Auction Score

[billwmeyer]

I attended an auction today. I bought an 18" Grizzly Band saw and a model ER Shopsmith.

The Band saw is 15 years old, but has never been used. The man who bought it died shortly afterwards, and as you can see in the picture, he never finished wiring it up. I didn't find a model number on it yet, but had little time to look. I paid $170 for the band saw and $60 for the shopsmith. Both had been stored in a basement, and need some TLC. The Shopsmith runs, but I haven't wired the Grizzley yet. I also bought a pile of rough sawn Cedar about 6 ' high (stickered) by 5' wide by about 9' long. This sale also sold his wood mizer that he used to mill the lumber.

Bill

[Pappy]

Good score. Depending on your needs, the Shopsmith makes a good drill press, align bore machine, and lathe.

[cabinetman]

That's a great score. Usually at auctions the price gets driven up. Clean up that BS and you'll love having 18".
.

[cgallery]

I agree with Cabinetman. I've run into people that look down their noses at anything but the latest Grizzly tools (insisting the older stuff was junk). The truth is that 18" is a giant piece of cast-iron bandsaw bliss. I'd have no problem making that thing sing. The only problem is, I can't lift one. They're SOOOOO heavy. If my back was better I'd have one of those in my shop.

BTW, when I mouse-over the pictures, the caption says "Angela and Mike's wedding..."

Did they hold the auction at the wedding?

[billwmeyer]

I agree with Cabinetman. I've run into people that look down their noses at anything but the latest Grizzly tools (insisting the older stuff was junk). The truth is that 18" is a giant piece of cast-iron bandsaw bliss. I'd have no problem making that thing sing. The only problem is, I can't lift one. They're SOOOOO heavy. If my back was better I'd have one of those in my shop.

BTW, when I mouse-over the pictures, the caption says "Angela and Mike's wedding..."

Did they hold the auction at the wedding?

My Daughter got married the week before Memorial day, and our pictures are still on the digital camera that I used. I guess after downloading the wedding pictures, Everything else I take gets that name. I thought my wife had cleared them off.

Heavy doesn't start to describe this thing!

I have been badly wanting a Grizzly band saw, so even though this will be some work to get in shape, it will be worth the effort. I can't find a model or serial number anywhere, and have e-mailed Grizzly for some help there. The Shopsmith was going to cheap for me to pass it up. I don't have a decent drill press, or a any type of lathe, so how could I pass it up? I almost did, because I have no room for it, but I will sacrafice my radial arm saw.

Actually my biggest score was the stack of cedar. I forgot to mention that for that tall pile of lumber I only paid $100. I will get a picture when we go and brave the copperhead snakes to get it.

Bill

[billwmeyer]

That's a great score. Usually at auctions the price gets driven up. Clean up that BS and you'll love having 18".
.

I guess that would easily be beyond my wildest dreams!!

Bill

[tommyt654]

WOW, All I can say and I thought I was the deal king. Way to go. Send pics after you get it all up and running.

[billwmeyer]

TommyT,

I will post a picture when I get it going. I have been trying to find some info on it. This is a very old Shopsmith ER. About all their web site covers is the Mark models. They have a forum that I have joined and I have applied to a Yahoo group covering the ER model.

I ususally don't hit the hot deals like this. There weren't many woodworkers there. They had one of the oldest wide belt sanders there that I have ever seen. It brought $150, and was in sad shape. I think that guy was going to buy it no matter what the price was. My biggest score was actually the lumber.

Bill

[billwmeyer]

Cedar

It took me a lot of the weekend, but I finally got all of my cedar purchase hauled home. Now I will spend countless hours planing it down and restacking. My estimate is 1,500 board feet of lumber. I paid $100.00 for the entire stack. That works out to about $.15 per board foot. I estimated that I would pay about $350 for decking boards. I saved $250 on my deck plus I will only use 20% or so of the lumber.

Bill

[master53yoda]

this may sound funny but it works. If you have small parts that need to have the rust removed on the ER try soaking them in alkaseltser????, it removes rust better then anything i have used. I ran across this on a forum somewhere when I was restoring my shop smith. I would have never believed it if i would not have tried it myself. Good luck with the ER they make a wonderful lathe and horizontal boring mill.

[billwmeyer]

Alka seltzer? I will try that. I had an uncle that used to use Coca Cola to soak parts in to free them up. He said it worked better than solvent. I would have thought the sugar would have been bad on it.

Thanks for your help.

Bill