• Scam Alert. Members are reminded to NOT send money to buy anything. Don't buy things remote and have it shipped - go get it yourself, pay in person, and take your equipment with you. Scammers have burned people on this forum. Urgency, secrecy, excuses, selling for friend, newish members, FUD, are RED FLAGS. A video conference call is not adequate assurance. Face to face interactions are required. Please report suspicions to the forum admins. Stay Safe - anyone can get scammed.

Kingston Lathe HL-1500

Looks like it's in REALLY nice shape and I think that is a really good deal also. Kind of an awkward size tho...too big for most hobbyists and I would think too old school and small for many industries.
 
Too expensive unless he adds tons of stuff. Its an industrial size lathe. These go cheap. Recent auction in Calgary all under 10k. Sometimes as low as 5k (!).

This is actually fairly common size - few of them sold on auctions in Calgary. There was a warehouse with like a dozen CNC machines and two lathes, one was longer bed version of this one and another was shorter bed.

Main problem is that market for these is just not there - it is too big for hot hobby market - well, OK someone may want to get it, but generally too big. For industrial market most are downsizing and these that are not either get from a dealer or from big auctions.
 
IMO this lathe is worth every cent of what he is asking: Kingston lathes have a great reputation for being very well made, and very long lasting. This one has not been used up, which is what we see at auction here in Calgary. It seem to come with tool holders and accessories in the chip tray.

Although they guy doesn't say it, it is an improved Mazak, from what I have heard. I tried to buy a Kingston before Bert's lathe became available, and researched the hell out of them, and contacted guys that have used them for years.
 
I doubt few year old Polish made lathe was somehow "used up". Not all auctions are of junk, some are of almost brand new stuff.

If the lathe was worth what he is asking, why the dealer would not pick it up? Why he is not using it as a credit in a trade?

I don't doubt the lathe is great. The point is that market for them is small. We see how long it takes to sell it.
 
A business is more likely to buy brand new - they can't afford to inherit possible problems - it isn't worth the risk. Although it is worth it, its sale price to be fair is between 10K and 11K. There is no dealer margin in that, and there are a lot of manual machines in BC. A dealer would offer 5K$ so he can sell it at 9-12K$. There is enough of a large lathe hobby market to command these prices.

Even dealers cannot get premium prices in today's market.

If I didn't have the LeBlond, I'd offer him 9K for it, hoping to settle on 10.5K. This is all assuming that it completely checks out. Any issues and the lathe value drops very quickly.

You go to a lot more auctions than I do - it gives you the opportunity to see those (from my experience) rare good lathes. Every lathe I've seen in person in the past 5 years at auction has been barely above scrap quality, except for the Monarch 10EE a month or 2 ago. I think the Monarch sold for about 150% of what I'd value it at in this market, except the bidding went kinda wild for some reason.

.Those Sask lathes went higher than I'd have predicted - shows that things have higher sell value than you might think. A really decent machine still commands a pretty decent price.

I think he'll sell it at around 10K in about 3 months.
 
Our first lathe on the ship was a Kingston lathe. People beat the crap out of it - it built the ship (at least helped) and we used it for 20 years. It was way to big (72” between centres). But it was a beast. Needed new bearings when it left us. We replaced it with a $32k Clausing Colchester- a few issues with it. - good lathe but not as well built.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top