A really nice show this year. Loved the auction. I've never seen
quite so much metalworking stuff all in one place before, and many of
the prices seemed pretty reasonable. The Monarch 10EE went for $500
bucks, and though it didn't look in the best of shape, it did have a
relatively new solid state speed controller of the type that Gunner
mentioned a number of posts ago. I bid up to $500 for a South Bend
shaper that looked pretty nice, it soon went for something like $675.
There was a nicer one with pressure lubrication near the consignment
area for about $700.
I wish that I'd known something about old outboard motors. A whole
bunch of them went for just a few bucks apiece, including a nice
Firestone.
I bid on some other stuff, but found it always just beyond what I
thought was a bargain.
Regarding shapers, the place seemed absolutely infested with them.
Between all of the machinery dealers, the auction, and the consignment
area, I counted seven: one Logan, two Rhodes, two South Bends, and two
Atlae - all for around $700. Judging from the way stuff is moving on
ebay, that seems to be about the price of the animal these days.
In just about the middle of the auction on Friday, a rather quiet
fellow appeared with a pallet jack and pallet loaded with what for me
was the most fun of all: an early hammered-blue Emco V10-p Maximat in
absolutely, no kidding, mint showroom time-warp condition with just
about every accessory Emco ever made for it, including all literature,
manuals, and ads. He had the milling head, he had the milling table,
the steady rest, the follow rest, the dividing head (plates were there
but he'd forgotten the actual thing, didn't know what it was), he had
the angle plates, the hold downs, the whole shooting match. It must
have been nearly 30 years old and he'd just cleaned off the cosmoline.
Wow.
He wanted $3500 for the whole collection and it seemed like a
bargain to me. I thought about buying it and selling my machine on
ebay. Then, I thought about explaining that to my wife and how the
cash-flow situation might need some explaining...
Found myself at the booth of a guy named Slav Jelesijevich of
Slav's Hardware Store, who specializes in NOS files. Got addicted to
Swiss pattern files, number twos and threes in odd shapes and bought a
whole mess of them. Now I have to make the handles.
Richard Triemestra had a beautiful Myford ML7 he'd pulled out of a
basement in Detroit after it's original owner had probably passed away
and the family moved out. The new owner of the house told him he had a
Craftsman lathe for sale because that was what the electric motor said.
"Does it say anything else on it?" Triemestra asked.
"Well," the guy said, "It says 'my ford' on it, just like the car"
"I'll be right down," said Triemestra. The machine turned out to
lack a compound rest, but it did have a mint milling attachment and
three chucks.
I loved the people and the stories, everywhere. Stories about
lives spent in industry, so much of it gone now, and finding some
solace in recreating it on a smaller scale, a kind of techno-bonsai
almost, generations of toolmakers and machinists pruning their
basements, adding some more files, scrapers, and sometimes another
machine if the pension allows it.
Kept meaning to ask Mr. Sobel about that 20 percent discount if
you served in Burma during the great war, but never had the chance.
Rudy Kouhoupt's absence was palpable. Everywhere you turned his
fans and admirers had brought the projects that he'd described over the
years. One builder had put his photo on an engine turned panel. He's
left a huge void. I found myself with some other guys talking to Clover
McKinley, editor of Live Steam, about it all. Turns out Rudy died very
much the way he had quietly lived.
"He had cleaned the dishes and neatly stacked them just the way
you might imagine Rudy always did everything. Then, he sat down in his
easy chair with a shawl around his shoulders and picked up the new
issue of Live Steam....That's the way they found him."
God bless him.

Charles Morrill

In article 2005011820121027590%deichles@yahoocom, Charles Morrill says...

Kept meaning to ask Mr. Sobel about that 20 percent discount if
you served in Burma during the great war, but never had the chance.

Give dave a call. If he said it, it's probably true.

Rudy Kouhoupt's absence was palpable. Everywhere you turned his
fans and admirers had brought the projects that he'd described over the
years. One builder had put his photo on an engine turned panel. He's
left a huge void. I found myself with some other guys talking to Clover
McKinley, editor of Live Steam, about it all. Turns out Rudy died very
much the way he had quietly lived.
"He had cleaned the dishes and neatly stacked them just the way
you might imagine Rudy always did everything. Then, he sat down in his
easy chair with a shawl around his shoulders and picked up the new
issue of Live Steam....That's the way they found him."

