Hello all,

I'm thinking about making an offer on an old knee mill at work. I've
been wanting one for at home for a while, and this one is broken and
getting in my way all the time.

What it is is an old Matsuura manual knee mill with a 3 axis digital
readout and no flood coolant. Somebody did something incredibly nasty
to the knee before I started there, and the area that the screw jack
bears on broke away inside, and also snapped the shaft that goes from
the handle to the jack.

They've written the thing off as junk, and I think the plan was to
sell it on ebay, but I've looked at the damage and know I can fix it
more or less as good as new. It's been pretty well used, like every
manual I've seen, the guys in the shop beat it mercilessly because it
isn't a CNC, but aside from the busted knee, it's serviceable. And,
buying it would get the damn thing out of my way at work, and put it
back into service.

There's a good chance the boss will let me have it on a
payroll-deduction plan, but I'm trying to figure out what I can expect
to offer him without simply being offensive. I figure that it will
cost me about $50 and twenty hours or so to make new parts and fix it
up, so I don't think I want to pay more than $300-500- considering I
could get a brand new one for about 2 grand.

So, what do you guys think- I don't mind doing the work to patch it
up, and I've done things like this before with good results, but I
just don't have much idea of what I should offer for the thing. Does
$300 sound way too low? I know I could part the thing out for far
more than that, but even that's a lot of work they're not going to do.

Maybe $200. You may be underestimating the cost to rebuild it.

i

On 2008-07-04, Prometheus wrote:
Hello all,

I'm thinking about making an offer on an old knee mill at work. I've
been wanting one for at home for a while, and this one is broken and
getting in my way all the time.

What it is is an old Matsuura manual knee mill with a 3 axis digital
readout and no flood coolant. Somebody did something incredibly nasty
to the knee before I started there, and the area that the screw jack
bears on broke away inside, and also snapped the shaft that goes from
the handle to the jack.

They've written the thing off as junk, and I think the plan was to
sell it on ebay, but I've looked at the damage and know I can fix it
more or less as good as new. It's been pretty well used, like every
manual I've seen, the guys in the shop beat it mercilessly because it
isn't a CNC, but aside from the busted knee, it's serviceable. And,
buying it would get the damn thing out of my way at work, and put it
back into service.

There's a good chance the boss will let me have it on a
payroll-deduction plan, but I'm trying to figure out what I can expect
to offer him without simply being offensive. I figure that it will
cost me about $50 and twenty hours or so to make new parts and fix it
up, so I don't think I want to pay more than $300-500- considering I
could get a brand new one for about 2 grand.

So, what do you guys think- I don't mind doing the work to patch it
up, and I've done things like this before with good results, but I
just don't have much idea of what I should offer for the thing. Does
$300 sound way too low? I know I could part the thing out for far
more than that, but even that's a lot of work they're not going to do.

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from Google Groups. If you want your postings to be seen by
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Prometheus wrote:

So, what do you guys think- I don't mind doing the work to patch it
up, and I've done things like this before with good results, but I
just don't have much idea of what I should offer for the thing. Does
$300 sound way too low? I know I could part the thing out for far
more than that, but even that's a lot of work they're not going to do.

Check price for scrap in that sized chunks. Offer him 125% and you move it out of the
plant. Since it hasn't been fixed, it is junk, and in the way.

Wes
--
"Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect
government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home
in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

If they've really written it off as junk then the value to the company is zero.
I'd offer to remove it on my own time to "get this junk out of the way and
to save the company time/money they'd have to spend to get rid of it".
Worst case they say no. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Then ask them how much and negotiate from there.
Art


"Prometheus" wrote in message
...
Hello all,

I'm thinking about making an offer on an old knee mill at work. I've
been wanting one for at home for a while, and this one is broken and
getting in my way all the time.

Around here (midwest) the scrap price is $200 a ton with deducts for
removing the electronics. Not sure on that one so maybe 2500 pounds??? A
few hundred bucks would be tops.

I have a similar size Acupath (Taiwanese import) from the 80's with a
trashed out X axis ball screw that I have been shopping around. Current
number is $400 without rigging costs.

