The very sad end to some remarkable equipment.

damn, that is a shame and a very sad sight, but the fact that you're still around to restore the machines shows that you did the right thing. Too many people have died saving possessions. Life will look brighter in the spring when you get a new garage put up. In the mean time, enjoy your family and get planning on those restorations!
 
Senna said:
As many of you know I suffered a fire in my shop mid November. The weather conspired against me from the minute the fire was put out. We got socked with a 4-5 day blizzard which dumped 2-3 feet of snow which collapsed a portion of the weakened roof. Then it got cold. Not normal NE MN cold either but almost three straight weeks of temps well below zero.
All of this delayed my cleanup and machine removal until just recently. Finally got in there and started pulling machines out.
The adjuster already wrote off as totaled everything in the shop so it was just a matter of hitching a chain up and dragging them out of the shop.
This was very depressing for me and at times I just couldn't do it any longer. I let the scrap guy do it by himself.
I've decided to buy back both of my Gorton mills and my beloved B&S 13 at scrap price. I'll now restore all three, mainly to get rid of the smoke damage. Once I get my new shop I'll test run these and replace the items which need it and will likely get all of the electric motors evaluated and rebuilt if necessary.

Here are some pictures of the carnage and of the sad and sorry state of some wonderful old tools.

Gorton 9J Vertical Mill

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Gorton 8.5D Vertical Mill

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KO Lee BA900X T&CG

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Nichols 8SA Horizontal Mill.

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S-T 22-1500 Optical Comparator

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Bainbridge Horizontal Bandsaw

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Sunnyhill (Taiwanese) woodworking jointer, 6"

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I have a bunch more that I haven't photographed yet.
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I am sadden about your loss. Thankfully you woke up in time to try to put out the fire and to get out. Insurance companies, I feel, decide its cheaper to write off equipment than trying to find some company to rebuild them. Hopefully you can get the garage rebuild as soon as the equipment is removed. I can't imagine how tough it's going but hopefully your new shop will be a better one.

Merry Christmas to you and your family

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SAM_0209_zpsaa0a9444.jpg

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Senna, I can only imagine what losing my own shop would feel like, I sure hate it for you and your family. I hope things go well for your rebuild.

I know I'm a good ways from you but I offer you this; if you have any small items that need to be cleaned and restored and would mail fairly easily I would love to help you out! PM me and let me know and we will make it happen!

David
 
A great big heartfelt thanks from me to each of you for your concern and your generosity!!

As for buying more of the machines back I thought long and hard about that and decided that I don't have the time to restore more than the three that I'm keeping.

As I said, I hate to see the sweet little Nichols go. I also hate to see my DoAll 824-10 SG go and I contemplated keeping that for quite a while. The insane cost ($1300 each!!) for wheel adapters for this SG was the deciding factor there.

I will get another SG but I'll make sure it uses the standard size wheel adapters which are like $40-50 used and readily available.

I'll be posting more pics tomorrow and the sight of all these machines in a jumble in the dumpster is truly depressing. You'll see tomorrow.

Merry Christmas to all of you wonderful people!
 
the temps can really climb in a fire, do you think they changed temper on the tools? in some places the paint was not damaged so maybe not in those areas. all your instruments were more then likely all lost, and those things really can nickel dime you to death.. You will come out of it, you and the family are what you cannot replace.
 
Senna said:
A great big heartfelt thanks from me to each of you for your concern and your generosity!!

As for buying more of the machines back I thought long and hard about that and decided that I don't have the time to restore more than the three that I'm keeping.

As I said, I hate to see the sweet little Nichols go. I also hate to see my DoAll 824-10 SG go and I contemplated keeping that for quite a while. The insane cost ($1300 each!!) for wheel adapters for this SG was the deciding factor there.

I will get another SG but I'll make sure it uses the standard size wheel adapters which are like $40-50 used and readily available.

I'll be posting more pics tomorrow and the sight of all these machines in a jumble in the dumpster is truly depressing. You'll see tomorrow.

Merry Christmas to all of you wonderful people!
Click to expand...

What happened, happened. It's unfortunate but that's in the past. Time to look forward.
I hope your happy with what the insurance paid you, so you can replace those items. After all, they are just things, but hopefully the insurance compensation is adequate to replace them. That's what really matters here.

Marcel
 
Sorry for your loss these things are hard to recover from. Ray
 
It truly is sad to see those photos, and even worse knowing that some of those machines will be melted down into other things. On the bright side, you will be able to restore some of them, and, as you pointed out, you and your family still have each other.

Merry Christmas and good luck in the New Year.
 
First off, and keeping things in perspective, I was very happy to hear that you and your family are safe. My best wishes to all of you!

As for the tools, yup they're "just stuff" ... and the insurance payoff should be a great help toward starting again. But nothing can compensate you for the time and effort you spent getting things arranged, set up just right, tweaked, etc. Nor for the enjoyment you had using the tools. Yes, it's just stuff ... but it was YOUR stuff.

Illegitimati non carborundum!
 
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