There was an online auction of stuff from a firm that was moving some of their work to another location and having a tidy-up.

I was interested in an upgrade from my Record 23 vice to a Record 25 one. The one that was in very good condition attracted a frenzy and went for a relatively high price (20% of new with the auctioneer's markup). I bid on a slightly more tired example and got it for half that price.

So far, so good.

A few hours after the auction ended, there was an email from the auctioneers offering the unsold lots for their initial starting prices. I had a look.

Ended up with a Meteor ME14 drill grinder for £57.50 after the markup and VAT.

It was filthy when I picked it up, but essentially complete with all the standard attachments. Spent a day and a half Stripping the attachments down, cleaning them up and reassembling everything. It'll sharpen drills from 2mm to 40mm with independent adjustment of point included angle and relief angle. It'll also grind point relief and web-thinning. Needs a couple of new wheels, but the main wheel still had enough meat on it to try it out after dressing it. The web/point modifying wheel is all used up.

I really don't have room for it at the moment, but I think I'd rather sell the Myford to make room than get rid of it!

The "double ended grinder" in the auctioneer's catalogue:-

The drill grinder, with a couple of bits not reassembled:-

The results on a couple of large drills:-

Edited By Mark Rand on 14/08/2022 19:50:10

Get thee behind me Satan and push!

20 years ago, EBay was a good source of bargains. These days tit's a good source of repainted junk at insane prices.

It's worth registering with auction companies that specialise in industrial auctions, so you get notifications sent by email. Ok, you get a lot of items that might be useful if you were in the market for a 5 axis CNC machine or worn out office furniture, but occasionally there are good items. Often things are very poorly described. Also, the second hand machinery sellers aren't interested in stuff that needs a bit of TLC before it can be shifted for a profit. That's where the good stuff is.