Valuation of Boxford model A lathe and EMCO FB2 vertical milling machine

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Valuation of Boxford model A lathe and EMCO FB2 vertical milling machine

This topic has 8 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 2 December 2015 at 20:43 by Paul Lousick.

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1 December 2015 at 21:43 #214831
Jonathan Robinson 1
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@jonathanrobinson1
Our family has inherited a Boxford Model A lathe and a EMCO FB2 vertical milling machine. We wish to sell these machines but don't know their worth or even if there is a demand for them.

The lathe was purchased from new in 1950 and has recently been looked at by a retired tool maker who says it is in excellent working order having immediate response and no backlash present. The V-bed is in excellent condition with no damage. It has a 1/3rd single phase motor, 40" bed, 21" centres, screwcutting by Norton Type quick change gearbox, automatic sliding and surfacing feeds to the saddle, reversing switch, thread dial indicator, 4" self centring geared scroll chuck, new main screw nuts and is on a heavy duty cabinet base. There are other attachments including a set of metric gears.

The milling machine is in excellent condition.

We would be most grateful for anyone's advice on how best to sell and value these items. What would be a realistic selling price for each item please?
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1 December 2015 at 21:43 #32609
Jonathan Robinson 1
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@jonathanrobinson1
2 December 2015 at 15:59 #214904
Chris Evans 6
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@chrisevans6
Nice lathe a copy of the South Bend I had for 45 years. As for value a local dealer has had one in his showroom for a year or two with a £1100 price tag. I sold my well worn South Bend for £200 a few years ago. The Boxford will be snapped up soon due to its size to fit in a home workshop, any tooling with it ? No idea on the mill, Iv'e never seen one.
2 December 2015 at 17:49 #214912
paul 1950
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@paul1950
the only way to find out what it is worth is to put it on ebay. you will see them on there for over a thousand pounds but they have been on there for years. I have bought them for under £500.00 but most of the time they go for about £800.00 you will get more for a model A if you brake it for spares.
2 December 2015 at 18:14 #214914
Ajohnw
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@ajohnw51620
I lot depends on the attachments that come with the lathe. It might be best to post a photo of the lathe and any bits and pieces that go with it. Often people have a faceplate, catchplae, 4 jaw chuck, steadies, drill chucks, centres, a micrometer saddle bed stop, various types of tool holder and they can sometimes come with rather a lot of gears for screw cutting. My Boxford for instance is an imperial one and came with around 25 including the metric conversion gears.

The downside on price is that it's a model A and rather old as they all are. Condition is most likely to relate to what the lathe was used for. Some are used daily for years. Some hardly at all. The upside is parts that come with it..

John

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2 December 2015 at 19:39 #214927
SteveM
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@stevem36008
An Emco FB2 is an ideal small-workshop machine and will sell easily and usually for good money. A machine alone could reach around £800 if it's in good condition, and with tooling you could add another £500 or so to that.
One sold recently on ebay for £1,390 but it was in very good condition and was well hung with original tooling Link.

Steve

Edited By SteveM on 02/12/2015 19:40:20
2 December 2015 at 19:43 #214928
Bazyle
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@bazyle
Value can depend on location in country balancing rarity of machine tools in some corners with number of people prepared to travel. If it has only been used for model engineering and not in a garage or small business for production you should emphasise that in advertising. Most of the Boxfords are ex-school and may be neglected though some are gems. Also some of the castings deteriorated in quality once they started mass producing for schools.

Have your toolmaker friend locate the second set of jaws for the chuck, see if it has fixed and travelling steadies, a 4 jaw chuck and a tailstock drill chuck. These form a package with the lathe. Then ask him if it has other parts that you would normally expect to sell separately like collets (including draw tube and MT3 adaptor), revolving steady, vertical slide, tailstock die holder.
If you bundle those bits in you will just get a derisory offer from a dealer who will sell them separately and whack the lathe back on ebay at the price he gave you.

Edited By Bazyle on 02/12/2015 19:44:59
2 December 2015 at 20:20 #214931
Ajohnw
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@ajohnw51620
Posted by Bazyle on 02/12/2015 19:43:05:

Most of the Boxfords are ex-school and may be neglected though some are gems. Also some of the castings deteriorated in quality once they started mass producing for schools.

Edited By Bazyle on 02/12/2015 19:44:59

My school had a screw cutting Model A and a none screw cutting version. They have always been popular in schools more or less from day one. First time have ever heard of the castings deteriorating. Lathes co uk reckon that they didn't harden beds. That's known to be incorrect but it isn't clear when they started offering it. Unhardened they aren't really any different to other makes with similar gib sizes however they are a much better design than many.

The downside to buying them is that they were very popular with self employed turners that would usually be doing batch work for various companies. Often lots of it as the work provided a good income. This sort of thing wears a lathe out pretty quickly. They have also been popular as a workshop machine with varying degrees of use. VSL's are more popular for that in more recent years due to the spindle bore – on some.

They came to fame due to the USA bringing over the same size Southbend during WWII. I'm told by a relative of some one that was involved that we Brit's didn't rate lathes of that size at all but soon changed our minds. Several near clones popped up. The Boxford, Viceroy and the Smart & Brown Sabel. All copied the general proportions of the Southbend. THAT is the important aspect. In Boxoford's case I'm told many parts are exactly the same. Headstock's though seem to be distinctly different or became so rather quickly. The none screw cutting A's seem to vary too. The one I used at school was a low mounted rear drive. I have seen others much like the ME where the motor is directly behind the headstock.

The attraction was that they are a lot of lathe for the money. Sort of rather upmarket budget and didn't take up a lot of space. People reckon that Boxford could only offer the ME in a similar price range to a Super 7 because they had a lot of Model A castings about. Even then most sold were more expensive.

John

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2 December 2015 at 20:43 #214933
Paul Lousick
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@paullousick59116
I am in Australia and have a Southbend model C lathe (no gearbox). They sell for $800 – $1500 here if in good condition. A clone of the Southbend was sold here under the Hercus name. They are a great lathe and lots of spare parts are available and interchangeable with each other. The only change that I have found is that the Hercus bed is 3" longer. There is also a longer bed version of the Hercus but as scarce as hens teeth.

Paul.
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