Colchester Student $3500 Calgary

Tom Kitta

Ultra Member
Sorry for being late to the game.

Firstly the biggest piece of *that* particular Bridgeport mill is about 1000lbs. reinforced stairway is a must, and that costs $$$.

There is no positive negotiation with the seller possible. On this one I'd give them a business card with 600$ for the mill and 1000$ for the lathe, and walk away.

The mill is about 4 hours to disassemble - with a crane - and the lathe will need about 6-7 hours, again with a crane.
With a winch, and if the pull is straight, it will take about 8 hours to get all the heavy pieces out.

In a garage, for sale, that particular mill is good for 1800-2000$ MAX, and the lathe about 2200$., Actual out-of-pocket costs to move them both would be around 1000$, and the value of that move is over 4000$, so the prices I'd offer would be a gift, not a business proposal.

I have looked at 4 round ram mills in my time, and they do not age well. It is not worth the sweat equity to disassemble it and reassemble it.

The lathe shows promise, but there is easily 2000$ of sweat equity disassembling the lathe, reassembling and realigning the headstock.

I was quoted $10k to move the lathe out of Bert's basement. I got 3 estimates to move the mill out - all were "no bid" as it was too much risk. (!!)

Finally, I was unsure of my own stance and needed a backup as clearly you have practical experience with this sort of stuff.
 

Dabbler

ersatz engineer
I should add, that with a helper, then readying process would take about 7 full time days, start to finish. This would include reinforcing the stair, disassembly, loading everything onto cradles, securing every load, and hand removing everything under 150 lbs.

Then the heavy stuff would be moved, one day more.

In my experience, reassembling correctly is double the disassembly time, at least so add another 2 days, for 10 days total.

All this for stuff that can be sold or bought for from 3000$ to a overcooked 5000$, not including purchase price. If you value your labour at 200$ per day, and add 1000$ in direct expenses, the machines should be free to a max of 2000$.
 

Tom Kitta

Ultra Member
I should add, that with a helper, then readying process would take about 7 full time days, start to finish. This would include reinforcing the stair, disassembly, loading everything onto cradles, securing every load, and hand removing everything under 150 lbs.

Then the heavy stuff would be moved, one day more.

In my experience, reassembling correctly is double the disassembly time, at least so add another 2 days, for 10 days total.

All this for stuff that can be sold or bought for from 3000$ to a overcooked 5000$, not including purchase price. If you value your labour at 200$ per day, and add 1000$ in direct expenses, the machines should be free to a max of 2000$.

So I guessed correctly, that about a week for a single machine.
 

Gearhead88

Super User
This one sold recently in Alberta for $2500 . It's in my friends garage now . At the same time /place he also bought a mint Utilathe for $1500 , the pair of machines were tooled up very well .

There are much better deals out there , the basement machines are a raw deal .

20220319_113622.jpg
 
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Seller informs that both machines are tentatively sold. He also informed me that he's seen this thread that our discussion on a 'exit plan' for our families was 'ridiculous and sad'.

Oh and FYI, its not a 'round ram' BP, its a dovetail model like the two others pictured in this thread. That was a bad assumption on my part based on the *ONE* picture the seller had posted.

*shrug*
 
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Brent H

Ultra Member
Hopefully the buyer got a better deal. If the seller saw these threads he may have reconsidered the prices.

Nothing wrong with planning stuff for the future or making it more reasonable on your kids. I probably have about 250 to 300k in “ new” tool value but it is all used, no one cares about the time I took to restore stuff and hey, if the family sells it off for cheap to make a couple bucks ah well - I enjoyed it :p
 

Gearhead88

Super User
Seller informs that both machines are tentatively sold. He also informed me that he's seen this thread that our discussion on a 'exit plan' for our families was 'ridiculous and sad'.

Oh and FYI, its not a 'round ram' BP, its a dovetail model like the two others pictured in this thread. That was a bad assumption on my part based on the *ONE* picture the seller had posted.

*shrug*
I think he might have left a comment a couple of days ago and then quickly deleted it , it was a reply to
The comment I made about burdening family with the problem of removal of machinery . The comment was the first and only by a new member ,
 
Yes, that was me. My statement was just that my dad was not burdening my family. I do not think an exit plan is silly or ridiculous, and highly recommend everybody do that. The thought that my dad was seen as burdening us by providing for our family but didn't have an exit plan in place due to an early death is what I thought was silly and ridiculous. The term burden is the only thing that I did not appreciate.

I honestly don't care about the discussion on pricing, not taking that personally. I was going off what my dad said and I've received over a hundred messages from when I relisted it a few days ago. The post is a year and a half old because that's the last time we listed it then ran out of time to deal with it due to personal issues. Instead of making a new post I renewed that one, not expecting a large discussion on a forum around it.

The fact that I've received over a hundred inquiries makes me think the pricing isn't totally out to lunch. It seemed like the person I was in contact with on this forum was taking the pricing personally... I don't know why. From the people I've been in touch with a few are seriously interested in all the machines, if they all fall through then I'll pay to bring the machines up and either relist or donate it to someone new to Canada that's trying to start a business if I can find the right fit through family friends. Going to stop following this thread but all the best.
 

Dan Dubeau

Ultra Member
Sorry for the loss of your father. From the looks of the machines, and the fact he had them in the basement it sounds like he was "one of us".
Best of luck to you on the sale and removal. I hope it all goes smoothly, and the machines get a new home and keep being used.
 
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