I agree with Grant. I search the online want ads of newspapers in my
area, and the classifieds-only rags, plus the online forsale sites. I
also include auxtions, but I can never seem to find an interesting one
that fits my scheule.
I look for smaller lathes (mostly) in the 12" and under size, that
are for sale well below market value. I enjoy the "treasure hunt"
aspect a lot. Once I find something interesting and work the right deal
on it, I enjoy cleaning/repairing/restoring/learning/documenting a
new-to-me machine, then either keeping it for my shop or passing it to
someone who will appreciate and use it. The only new machine I have
bought is a $400 mini-mill.
- -
Rex Burkheimer
Fort Worth TX

Grant Erwin wrote:
I would never ever consider buying new machinery, Joe. I think 99% of this
NG's audience is home shop guys like me. The entire reason we exist in the
numbers that we do is that used industrial machinery can sometimes be had
quite cheaply. I have no opinion on your company or any of your products
or business practices, but I don't think you will find Usenet to be very
productive.

GWE

Joe AutoDrill wrote:

We all work with metal in some shape or form (or are reading the group
for some other reason). I assume that many of us look for machinery
from time to time as proven by the many posts about what (insert
generic object title here) to buy.

When looking for specific info, some people ask here... Some people
look in trade publications... Some people visit the net / MSC /
McMaster / ThomasRegister / etc. eBay is sometimes a viable search
area too since many of us look for used or low cost equipment either
for kicks or sometimes just for spare parts, etc.

For our company, I hit the trade publications and web sites as often
as we can afford to. We also work very hard to have a high page rank
and many "doors" to our business via web site(s). We are on Thomas's
web "thing" as well as Zycon and a few others. Am I missing some
other avenue to advertise metalworking - or in my specialized case,
production drilling machinery?

Would love to be able to grow the business... But want to make sure
I'm not missing some great opportunity to advertise somewhere just
because I don't know about it. Rather than doubling my efforts in the
areas we already know are working, I'm seeking for new ideas on where
to put my time and effort...

So, I ask the question... Where do YOU look when you need equipment?

I'm going to post this separately on a woodworking group too because
we do get leads from that industry as well. However, most of the
posts there are low cost items compared to what we buy... Your
answers will be more relevant to me in my opinion.

Regards,
Joe

(Sigfile removed to make sure nobody mistakes this for spam)