This sounds too poetic to be true - not saying it isn't, but
it's the first time I've heard of it.

Thanks for your impressions, posts like this bring back the old
flavor of rcm. I heard somebody (a dealer, perhaps) had a
small Elgin milling machine for sale at the show that did not
sell. Any recollection of it, or who might have had it for
sale?

Thanks - Jim


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Charles Morrill wrote:
A really nice show this year.


The folks that run the show do a great job. But it's the people that
attend that keep you coming back. A stranger will see you looking for
something, say "I think I saw one over there" and lead you to it. My son
was cornering the 1/4-20 tap supply because the kids in the FIRST team
he mentors have a gift for breaking them. When he mentioned (in
passing)why he wanted a _bunch_ of taps to a gentleman at one of the
booths, the FIRST team was given a bin full.

Kevin Gallimore

On 2005-01-18 20:49:28 -0500, jim rozen said:

In article 2005011820121027590%deichles@yahoocom, Charles Morrill says...

Kept meaning to ask Mr. Sobel about that 20 percent discount if you
served in Burma during the great war, but never had the chance.

Give dave a call. If he said it, it's probably true.
Rudy Kouhoupt's absence was palpable. Everywhere you turned his fans
and admirers had brought the projects that he'd described over the
years. One builder had put his photo on an engine turned panel. He's
left a huge void. I found myself with some other guys talking to Clover
McKinley, editor of Live Steam, about it all. Turns out Rudy died very
much the way he had quietly lived.
"He had cleaned the dishes and neatly stacked them just the way you
might imagine Rudy always did everything. Then, he sat down in his easy
chair with a shawl around his shoulders and picked up the new issue of
Live Steam....That's the way they found him."

This sounds too poetic to be true - not saying it isn't, but
it's the first time I've heard of it.

Thanks for your impressions, posts like this bring back the old
flavor of rcm. I heard somebody (a dealer, perhaps) had a
small Elgin milling machine for sale at the show that did not
sell. Any recollection of it, or who might have had it for
sale?

Thanks - Jim

Thanks for the compliment. I don't remember an Elgin...there was
an Elgin lathe in the auction, and also a Hardinge BB4 milling machine
that went for $700 at auction (I think...can't remember) Didn't
Hardinge own Elgin at one point? The BB4 was awfully cute, but very
small. You can still see pictures of it on the Cabin Fever site.
Dave Ficken showed up too with a bunch of "blowout" prices like
$250 for something that looked like a benchmaster and $450 for a south
bend lathe. The small mill lasted about 10 minutes.
Just remembered, yes, I think there was an Elgin mill. It was the
same dealer who had the green Rhodes shaper next to the steamboat pond
and right next to Dave Sobel. it was quite expensive, I'm thinking
somewhere around $2,000. Dave or his son would probably know.
Can't remember the son's name. Real nice guy. Got into a
conversation with him about the Sixis mill recently on ebay. Told him
I'd considered bidding. "You wouldn't have gotten it," he said. "The
person who won the auction was prepared to pay any price."
Wow. Well, it went to a great home, no more nasty abrasive cut off
wheels like in the picture - machine heaven.
Sobel also has a nice Aciera with all accessories at the moment
(it wasn't at the show). I guess if you have to ask how much...

Charles M

In article 200501182225332781%deichles@yahoocom, Charles Morrill says...

Can't remember the son's name. Real nice guy. Got into a
conversation with him about the Sixis mill recently on ebay. Told him
I'd considered bidding. "You wouldn't have gotten it," he said. "The
person who won the auction was prepared to pay any price."

That might have been Peter. I went to high school with Peter.

Wow. Well, it went to a great home, no more nasty abrasive cut off
wheels like in the picture - machine heaven.
Sobel also has a nice Aciera with all accessories at the moment
(it wasn't at the show). I guess if you have to ask how much...

OOh. Maybe time to take a trip to Closter. Thanks for the tip.

Jim


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