OT? Decent machinery dealers in Minneapolis area?

Good morning,
I will be in Minneapolis area next week for work. Would like to browse some of the local machinery dealers inventory while there. Looking mostly for old horizontal mill (Van Norman) accessories and another surface grinder. Saw an old thread on the forum discussing this. But it seems a lot of these places no longer exist.

Besides Naab machinery and Inter-plant, any other recommended places to go browse?

TIA!

Kurt is there. It’s been 20 some years but they were friendly when I stopped by. I see on their website they have a scratch and dent area. Maybe check that out.


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I'd imagine a lot of places are having fire sales right about now.

GregSY said:

I'd imagine a lot of places are having fire sales right about now.

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I'd keep an eye on the pawn shops.

Just don't ask for a pedigree............

There's a large group of dealers that have been selling out of an old warehouse in Hopkins (SW inner ring suburb) for decades. Not sure how many are still left but Naab might be one of them still there. I moved out of that area may 8 years ago and haven't been in awhile. Interplant, as was mentioned, is likely the greatest chance of finding something older like you're looking for. Be warned... the minute they think you're interested in something is the minute they start jacking with the price. Make sure you bring your best I-can-take-it-or-leave-it attitude with you when you go. They use to be in Hopkins too but moved to a giant building in Hugo. Never been there. They always did have tons of all kinds of stuff.

The warehouse in Hopkins is on the south side of the road about a mile west of HWY 169. If you talk to Naab and don't see anything you want, there use to be a guy that stored nearly a hundred very old machines of all makes and styles in the warehouse there. I don't feel comfortable passing out is name and number, but if you ask when you're there they'd probably hook you up. The guy bought dozens and dozens of machines and never really touched them. Really nice guy but...

Also take a look at Hoff, Premier and Machines Used for monthly machine and tooling auctions. You might get lucky with your timing and be able to buy online one day and pick up in person the next. Once in awhile they have older stuff. Though old horizontals might be a little stretch.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Yes, a visit to Kurt would be good. Didn't know they had a scratch and dent area.
13engines: will definitely visit Naab and ask about the warehouse.

The place in Hopkins has been empty for a few years. It might even be a vacant lot by now.

You're right. I started mapping out the addresses via google. Only see a couple dealers in that area, and no concentration as previously described.
Oh well. Just means a little bit more driving around.
Hopefully will find some VN model 24 specific stuff eventually. Good thing I'm doing it as a retirement project!

Thanks to all for the suggestions and info.

I just bought a knee mill and some accessories from Inter-Plant in Hugo MN. I had a pretty good experience with them. Definitely a huge facility. I didn't experience any of the price jacking that was mentioned in an earlier post. Everything was what they had posted on the items or cheaper.

I don't recall seeing any horizontal mills there, but I probably just didn't see them buried between everything else. They do have fixturing and tooling stuff though.

NGSJO209 said:

I just bought a knee mill and some accessories from Inter-Plant in Hugo MN. I had a pretty good experience with them. Definitely a huge facility. I didn't experience any of the price jacking that was mentioned in an earlier post. Everything was what they had posted on the items or cheaper.

I don't recall seeing any horizontal mills there, but I probably just didn't see them buried between everything else. They do have fixturing and tooling stuff though.

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If Interplant has prices posted, I can't imagine them jacking around with that. They're not that bad. Back in the day there were seldom if ever posted prices. If you showed great interest one day but left to think about it and came back another, that's where things may go south a little. It's a big family business. A bunch of brothers. They were always busy cleaning up and repainting machines. These days, Interplant will be your best shot at older stuff. They do and always did have a ton of machinery. Including tooling and misc. as mentioned.

In days past, the place in Hopkins had maybe 7 or more dealers under one roof. I was so close that half the time I'd just go there to look at machines for the hell of it. My first 40 taper knee mill, surface grinder and Machining Center all came out of that building at one time or another. Still have all of them. Bunch of misc. tooling too. There were also another 3 or more big dealers in town, all gone now. As is the way I suppose with old machinery, and its dealers.

The fellow who had the old machinery in the Hopkins Tech Center is Rob Lang. He is a member here and active in the Antique Machinery forum. Rob has an encyclopedic knowledge of old machines. He and his Dad, Leonard, could often be found at auction sites around Minnesota.
I'm back in Minneapolis after an 11 year stint in Duluth. The only tools I've looked at in the last 3.5 years are a couple of lathes that I found on Craigslist. I bought one-a 12 inch P & W Model C.
I still have not switched out the 2 speed 440V motor. I'll try to post some pix soon.
As far as I know Naab and Interplant may be about it. It's been many years since I last visited Interplant's warehouse but as others said they always had a large and interesting inventory.
Last week I got an email from Premier or Prestige about some upcoming auction. It seemed they were selling stuff from several sources. I think they are in a northern suburb.
I check Duluth"s Craigslist once in a while. There's quite a bit of machinery being offered right now from local school districts. It appears to be poorly advertised. There may be bargains to be had.