Prometheus wrote:
Hello all,

I'm thinking about making an offer on an old knee mill at work. I've
been wanting one for at home for a while, and this one is broken and
getting in my way all the time.

What it is is an old Matsuura manual knee mill with a 3 axis digital
readout and no flood coolant. Somebody did something incredibly nasty
to the knee before I started there, and the area that the screw jack
bears on broke away inside, and also snapped the shaft that goes from
the handle to the jack.

They've written the thing off as junk, and I think the plan was to
sell it on ebay, but I've looked at the damage and know I can fix it
more or less as good as new. It's been pretty well used, like every
manual I've seen, the guys in the shop beat it mercilessly because it
isn't a CNC, but aside from the busted knee, it's serviceable. And,
buying it would get the damn thing out of my way at work, and put it
back into service.

There's a good chance the boss will let me have it on a
payroll-deduction plan, but I'm trying to figure out what I can expect
to offer him without simply being offensive. I figure that it will
cost me about $50 and twenty hours or so to make new parts and fix it
up, so I don't think I want to pay more than $300-500- considering I
could get a brand new one for about 2 grand.

So, what do you guys think- I don't mind doing the work to patch it
up, and I've done things like this before with good results, but I
just don't have much idea of what I should offer for the thing. Does
$300 sound way too low? I know I could part the thing out for far
more than that, but even that's a lot of work they're not going to do.

I would tend to agree, except that way they'd start pulling good stuff off
of it.

Grant

Artemus wrote:

If they've really written it off as junk then the value to the company is zero.
I'd offer to remove it on my own time to "get this junk out of the way and
to save the company time/money they'd have to spend to get rid of it".
Worst case they say no. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Then ask them how much and negotiate from there.
Art


"Prometheus" wrote in message
...

Hello all,

I'm thinking about making an offer on an old knee mill at work. I've
been wanting one for at home for a while, and this one is broken and
getting in my way all the time.

Not really. If the company calls up the local bottom feeder machine tool
folk, they will come and pick it up, give the company a modest check. So
even though it may be 'junk', it has some residual value. And many
companies would rather give it to the scrap dealer than go through the
pains of selling it to (which one?) an employee.

Artemus wrote:
If they've really written it off as junk then the value to the company is zero.
I'd offer to remove it on my own time to "get this junk out of the way and
to save the company time/money they'd have to spend to get rid of it".
Worst case they say no. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Then ask them how much and negotiate from there.
Art


"Prometheus" wrote in message
...
Hello all,

I'm thinking about making an offer on an old knee mill at work. I've
been wanting one for at home for a while, and this one is broken and
getting in my way all the time.

On Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:03:27 -0500, Prometheus
wrote:

Hello all,

I'm thinking about making an offer on an old knee mill at work. I've
been wanting one for at home for a while, and this one is broken and
getting in my way all the time.

What it is is an old Matsuura manual knee mill with a 3 axis digital
readout and no flood coolant. Somebody did something incredibly nasty
to the knee before I started there, and the area that the screw jack
bears on broke away inside, and also snapped the shaft that goes from
the handle to the jack.

They've written the thing off as junk, and I think the plan was to
sell it on ebay, but I've looked at the damage and know I can fix it
more or less as good as new. It's been pretty well used, like every
manual I've seen, the guys in the shop beat it mercilessly because it
isn't a CNC, but aside from the busted knee, it's serviceable. And,
buying it would get the damn thing out of my way at work, and put it
back into service.

There's a good chance the boss will let me have it on a
payroll-deduction plan, but I'm trying to figure out what I can expect
to offer him without simply being offensive. I figure that it will
cost me about $50 and twenty hours or so to make new parts and fix it
up, so I don't think I want to pay more than $300-500- considering I
could get a brand new one for about 2 grand.

So, what do you guys think- I don't mind doing the work to patch it
up, and I've done things like this before with good results, but I
just don't have much idea of what I should offer for the thing. Does
$300 sound way too low? I know I could part the thing out for far
more than that, but even that's a lot of work they're not going to do.

for a Matsuura thats been crapped on? between $300-500 would be fair.

Whats the scrap value in your area? Thats the basic criteria for most
non running machine tools.


Gunner



"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the
name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program
until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it
happened." -- Norman Thomas, American socialist