Thinking of buying a Clausing at auction

[Inferno]

Thoughts?

It's an estate auction for a farm. I'm sure it means the owner either passed away or isn't able to be at the auction to ask questions.
What should I look for other than runout, bed condition and the other basics?

It looks like it lived in a barn mostly. There's some rust on the stand so it's not been "well cared for".

Value?

 

[Richard King 2]

Looks like a find. Some simple ways to check is look at the ways up under the chuck, look for scratched you can hook you finger nail on. take a flashlight with and look at the rack under the ways. The rack under the chuck end and tail stock end will be original but in the middle where the apron moves the most will have sharp teeth, wider pitch. The holes in the quick change will be oblong on an worn lathe. check for back lash in the screws. It looks like it has an aloric tool post. Check inside the drawers. I also see a Jacobs quick action collet chuck.( on shelf) Look for the expandable rubber collets too. 4 jaw chuck on the pan...lots of fun stuff. See if there in a manual too. Id try to buy it hopefully no one accept you wants it. It's a jewel compared to the Chinese machines out there.... In an auction here in MN I bet it would sell for $3000.00

 

[Beckerkumm]

There is a similar machine with tooling for sale at 2500 on Practical Machinist. You might want to compare what is included. Dave

 

[woodchucker]

all prices are local...
its a matter of how rare things are around you, how much someone else wants it ..

It looks like it has a lot of tooling with it.
How much are you willing to pay is the question. You didn't mention the size. It looks like it might be 12".
It's worth what you are willing to pay for it.

Sorry, but in machine deserts, the price goes higher, and in Michigan and Ill. in some areas the price can be dirt cheap as I've noticed.

 

[BGHansen]

I have a Clausing 5418 (12" x 24"), really like the feel and smoothness of the lathe. Another way to check wear at the chuck is to lightly tighten the apron clamp at the headstock and try moving the carriage to the tailstock. Repeat going the opposite direction. It'll give you a rough idea how much wear there is. So what's the fix if there's some wear? Frankly, you'd probably live with it and do your work knowing the cutting tool will vary in height to the work as you move up and down the lathe bed. It's not a deal-breaker unless it's worn by 1/8". You can still do good work on it, but might have to work around the limitation(s) based on your projects.

That lathe looks a lot like mine which came out of a high school shop my dad taught at. I paid $600 for mine, but that was a steal. If you google "clausing 5400 manual" or "clausing 5900 manual", links to vintage machinery will pop up. I'm not an expert on id'ing these lathes, but that one looks like a 5400-series, not a variable speed 5900 based on the QCGB set up. Looks like it has a screw-on chuck (2 1/4" - 8 thread) instead of an L00 (more desirable) though it's hard to tell from the photo. Looks like a 3-jaw, 4-jaw and Jacobs rubber-collet chuck too. It'd be a nice addition to any shop.

Bruce

 

[pacifica]

Thoughts?

It's an estate auction for a farm. I'm sure it means the owner either passed away or isn't able to be at the auction to ask questions.
What should I look for other than runout, bed condition and the other basics?

It looks like it lived in a barn mostly. There's some rust on the stand so it's not been "well cared for".

Value?

View attachment 387402

Can you see it under power? Run through all the gears and if possible check teeth aren't broken.

 

[craniac]

A machine that nice with tooling doesn't appear everyday here in Portland. If it's not too worn I think Richard King's estimate of $3000 is not too far off the mark. That said prices can be all over the map depending on circumstances.

Tim

 

[mmcmdl]

I have a 5900 series pretty well tooled up . Bison set true , quality 4 jaw , Jacobs flex collet chuck with collets , travel dial , Aloris AXA post and holders , Rohm live center and Jacobs SSB and Albrecht chucks . I have $3100 into it so that $3K is probably a close est .

 

[Inferno]

All good info to have. Thanks.

If it was bought used by the farmer, all bets are off but it's my experience that if a farmer buys a machine new it will tend to have a lot less wear, and a little more neglect, than a production machine.
As stated, the beds will have to be checked. On production machines, the operators tend to protect the beds. On a farmer machine, who knows?

Back a few years ago I went to a farmer sell off. The farmer had turned to millwright but his machines were lightly worn but they were in a barn with the doors always open. Dust everywhere. Surface rust everywhere.
He had some really good machines though. I didn't have money or the means to move anything but his machines were going for 10c on the dollar. A similar lathe to the one I'm looking at sold for $250. He also had a few Bridgeport milling machines that all sold for less then $1200 each.

An interesting side note. That guy was a dwarf. He had all his Bridgeport mills set into the ground about a foot. The table surface was about 18" off the ground. It was a sight to see Santa's workshop.

 

[Nogoingback]

I don't know how often farmers use their lathes, but I would think it would be occasionally, which
is probably a good thing here. The fact that the carriage is a different color suggest it's been replaced,
so there might be a story there. Even though there's rust at the bottom of the cabinet, it doesn't appear
abused in the photo: the paint around the head and tailstocks looks good unlike many used lathes. Looks
decently tooled as well. If I were you, I'd be very interested in that lathe.