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Standard Modern Lathes in Sarnia and Hamilton

B

bfishe01

Member
https://www.govdeals.ca/index.cfm?fa=Main.Item&itemid=126&acctid=7664
https://www.govdeals.ca/index.cfm?fa=Main.Item&itemid=127&acctid=7664
https://www.govdeals.ca/index.cfm?fa=Main.Item&itemid=979&acctid=6343

Hey All,

I pretty new to metalworking (coming from woodworking) and the forum, I've been reading lots and it seems like the value to money ratio on some of the older Standard Modern lathe is pretty good (also I'm a sucker for something that was actually made in Canada). I guess what I'm looking for is how much would you say these are worth not in an auction environment, especially where no inspection is allowed vs Kijiji? And just as another point is it strange that the current winning bid, at the time of posting, on all 3 lathes is the same person?
 
It is not strange that the winning bid is the same person as most likely it is a dealer. Or a friend of a worker at the government facility that knows the machines and has full inspection report in front of him. He knows exactly what he is bidding on.

No inspections is a big downgrade.

They say no "problems" with items so its now a lottery - depends on who much you trust government.

Many government sites sell a bit "high".

Assets are not big - we are talking about 11 x something lathe - may 24?

I am guessing in great working condition these lathes on Kajiji may sell for around 2500 (no taxes). They are not big items thus do not expect high price.

Current price of one of the lathe at over 1500 plus 15% tax is very close to my personal "lottery" max - maybe would bid 100 more. The others are more interesting at lower price and missing knobs.

Note new Chinese lathe of similar size would not set you back (with stand) more then around 3000.
 
@Tom Kitta that's my sentiment too that they're kind of getting to a price point that is the max a person would pay, where would a dealer have to price this to make it worth their while reselling? Just to confirm does the SM 11" Series 2000 does actually have an 11" swing vs the SM 1120 that has the swing of the larger brother lathe (SM 1334) at 13"?
 
I do not know actual swing - it may be a 13" in which case the price would go up.

I wish actual swing was very similar to posted swing - i.e. 11 means its maybe a touch over 11 not 13.
 
If I'm not mistaken the second listing is located in Sarnia very close to the border whereas the others are in Hamilton. This may explain why the one close to the border is open to non Canadian bidders. However I thought the border was supposed to be closed for the pandemic so I don't know how a non-Canadian would get it home?
 
SM are a well made lathe. I spent a bunch time in the plant around ten years ago before they shut down, eventually to be relaunched by racer. It was an impressive operation and they made everything in house- leadscrews were made on a massive leadscrew mill, yes the leadscrews were milled, there was a huge planner, and the biggest grinder I've ever seen - it had a gang of wheels and did all surfaces of the bed at a time. I think it could handle a 20' work piece. They even generated all their own gears - huge variety of gear hobbers and shapers. Lots of a CNC machining centres and boring mills. The headsctock, carriage and tailstock were hand scraped to the bed. They weren't as hefty as some other big names in lathes, but it struck me the sure built them right. I had one once, sort of regret getting rid of it, but needed the space. Perfect hobby lathe too....large and strong enough to do some real work but not too hard to move.

Anyway, as far as value goes, condition condition condition....that and tooling. I'd have to have a lot of trust in the seller to buy a machine tool site unseen.
 
I know that this is an unpopular opinion, but here goes:

Unless I can go and view that lathe, turning, and manipulate the feeds and QCGB as well as run it in all the speeds, I would run away.
I would never do an auction bid long distance. Auctions are where there a some good machines, but also where dead machines go to pasture (usually in someone's garage). I have a friend with a 1940s LeBlond 17" that will never turn again. He paid 3K$ for it.

Ipersonally can't blow 1500$ on something that might take me a year or more to fix. Been there. Never again.

Kijiji finds that are needing TLC can be a different matter @RobinHood has had great luck, but he's got a fatastic eye, and he actually doesn't mind the fixing up...
 
Looking more at those lathes I would agree with @Dabbler - those are being auctioned by a school - unless you go there and see it - oh man... that whole caveat emptor comes into play. My lathe was a lot of fixing up - it was fun for me but not something for everybody. I learned a lot and that project phase is over - time to use the machine for its intended purpose....TO TAKE OVER THE WORL........... hahahaha ...
 
To take the conversation in a different direction slightly, in the Hamilton listing I noticed two SM 1334’s, that I can only assume will be auctioned off shortly. How do these compare to the SM 13” Series 2000. In the manuals it has the 1334 as a slightly longer and heavy lathe but is it more capable in some way? Also @Dabbler I know where you’re coming from with the no inspection, I guess my thought process was if you can get it cheap enough and leave some capital to fix it. What could be soo messed up you’d have to write the lathe off?
 
One difference I know is that the 2000 series uses a "half nut" for threading whereas the later models use "half nuts". There are a couple of control differences, lead screw fwd/rev, and the apron feeds are reworked but would these affect the hobby guy, probably not.
 
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