Hi, folks, just signed up. What brought me here was trying to buy a Busy Bee DF-1224G from a local guy - it was his dad's (or granddad's - can't remember), has "a broken feed gear" and he's never used it, just keeps it in the corner of his garage, where I first spotted it a couple of years ago when he had a garage sale. He was ambivalent about selling it (sentimental value or something), but wasn't doing anything with it either, so I tried the "honour the tool" angle, which may have helped or not. But he wouldn't suggest a price, and I had no idea either, so I (recently) did a search and joined hobby-machinist.com for some guidance. The very nice folks there suggested that (about) $1K CDN wouldn't be an unreasonable starting point, which I took to buddy, and he rejected it out of hand and refused to counteroffer, which in my book would have only been good manners. Instead he responded by saying that it wasn't for sale at any price, and that he was going to fix it so his kid could "play with it", which I understood to mean the five-year-old who answered the door. So in short, I thought I was hunting for a lathe, but found a big dumb jerk instead.
My history is that I'm not (even) a (hobby) machinist, rather an EE who spent about a decade working with a Bay Area group in a well-equipped shop with folks who knew what they were doing. I've been hungry for a lathe and a mill ever since, and though I'd sure love larger (like the old J-head Bridgeport I spent some time in front of), at present I'd be happy to settle for something more modest that'll fit in my somewhat limited space/budget and do the stuff I need, which is generally going to be sailboat parts (stainless, aluminum, and Delrin), and maybe some electronic- or car-related stuff.
So it makes sense to join up here (you were mentioned in the other forum) and tap the local wisdom for what I can find and where (in the Calgary area). And bummer that I just missed a meetup a few weeks ago.
Jonathan
My history is that I'm not (even) a (hobby) machinist, rather an EE who spent about a decade working with a Bay Area group in a well-equipped shop with folks who knew what they were doing. I've been hungry for a lathe and a mill ever since, and though I'd sure love larger (like the old J-head Bridgeport I spent some time in front of), at present I'd be happy to settle for something more modest that'll fit in my somewhat limited space/budget and do the stuff I need, which is generally going to be sailboat parts (stainless, aluminum, and Delrin), and maybe some electronic- or car-related stuff.
So it makes sense to join up here (you were mentioned in the other forum) and tap the local wisdom for what I can find and where (in the Calgary area). And bummer that I just missed a meetup a few weeks ago.
Jonathan
