Estimated value of restored lathes

[harmond94Participant @harmond94]

Hi, this might be a bit of a random question, but i wanted to get the valuble opinions of hobby machinists such as yourselves.

what kind of price tag would you attatch to a well restored example (bed and all ways ground, new spindle & bearings, new leadscrews/nuts & dials, motor & belts, repainted and mounted on a good sturdy cab) ML7? Super 7? and any other models ?

any info/opinions would be greatly appreciated 🙂

P.S. – i am a passionate machinist who has restored a a few lathes since my teenage and am thinking of trying to make an honest (if quite small) living out of somthing i love.

many thanks,

H

 

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

I always recommend looking on eBay [advanced search, filter to sold] and lathes UK to see what people are actually paying atm for Myfords.

Tony

[Mike FreemanParticipant @mikefreeman95253]

People seem to price them based on what others are listing them for rather than what they are actually selling for.

 

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Myford are selling refurbished Super 7’s for £4,166 so I guess that is the benchmark price. Bearing in mind they also offer part-exchange so unless you are prepared to do likewise it queers your pitch somewhat.

Nice to see someone up for resurrecting old machines rather than parting out for spares though.

regards Martin

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Probably a high proportion of Myfords less than 40 yrs old had very little use. The biggest problem is more often damp workshops or getting forgotten after the owner got sick.
So there are plenty of Myfords that the clean and paint brigade have ‘restored’.
None of the lesser known makes, even Drummond, are worth regrinding unless you have the machine in house (most were planed when made not ground anyway).
That leaves only Colchester and Harrison that have a name and would be desirable enough to warrant a regrind if they are one of the sorry ex industrial ones one sees on ebay. Then only if the rest is ok and somehow the bearings survived the neglect that stuffed the bed. And I’m only talking about the newer 600 group square head ones.

Finding buyers without the exposure profile of a business is another problem. For anything that won’t fit in the back of an estate car one of the most advantageous things you can do is sort out the delivery up front not leave it as a hidden extra cost and problem.

[Frank GorseParticipant @frankgorse]

If you have the equipment and skills to regrind beds you may be better off doing that for owners on their own machines. That way you do the job for an agreed price and get paid at the end. Otherwise you could invest a lot of time and money and not be able to get it back,or not for a long time.

 

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