"Peter Grey" wrote in message
nk.net...

"Mike Henry" wrote in message
...

which is a Clausing 8520 knee mill. At least sort of - there have been
some
modifications made that suggest it would need looking at before bidding,
or
at least agreement that you could back out if it was not up to snuff.
Someone that looked at claimied that it does not appear as good in
person
as
the pictures would suggest.

I was looking at this one. What mods have been made?

Peter

As mentioned elsewhere the return spring is definitely cobbled. It also
seems to be missing the 3rd pulley, which would extend the speed range from
180 to 3,200 rpm, at least assuming that the two existing pulleys are stock.
There is evidence of repairs or maybe hard use (the acorn nut on the Y-axis
screw is not standard and one wonders how that got lost) and it is missing
the fine feed handle for the spindle. It looks like it has one tool holder
and no collets (it came with 7 MT2, 18/" to 1/2"). FWIW, my 8520 is S/N
5664 and was inspected in March 1966 so it looks like this one is quite a
bit older, but I've no idea how much older.

There might be other problems, at least according to somone who got a quick
look at it. That's just hearsay, though, and I don't know the guy that
looked at it. At a wild guess it looks to me like it's priced at about it's
value right now, but Reliable auctions often go through the roof at auction
end.

Reliable is said to be honest and I've bought from them with no problems, so
if you are interested you might want to call them and see if they will give
you an honest appraisal. Look at it if you are nearby. If not and you are
close enough to pick it up in person, see if they still offer a money-back
guarantee (looks like they do). I figure it's a nice gesture to offer to
pay the Ebay fees if you are high bidder and they'll let you decline it on
inpsection. Shipping weight would run to 700 lbs or more

FWIW, Clausing specified 0.0002" runout on the spindle so that will give you
at least one thing to check out if you inspect it. Mine has around 0.005"
backlash on the X- and Y-axes which is pretty good for a machine this old.

Mike