--so a concern here aside from token bid

I got email from seller that it is legit--after I raised the concern that it had scam aroma

but I spent the morning at an advanced manufacturing concern adjacent to Boeing heavy
plant in the Kent valley--I signed 2 page non-disclosure document--was allowed to snap pics of machine only

the A55 build year is 1995--it made good parts until a 20,000 rpm crash whacked spindle a few weeks ago

parts hoppers labeled "airbus" were in evidence --my rigger will need to back in 400 ft to load out-
and must avoid seriously expensive machine cells on either side

these folks do not care about sale price--but they very much care about safety security confidentiality

I will likely sell Fanuc control and 4th axis--then drop on Sundstrand rotary table and possibly EMC control

pics from today

jh

Click to expand...

Nice score... Even if its got problems.
I used to work for a major player on the Fortune 500 list...they would do the same thing. I once saw 4 30 yard roll off dumpsters filled with machinery that was in working order. Including 4 turret lathes and 2 wells index vertical mills that had all been recently rebuilt at a high cost. All of this went to the scrap yard with specific instructions to destroy it. I tried to offer $1,000 each but was told that they didn't want the "liability"... It was a sad day in stupidity.

Mud said:

They sell Awesome cleaner, which is the best thing going for certain cleaning jobs. The squeeze pump usually lasts as long as 90% of the contents or one month whichever comes first. I got some pocket sized aerosol can type air horns there that work great at the front counter for an attention noise maker for customers and the UPS driver. Only one didn't work right so far...


Terrific acquisition J. More pics please.

Click to expand...

Ok. They have a few good things but they don't stock MakinoA55s locally.

Oddly enough, my long ago and recent experiences with companies and projects, allow me to understand all this. Especially for a machine that's 18 years old, in a facility that does aerospace. Liability isn't just "J Holland hurt himself" it's "we missed a shipment of doors for A320s" and got a nice, tidy, contractual penalty as a result.

Another explaining factor - liability for old machine tools? what? - is the wrong mindset. The right mindset -> "how many hours of our $500 per hour corporate liability lawyers time is it worth to be able to sell rather than scrap these? 0? OK, force scrap..."

J Holland has spared them the effort of scraping it themselves, and paid the rigging cost to boot....

for a number of years my Oregon tool dealer was Kermit Miller--Canby
Kermit made a memorable one dollar purchase about 20 years ago

he was asked to bid on a 4000 ton 4 post press--much of which was contained in a 20 foot deep
concrete cavity below shop floor level

Kermit looked at the task of removal and while walking away said----" I'll give you a buck"

the company wrote out a bill of sale---within the week he sold it for 100 grand--never laid
a hand on the press--the new buyer paid removal

jh

Wow! I still cant wrap my head around that one. I can understand needing to keep production going for a major player like Boeing, but is it really that easy to get another A55 in there and running? As stated before...its not like those are in stock at the dollar store.

Maybe they had a backup one in the corner Its like when you buy a $500 tool holder, you know if you dont buy a spare, youre gonna crash it on the setup piece, maybe they bought a spare Makino....hehe spare Makino, dont you wish you had that kind of money.

Does the seller actually have any liability if someone hurts themselves with the machine? I guess a multi-million dollar company isnt willing to take that risk.

Mind if i ask what a new spindle costs for one of those?

copy of auction info--



A55 Plus. SnA95-613. 128 tool mag. Thru spindle coolant. True 4th. 20k spindle, 25 hp. Fanuc Pro 3 / 16-MB control. 1994 install year.
The spindle needs to be replaced as well as the power supply. Spindle turned on and sounded ok prior to removal of the power supply, though there is probably damage. The spindle taper is destroyed. Everything else functioned well for the age of the machine. Ball bar test after the crash are less than .003 inch, same as the last PM. There are re-buildable way covers that can go with the machine. No pallets.
Still under power and can be inspected, though with the power supply gone, cant power it up. Regular maintenance was performed and we would have kept the machine as it was producing parts until a crash damaged the spindle taper. New spindle cost is about $25k.

weird thing is machine has new way covers

Looks like you have qualified for the decade's tool gloat!

Do you really intend to rip it apart and sell it in pieces? I'd disassemble the spindle and at least have a look at how much a repair would cost. Even if you don't need that mill, you'd make much more money if you sell her complete and working.

Nick

Keep perspective folks. It's a 19 year old machine. It was surely depreciated away to 0 some time ago. It apparently made good parts for 18+ years. And it ballbar's to 0.003in not 0.000'5in. The 128 tool mag is great, but what do pallets cost? Not cheap.

It probably has new way covers because they were doing standard PM and replacement of worn out stuff until the crash. Barring the crash it would still be making money. This is not so different from buying a well kept truck that's being scraped because the engine blew up.

It's a great find, very clever, but there are very good reasons nobody bid more than $0.99 for it. After a $25K spindle and $K power supply and $K for at least one pallet, is the result better than a brand new machine for similar price?

Well, JHolland is a clever person, and talked about putting on an EMC controller, and maybe he'll produce a sound working VMC for a competitive cost. (The 128tool mag and being a horizontal are big deals in my mind.)

In fact, being a Western WA type myself, if you (JHOLLAND) get it running, I'd like to come visit it. It won't be a $1 working machine, I'll bet it won't be less to get working than new TM1 or the like, but it sure could be a low $ version of what would otherwise be a "fully priced new" machine. (What's a good, fast, horizontal with a high speed spindle and 128 tool mag cost? We ain't in HAAS territory anymore...)

Good find, good luck, and do let me know if it's up for a visit...

I will likely sell Fanuc control and 4th axis--then drop on Sundstrand rotary table and possibly EMC control

Click to expand...

Nick Mueller

Nick--i have no storage space for machine of the A55 size--my partner
at a second location also has no space--but i can store components

my luck selling horizontal mach centers is bad--i had Sundstrand OM1 which
was running when i purchased--and it was stored 10 years with no buyer--i then
cut it up with torch---a 14,000 kilo machine

my market is the small shop owner--1 or 2 man shop so if a tool comes along which is
beyond garage size i usually do not bid--i bid on the A55 as a method to track it--
there was no probability of the tool selling for that amount--so i thought

bryan_machine

i am at milepost 81 on I-5 if you are down this way send me a pm

jh

Smrtman5 said:

Does the seller actually have any liability if someone hurts themselves with the machine? I guess a multi-million dollar company isnt willing to take that risk.

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A dealer I buy from prints right on his invoices something to the effect that 'all presses are sold for parts or scrap only, in non functional condition' because of lawsuits that have been won over injuries and liability to the seller. I used to read such stories in American Machinist that made my skin crawl. Not sure how that applies in this case, but deep pockets are attractive to lawyers.

Closed due to meaningless topic title