The next time you need something done in Cleveland, let me know.

wrote in message
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Joe, get on the mailing lists of major auction houses that cater to
industial liquidations. The have by far the greatest bargains on
machinery. The downside is that you have to travel to the auction site
to view the equipment in person and bid, plus carry cash or have your
credit approved in advance of the auction.

In past years when I operated a small electronics manufacturing firm, I
picked up a year old $10,000 Excellon Quad Drill for $900, 2 500-Amp
electroplating power supplied for $200 each, and a Forslund automatic
circuit board screening machine for $250.

A one-way truck rental from Cleveland to Rochester, NY was another
$250, plus add $100 to grease the grunts at the auction house to load
my purchases on the truck using their fork lift, plus $90 to fly
one-way from Rochester to Cleveland and an overnight hotel stay.

The bottom line is that on just this one auction, I was able to save
about $19,000 over dealer prices at a total expenditure of less than
$2,000. All in all, not a bad 2 days work.

Most of these liquidation auctions take place at a failed specialty
firm, so you know in advance it they would have the type of equipment
on the block that you need in advance, and most of the bidders will
come from the same situation as yourself (I've never seen a large firm
put in a bid). Your other competition will likely come from the used
equipment dealers, who rarely want to bid more than 20% of what they
can re-sell the equipment for.

My almost new Bridgeport, lathe and sheet metal shear (which we used
for cutting PCB laminates) came from an auction in Memphis, where my
purchased totalled around $2,600, but shipping added another $1,100.
Beware of shipping costs on heavy equipment over significant distances!
Still, a savings of over $3,500 over local sources.

Then too, I have traveled to auctions where I didn't win anything. The
were at major hi-tech locations on both the east and west coast, where
usually a newly formed hi-tech firm is ready to purchase all the assets
of a defunct firm in the same line of business.

Just offered as a suggestion.

Harry C.