I have an Emco compact 8" ( not to be confused with an enco ) that I bought new in 1986 from Sears & Roebuck, It came with a full tooling package. It has never been abusede, and hasn't seen any used in the last ten years. But it is still a near 30 year old machine. The lathe is still running on it's original belt. What Is something like this worth today, or have the Chinese clones killed the market for one of the originals?
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Emco Mier compact 8" lathe
- Thread starter rogee
- Start date
In Utah, I don't know what you can do locally. In the SF Bay area, $1000 would be cheap if in top shape and a lot of tooling. The age doesn't matter but the condition means a lot. A big factor is how much tooling you have. Two chucks (3 and 4 jaw), two steadies, drill chuck, centers, and the like would help. Do you have the vertical mill attachment? If you have the Emco rotary table and vise, that's adds more.
If you want absolute top dollar: Clean it up (but don't paint anything) takes a lot of clear, IN FOCUS, pictures of the machine and all accessories, write an honest description, and put it on eBay. I've sold two lathes that way and got $1000 more than I expected in one case, and $500 more in the other. Each time I've upgraded, it's cost me nothing. A Compact 8 is not THAT heavy, and it wouldn't be hard to build a crate for shipping. Once you open it up to the whole country, all you need are two people that WANT it, and the bidding can take off.
So many people put up one or two crappy pictures of a dirty or badly repainted machine and try to get thousands of dollars, that a well-presented lathe from a careful owner (and not a dealer) will look very desirable. Most sellers don't seem to realize that if you are asking someone you don't know to send you, say $2000, for a machine, you should go out of your way to make them comfortable with the purchase. If you do that, you'll get top dollar and have a happy buyer.
If you want absolute top dollar: Clean it up (but don't paint anything) takes a lot of clear, IN FOCUS, pictures of the machine and all accessories, write an honest description, and put it on eBay. I've sold two lathes that way and got $1000 more than I expected in one case, and $500 more in the other. Each time I've upgraded, it's cost me nothing. A Compact 8 is not THAT heavy, and it wouldn't be hard to build a crate for shipping. Once you open it up to the whole country, all you need are two people that WANT it, and the bidding can take off.
So many people put up one or two crappy pictures of a dirty or badly repainted machine and try to get thousands of dollars, that a well-presented lathe from a careful owner (and not a dealer) will look very desirable. Most sellers don't seem to realize that if you are asking someone you don't know to send you, say $2000, for a machine, you should go out of your way to make them comfortable with the purchase. If you do that, you'll get top dollar and have a happy buyer.
- Joined
- May 20, 2013
- Messages
- 9
Im in Utah and looking for a lathe about this size. Let me know what you decide to do with it. Thanks
I am interested in selling the lathe, I would think $850 would be a fair price. It has a steady rest, a 4 post tool holder, a live center as well as a dead center, both a 4 jaw and a 3 jaw chuck and a face plate, and a complete set of gears to cut both metric and us threads. The three jaw chuck is extremely accurate with very little run out. If you have any additional questions I would be happy to answer.