I have bought some cool stuff from these people:
Industrial Automation buyer and seller located in Maple Grove, MN

They have a store front where you can buy automation stuff for pretty reasonable prices. Most of it is pulled from machines they disassembled. Pneumatics, electrical fittings, 8020, linear stages, etc, etc. They do have some machines, but when I have been there they have wanted a premium for older manual tools. I did buy a couple of Chiron VMCs from them for a good deal. At the time they had a whole warehouse full of CNC swiss machines that they were pulling drives from and then scrapping. All were operational when they came in. It looked to me like they had ins with medical device manufacturers and bought their obsolete stuff.

I don't know how far you're willing to travel, but there's a place in Waupaca by the name of R H Liquidation. The owners name is Ryan. He has quite a variety of used machine shop equipment including vertical and horizontal milling machines, lathes, surface grinders, Drill presses, radial drills, and just about any other piece of machine shop equipment you can think of.

RH Liquidation

The machines aren't "rebuilt" with a quick coat of paint, but rather as they came off the shop floor. I was there a couple weeks ago and saw all of the equipment I previously mentioned, and tons more. If you're interested in a particular brand or model I would give him a call. Prices have always been negotiable. Over the years I have purchased a number of items from him and have been satisfied with all of them

Back in town. Was a quick trip. Called most of the places first (Naab, Hoff, Premier, etc) before zigzagging all over. Only place that really had anything I was interested in turned out to be Inter-plant. Picked up some small items at reasonable cost.
Did score some nice cosmetic blew stuff at Kurt. But it was a pain to pay. Anyone wanting to buy from their scratch and dent stuff CALL first. their inventory changes day to day. So the list on the home page is not up to date. Plus they want you to pay via their online system.

RH liquidation: Been there several times. Some of his prices are unreal on obsolete and rusty scrap. But there are some gems mixed in with the crap.

gi_984 said:

Back in town. Was a quick trip. Called most of the places first (Naab, Hoff, Premier, etc) before zigzagging all over. Only place that really had anything I was interested in turned out to be Inter-plant. Picked up some small items at reasonable cost.
Did score some nice cosmetic blew stuff at Kurt. But it was a pain to pay. Anyone wanting to buy from their scratch and dent stuff CALL first. their inventory changes day to day. So the list on the home page is not up to date. Plus they want you to pay via their online system.

RH liquidation: Been there several times. Some of his prices are unreal on obsolete and rusty scrap. But there are some gems mixed in with the crap.

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My experiences have been just about the opposite. I've bought a number of things from him from air compressors to rotary tables. His prices were less than half the nearest competitor, and the equipment was in better shape. There are some real dinosaurs in the mix. I've seen some of the same machines in the same places for nearly 20 years. The good inventory seems to turn over quickly. I've been there one week and seen a dozen Bridgeports. Two weeks later they're all gone. Same for South Bend and LeBlond lathes. I was there one Friday looking at a Moore #1 jig bore machine. It looked to be in good shape with a ton of tooling. I went back Saturday thinking I would make a purchase, but it was already gone.

Our scratch and dent products are on the website. I an sorry however our building is closed for visitors due to the Covid virus. Would love to have you visit when this pandemic passes though.

13engines said:

If Interplant has prices posted, I can't imagine them jacking around with that. They're not that bad. Back in the day there were seldom if ever posted prices. If you showed great interest one day but left to think about it and came back another, that's where things may go south a little. It's a big family business. A bunch of brothers. They were always busy cleaning up and repainting machines. These days, Interplant will be your best shot at older stuff. They do and always did have a ton of machinery. Including tooling and misc. as mentioned.

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I had like 8 machines that I figured would be in our price range. Some had them posed online. Many others didn't. Some had the prices written on them somewhere. I asked for pricing on each machine I was interested in and kept notes the whole time we walked around. Ended up picking a favorite and put down a $100 deposit to hold it until I could go back with a trailer to pick it up. In the mean time (the weekend) several of the other machines I looked at sold.

They had an awesome deal on a supermax that seemed to be in great shape with ball screws if I remember correctly. That thing was a beast! but we didn't need the extra capabilities of that machine and I decided to get one with a DRO for less money. I mostly needed the mill for positional drilling rather than milling.