Greetings, it is I, Steelballs……
Here in New Yawk, SB lathes come up for sale quite frequently. I check the Auctions International website on a daily basis and see all sorts of machine tools up for bid. A few days ago a fully tooled 9A came up for auction at a school in Westchester County, and I was intrigued. I made an appointment to see the lathe and other tools (think mint Benchmaster mill on factory pedestal) and off I went. An hour later I arrived at a middle school. Upon inspection the lathe was indeed fully tooled and had the undermount motor configuration. There was some wear in the ways near the chuck, easily visible to the naked eye. Needed a good cleaning but it struck me as a great lathe for someone looking to get into metalworking/machining, etc. I did not bid on the lathe as I have two lathes already but it ultimately went for $460. I though that was reasonable even factoring in the 18% auctioneer's fee and local sales tax of 8% or so. The moral of my story, if there is one, would be to be patient, know what your looking for and looking at, and try not to get burned.