That escalated quickly. Bridgeport and stuff.

Another one of my near constant searches is milling machines. I have a Jet Mill/Drill which honestly has done everything I've ever needed it to do, but I wanted a Bridgeport Knee mill. Charleston is a pretty dry area for machine tools and what sells is super expensive. 

Two days ago a mill popped up on Marketplace with an ask of $1900. That's pretty fair for this area. I contacted the guy. He has retired and is setting up his home shop and was unloading duplicates. This is an older machine in what I would call fair condition. The deck is a little beat up but the ways and backlash are fairly tight. It came with a working DRO and a power feed. He also had a right angle head and a 4" riser he was willing to sell for not a lot more. We agreed on a price, I gave him some earnest money and planned to pick up the machine the next day. 

Enter problem number 1. My utility trailer is desperately in need of a new deck. With that in mind, I rented one. They didn't have a hydraulic drop deck so I ended up renting a regular flat deck. 

Enter problem number 2. Never, and I mean never go buy a machine tool from a guy with more trailer than you absolutely need. There is a fairly good chance you will buy more than you intended. As mentioned above, the gent was getting rid of duplicates. He had a forklift much like mine he used to load the mill, but in the back of the shop, parked against the wall was a baby Clark. I've wanted one for my home shop for a while, so I asked him about it. It turns out it was even cheaper than the mill so we loaded it up as well. It needs a little TLC because the brakes don't work and it has a hose that leaks but they should be fairly simple repairs. 

This morning the trailer needed to go back to the rental place so for now we stuck this in the warehouse at work. 

And in case you were wondering how you unload a forklift with no brakes. It's easy, you just grab it with your forklift. 

Toyman! said:

Never, and I mean never go buy a machine tool from a guy with more trailer than you absolutely need. 

Life lessons from the readers of GRM...

Toyman! said:

And in case you were wondering how you unload a forklift with no brakes. It's easy, you just grab it with your forklift. 

That picture is the definition of "meta"

That's a little bit bigger than the clark I used at my first job, it would fit through a standard 36" interior door.

Do not join the FBMP home hobby machinist group, daily temptation up here in Michigan.  

Came here looking for Mazda rotary content.

Colin Wood said:

Toyman! said:

Never, and I mean never go buy a machine tool from a guy with more trailer than you absolutely need. 

Life lessons from the readers of GRM...

The counterpoint is "there was still room on that trailer for yet another purchase."

Toyman! said:

baby Clark. 

doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo

Colin Wood said:

Toyman! said:

Never, and I mean never go buy a machine tool from a guy with more trailer than you absolutely need. 

Life lessons from the readers of GRM...

And this is how I ended up with a 3Ph 100 gallon horizontal compressor with dual Quincy two-stage motors on it when I went to buy my lift.

"Do you need a compressor?"

"Sure, how much?" 

"I dunno, $300?"

"SOLD!"

In reply to Toyman! :

This is awesome, how big is your shop?

Yesss!

You may find it worthwhile to retrofit your Bridgeport with a VFD. Additionally, you can replace the motor with a 3hp motor without a ton of fuss if you find yourself stalling the factory pancake motor. 

Karacticus said:

Toyman! said:

And in case you were wondering how you unload a forklift with no brakes. It's easy, you just grab it with your forklift. 

That picture is the definition of "meta"

Yo dawg, I heard you like forklifts

Congratulations!!

WonkoTheSane said:

In reply to Toyman! :

This is awesome, how big is your shop?

Not big enough @ 26 x 26. I'm in the planning phase of a 12' lean-to on one side. 

In reply to brandonsmash :

A VFD is already in the works since I don't have 3 phase in my shop. 

I love that you got i and I hate that you have it. I really need a knee mill so I don't have to keep using the one at work and my friends. 

Out here the good ones get snatched up in seconds on marketplace, expecially if they have collets and tooling. 

I pulled the propane tank off my Cat forklift and hooked it up to the Baby Clark to see if she would run. The good news is it starts, moves forward and backward, and all the hydraulics work. 

 

Always, and I mean always go buy a machine tool from a guy, with as much trailer as you absolutely can bring  

Life lessons from the readers of GRM...

Fixed, to proper GRM standards!!!