RIP Little Clausing...(Rant)

[G-ManBart]

Okay, I just have to vent for a minute and I expect fellow tool lovers will understand. I actually waited a couple of days so I would avoid bad language bursting through as I type.

Last week there was an online auction a couple of hours away from me where I was high bidder on a Clausing 6913 that was listed as a parts machine. I have a complete 6913 that I'm slowly working on, so I'm going to combine the best of the two to make one nice machine and then see what's left over. With a little luck I might be able to get both up and running (nothing catastrophic wrong with either, but a few parts are missing on the parts machine).

I made the drive earlier this week and was happily surprised with the lathe when I saw it in person. I made a nice lifting plate for the machine using mine as a guide and the rigger liked the setup, so it was easy to get loaded. I had to make a couple of trips into the building to get the accessories and loose parts so I went back and forth a few times. On one trip a forklift was moving along with a 12" Clausing on the forks. It had a variable speed setup, so I'm guessing a 5914, but I didn't recall it being listed in the auction. I looked at the guy running the forklift and said "I didn't know there was another Clausing in the auction or I would have bid on it!" and he just sort of nodded. I walked back to my truck when suddenly behind me I heard a very loud crashing sound. Immediately I thought "he dropped the lathe" and turned around to look. Yep....dropped it right into the huge scrap bin set up in the driveway! Luckily, it was loud so nobody heard the words that came out of my mouth.

There must have been some sort of combined scrap lot that I didn't notice, or was a separate deal from the auction. I know it's not the auction company's fault, but worst case that was a lot of useful parts people could use and the scrap guys are going to get $50 for it by weight. I even went back and searched through the entire auction catalog and didn't see it listed anywhere. Such a waste...makes me want to hurl.

 

[Nutfarmer]

Sometimes large companies will scrap machine after they are depreciated out and won’t care.

 

[G-ManBart]

Sometimes large companies will scrap machine after they are depreciated out and won’t care.

I don't like it, but I can see why companies might do that to keep things simple. This was the second estate auction of a gentleman who collected, restored, and sold parts for machinery, so I was surprised the lathe wasn't offered at least as a parts machine like mine was.

 

[Martin W]

Like I keep telling my wife. If you keep taking those iron pills, you are going to get kidnapped and sold for scrap metal.

Not sure why the lathe would not have been in the sale? Must have gotten missed pre auction and the building needed to be cleaned out so away it went.
You may be able to find out which salvage yard it went to and buy parts off it?
Martin

 

[Jake M]

This was the second estate auction of a gentleman who collected, restored, and sold parts for machinery, so I was surprised the lathe wasn't offered at least as a parts machine like mine was.

If you're talking about someone rebuilding (or even repairing) items... They tend buy more "good" parts than junk parts, but in the end, the "good" parts get kept on good machines, sold on with the fixed up machines, sold on as loose parts, so what's left almost universally ends up being more "no good" parts and fewer "good parts". The auction company and the available market clearly made it financially feasable to put the effort into selling "parts machines" for their residual value, maybe that machine they tossed had fewer salvageable parts than it's outward appearance might suggest.

I've been the guy driving that forklift. Sometimes it's painful. But if you start saving and trying to part out stuff that's fundamentally "broken" for the hardware, handwheels, knobs and such... You end up with a hoard of stuff that is good, with a very limited audience, and it ends up covered up in dust, gone to the same dumpster years later, in pieces instead of as a whole. People running auctions are in the business of connecting buyers to stufff so that they can wring a living out of the residual value of things. Sometimes things are just beyond saving.

 

[solo]

At my last job, we had a few older machines they wanted to scrap. I had listed them on here, to see if someone wanted them.
A guy in PA. would pay what they would have gotten as scrap. My employer decided to scrap them anyway.....Good machines gone....
I was not happy.

 

[sdelivery]

Sometimes it's the accounting, after depreciation to zero, how can you sell it?

 

[Aaron David]

Time is money. If they are sitting around, taking up space that is needed for other things, then the company will want them gone. Sometimes its the auction house, sometimes its the scrapper.

It isn't pleasant for us, but that is the way life is sometimes. There is a scrap yard not a mile from me, and sometimes I will see lathes in the yard there, sitting. And they end up sitting for years sometimes, waiting for someone to buy them. I bought a Craftsman 6 inch from them, but that is a small lathe that I can pick up and put in my truck. I don't need a rigger to get it moved.

 

[G-ManBart]

You may be able to find out which salvage yard it went to and buy parts off it?
Martin

I didn't think about that, but the pickup was 210 miles from me, so not really practical. Unfortunately I wasn't really paying attention to what they were doing or I would have at least asked if they wanted to sell it on the spot for more than they'd get in scrap...just bad luck.

 

[G-ManBart]

If you're talking about someone rebuilding (or even repairing) items... They tend buy more "good" parts than junk parts, but in the end, the "good" parts get kept on good machines, sold on with the fixed up machines, sold on as loose parts, so what's left almost universally ends up being more "no good" parts and fewer "good parts". The auction company and the available market clearly made it financially feasable to put the effort into selling "parts machines" for their residual value, maybe that machine they tossed had fewer salvageable parts than it's outward appearance might suggest.

I've been the guy driving that forklift. Sometimes it's painful. But if you start saving and trying to part out stuff that's fundamentally "broken" for the hardware, handwheels, knobs and such... You end up with a hoard of stuff that is good, with a very limited audience, and it ends up covered up in dust, gone to the same dumpster years later, in pieces instead of as a whole. People running auctions are in the business of connecting buyers to stufff so that they can wring a living out of the residual value of things. Sometimes things are just beyond saving.

No argument that sometimes things are just beyond saving and I have no doubt a lot of carcasses with almost nothing of value left on them are sitting at machinery parts places all around the country. I don't think this machine fell in that category...it looked completely intact and the usual parts that get sold off early were still there. I could be wrong, but when I saw it my initial reaction was "how did I miss that?" rather than "oh man, that looks rough".

Just as background this was the estate of Lee Backulich who was a collector, restorer, parts source for Hardinge and Rockwell machinery mostly. It was an impressive collection of machines and parts, including a lot of NOS stuff. I will say this...the guy new his machinery! The machines were generally beautiful (the two nicest HLV-Hs sold for over $30K) and the loose parts seemed properly organized. Luckily for my wallet it was too far away for me to do the preview or I probably would have bought more stuff!