what should I pay for this Enco mill?

The original decent quality Rong Fu was made in Taiwan, and they produced the same machine with many labels. Enco being one of the main ones. Mine is labeled Meda, and was imported by a New York company. It's plenty accurate enough for me and I paid 600 for it along with a few colletts and a crappy vise. Later production moved to mainland China, where the early ones were reputed to be still OK. But the quality soon became very varied. Depending on the label. Harbor Freight is a mixed bag as they contract on price. I don't believe that any are made in Taiwan any more.

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CL is funny. You get all kinds on both ends of any deal. The trend lately has been in our neck of the woods to much higher than a couple of months ago. I knew the if you can move it by hand was some kind of bluster. With me he'd rue that statement as I'd do a variation as to what you said and take my handy dandy 6' aluminum ramp and several pieces of shaft and tilt the mill and put the shafts under the mill and put my ramp between the beds of the trucks. That smaller mill with no stand is not 800lbs. It's not super light either and the whole thing is not without danger. Personally I'd not let anybody on my property trying to do something so dangerous for fear they got hurt. I'll stop with the armchair quarterbacking and leave it as my teenage daughter would say, "whatever dude".
 
UPDATE:

Mill is still available. He still wants $850. I offered $750, but he wouldn't go lower. It comes with no stand and no tooling. It's a long drive for me to just go and hope I can talk him down. I'm in no hurry, but I have some time now and thought I might make the drive. Thoughts?
 
The Star of India is an old wooden square rigger. It's docked in San Diego bay. That boat is routinely washed down with saltwater and there is always saltwater in the bilges sloshing around. That is a saltwater marine environment where everything corrodes over time. You can't prevent it. Unless it was maintained in excellent condition there is going to be corrosion somewhere. I would want to know how long it was on board. Be prepared to have to replace all of the bearings in the quill. The bearings in the motor may also need replacement.
 
The Star of India is an old wooden square rigger. It's docked in San Diego bay. That boat is routinely washed down with saltwater and there is always saltwater in the bilges sloshing around. That is a saltwater marine environment where everything corrodes over time. You can't prevent it. Unless it was maintained in excellent condition there is going to be corrosion somewhere. I would want to know how long it was on board. Be prepared to have to replace all of the bearings in the quill. The bearings in the motor may also need replacement.

I was thinking the same thing about the salt air exposure, but the seller seems set on his price. How much are quill bearings and motor bearings? Are they easy to replace? I don't think this one is a contender anymore, but I would like to know how much it would cost to replace bearings.
 
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Found another one. Seller is asking $750. Thoughts?:

Selling a Morgon mill/drill machine. Identical to a Rong-Fu RF31 or Jet mill/drill, so parts are easy and cheap to find. Made in Taiwan, so slightly better quality than many modern import machines. R8 spindle, 8x32 table, 12 speed belt drive and 2HP motor.

Comes with a rotating milling vise and a ton of endmills.
mill drill no top.jpg
 
This one is in the ball park and worth going to take a look at it. It might not last very long with a rotary table and some tooling.
 
Rotating milling vice, Vice mounted on a fixed plate with numbers stamped on the base.

ARC-170 Have you gotten it yet?
 
This one is in the ball park and worth going to take a look at it. It might not last very long with a rotary table and some tooling.

Rotating milling vice, Vice mounted on a fixed plate with numbers stamped on the base.
ARC-170 Have you gotten it yet?


Working on it! He's not available today. Stay tuned.
 
This is the pricing rate I use, cherry 50%, run of the mill used 35%, project 10%. of new. At 10%, I've plowed 25% into parts. Of course if I could get away with paying project for cherry I would, but that hasn't happened yet. Since I've retired, that's 12 machines, 3 at auctions , 5 off CL , 2 private and 2 consignment, I'm not holding my breath on that. Basically it's 1/3 new.
 
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