Trying to sell a lathe.

[sedativeml]

Long story shortened.

My dad passed a couple years ago, and I am responsible for emptying his estate before the state takes the real estate and sells it for his debts to them.

My dad's garage was basically outfitted better than a business, and I have this beast to try and get rid of.

It's a Jet 1240PY. I know it worked, because I played with it when I was real young and I know it worked when he passed because of all his neighbors coming over and telling me about stuff he machined for them, plus all of the metal shavings everywhere.

I'm just trying to figure out what I should try and sell this stuff for because I really have no idea. I'm not looking for my sisters and I to retire but I don't want a couple of pennies either. I'm also considering how much of a pain it's going to be to move. I'd like some insight on what would be a decent price to ask for myself and whoever buys and has to move this beast.

The rust on it is just surface rust from sitting in a somewhat sealed leaky garage for two years. I brushed some of it off with my fingers and got the tooling to move freely with no effort.

Appreciate any all responses.

 

[woodchucker]

That's a tough question without a good detailed look at everything.
Based on what I see, you can be in the 2200 to 3500 price range.. (all inclusive.. all tooling)
That's a rough estimate, and others might have a different view.
Also remember it's location, location, location. So that is based on my area around here. It's whether there is demand, abundance etc.
Here not much demand and not much abundance.. But possibly more than you in Maine.
You don't have a quick change tool post, and it will require a complete teardown to clean it up, and check the bearings..

 

[sedativeml]

That's a tough question without a good detailed look at everything.
Based on what I see, you can be in the 2200 to 3500 price range.. (all inclusive.. all tooling)
That's a rough estimate, and others might have a different view.
Also remember it's location, location, location. So that is based on my area around here. It's whether there is demand, abundance etc.
Here not much demand and not much abundance.. But possibly more than you in Maine.
You don't have a quick change tool post, and it will require a complete teardown to clean it up, and check the bearings..

Appreciate you. I had a feeling it might be worth a little more than I told someone local that might be interested. I googled and saw a post on here that was a couple years old from someone who bought the same thing that was a little broken down for like $1200.

I told the local girl we'd start at $1400 with all of the cutting bits and the box of thread dies (definitely specialty things because they're huge and I probably would have just scrapped them if I didn't find this website) somewhere else in his garage that I didn't picture or mention here and I told her we would work down from there.

 

[woodchucker]

yep, you can always go down during negotiation, but not up...

 

[sedativeml]

yep, you can always go down during negotiation, but not up...

Exactly.

Since your name is woodchucker, I just have to ask.. What do you think about this one?

I was gonna keep it for myself because it looks pretty old and kind of neat but I didn't ever see it before I started my estate project and I really don't have anywhere to put it and no real use for it.

 

[G-ManBart]

Since you're not in an area like the Midwest which is full of machinery, I'd say $1,400 is very, very reasonable....cheap even. To give you an idea, just the steady rest in the second picture would be around $300 or a bit more on eBay.

As far as moving it goes, that's usually on the buyer, but any assistance you can give will help your odds of selling it quickly. It's not particularly heavy as far as lathes go...figure 1,000lbs. I picked up a slightly bigger lathe from an estate auction a while ago and had a local tow truck guy meet me there at the pickup. We were able to put a strap on it and drag it to the garage door, then put a strap around the webbing in the middle of the bed to lift it and set it on my trailer. All told he was there about 20 minutes and charged me $100. If you can get it away from the wall a cherry picker should be able to straddle the headstock (left side as you look at the front) and reach far enough past the chuck to lift it using a strap around one of the webs in the middle of the bed.

 

[sedativeml]

Since you're not in an area like the Midwest which is full of machinery, I'd say $1,400 is very, very reasonable....cheap even. To give you an idea, just the steady rest in the second picture would be around $300 or a bit more on eBay.

As far as moving it goes, that's usually on the buyer, but any assistance you can give will help your odds of selling it quickly. It's not particularly heavy as far as lathes go...figure 1,000lbs. I picked up a slightly bigger lathe from an estate auction a while ago and had a local tow truck guy meet me there at the pickup. We were able to put a strap on it and drag it to the garage door, then put a strap around the webbing in the middle of the bed to lift it and set it on my trailer. All told he was there about 20 minutes and charged me $100. If you can get it away from the wall a cherry picker should be able to straddle the headstock (left side as you look at the front) and reach far enough past the chuck to lift it using a strap around one of the webs in the middle of the bed.

Interesting. I honestly have no idea about the value of any of this stuff. The buyer will definitely be in charge of moving it but I do know a guy who has some ramp trucks and there's definitely tools like chainfalls and come alongs available to lift it off the ground to get under it.

I still remember when my dad and I brought it to his garage. He built a trailer just for it and we wrapped a chain around the tool and a tree out in the back of the garage then dragged it off the trailer and then we burned and scraped and tore everything out from under the lathe to get it level. That was approximately 30 years ago.

 

[PNW_Guy]

You're getting solid info here. I'd like to add the following.

Clean it. Spend a few hours with some paper towels and a cleaning solution. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it looks abandoned at the moment. Get the grime off, and use WD-40 and scotchbrite (or something non-abrasive) on the bare cast iron parts. Make sure the handles move freely and the tailstock slides nicely on the ways.

Make sure any photos you post are well lit. Clean up the boxes of accessories.

I think it's a good size for a sale and I assume you'll have some interest in it. Check CL and Marketplace to see what your area offers. The size (and model name) is 1240 (12" swing and 40" between centers) - these measurements are frequently used in model names, and should help you find similar lathes.

Find out the motor size in HP and required voltage. My guess is 3/4 - 1 hp, and can be wired for 120v or 240v.
Do some digging and try to find the weight, but 900-1,000 is in the ballpark. However, some of the heavy bits can come off for loading, and the bare machine may be 700-800.
This Grizzly is a similar size and shipping weight is 850.

12" x 35" Variable-Speed Gunsmith Lathe

<h1>G0949G 12" x 35" Variable-Speed Gunsmith Lathe</h1> <h2>A loaded gunsmith lathe at a competitive price.</h2> <p>The G0949G 12" x 35" Variable-Speed Gunsmith Lathe has a small footprint, but packs plenty of features not found on standard lathes.</p> <p>The lathe is loaded with features not...

www.grizzly.com

 

[borges1]

A decade or so ago my uncle passed away. He was an independent machinist in central Maine with a full shop of decent tools. No CNC, but multiple bridgeports, lathes, band saws and all the tooling. He had been doing it since high school, so decades. I was too young to have a clue or place for any of it - how i wish i had known what was there and what he could have taught me.

The short of it is my father handled the estate. He probably was not the best person for the jot, but he did it. The small handheld tools went in a yard sale - and most anything good and portable by one person was outright stolen then.

For weeks he tried to sell the large machines. Eventually the bank had to have them out of the builiding and they were given to a local trade school. Even free wasn't cheap enough and the trade school made it a difficult situation.

I'm not saying your dads lathe isn't worth anything. I'm just saying, clean, turnkey machines with extensive tooling all set up were basically impossible to give away in maine ten years ago. It seemed moving them was always the problem. Sepaerate the jokers from the people who know what they are getting into moving this, and go from there.

 

[Aukai]

Not sure about the electrical, but I found this.