Leave Cali day 10

Getting ready for the riggers to haul away my 8000-pound Bostomatic mill, and Monarch lathe.

I bought this Bostomatic 14-40 3-spindle milling machine from a neighbor to my shop in Sunnyvale. I did a retrofit on the electronics. When I gave up the shop and moved to this house, I brought the mill and put it in the side yard. I should have scrapped it back then. The guy that bought my Monarch 10EE lathe looked at this machine, and said that even if it was not rusty, it was still scrap.

It's 1979 tech, with no tool-changer. The luster of multiple spindles also wore off decades ago. You can't get identical parts as the tools wear. Anyway, the guy that bought the lathe said the riggers would take this thing just for the scrap value. If I was not on a mission to get moved, I would have taken off the encoders, the motors, and the maybe the ball-screws. That stuff is heavy and hard to ship, so I just scrapped it.

My mistake was to cover the machine in tarps. That traps moisture and lets it rust. The leaves just held moisture and helped the thing rust even faster. I think this thing is 10 feet tall. It would have been a bear to get the motors out.

That's a lube system on the right. It was another thing I might have saved. Oh well. . That top cover was so heavy, it was hard to lift. I guess they have gantry cranes at the factory. Here is the number plate. Adios my friend.

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I cleared the side yard to help the riggers get this thing out of the yard.

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The riggers that moved the milling machine here left 4x4s under the machine. It was a miracle they got it in the side yard to begin with. When they brought it in, they decided to use my neighbor's curb cut to get the machine onto the sidewalk. They then got it onto two narrow concrete strips that went to the side yard. The house's previous owner had laid concrete in the side yard, and put in the two strips of concrete, but Sunnyvale will not let a house have two curb cuts, I know, I asked. Even after the riggers got the machine on the concrete, there was maybe 3/8 of an inch where the fork truck tires were on the concrete. A true miracle my neighbor's curb cut did not crack, and that the narrow concrete strips didn't break up and strand the machine in the front yard.

The machine came with this 208-to-240 Volt transformer. It was necessary to run the spindle motor inverters at 240 volts. The nameplate on the GE transformer. I got the riggers to take this too. It was heavy and had a lot of copper, but I don't know if they got anything for it. Here is that lube unit again. I am sure it is worth something, but I didn't have time to sell.

One final look before the riggers arrive tomorrow. The mill was a dead loss, but this Monarch 10EE toolroom lathe sold for $4400 on Craigslist. I think it was three days to sell. I got the lathe on Dovebid for $1500.

It's a beautiful machine, but I just can't afford to move it to Florida. The lathe has a very good tool post setup. The mill had all these toolholders. I sold these on eBay. They are high-value and easy to ship in Post Office flat-rate boxes.

A close up of the toolholders.. There were in pretty good shape and they sold fast to a happy buyer. I took these pictures for the auction, so the buyer would know what to expect. He was very happy when he got the tool holders.

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There were a bunch of extra nuts I sold with the holders.
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There were also a handful of collets for the tool holders. These are always in demand. I don't remember selling these separate, I am pretty sure I included them with the tool holders. One nice thing about Post Office flat-rate boxes is that they have a 70-pound weight limit.

As I said, I suspected I really did not have that much time, even in March, if I wanted to move by December. I am glad I only sold a few items from the mill, and did not try to part it out.

Watching over auctions can be stressful, and if there is problems, it is hard to be moving across the country while still keeping the auction buyers happy. I did not want to risk my 100% feedback rating if I did not have to. As it was, the riggers showed up the next day and 15,000 pounds of machinery left my yard.

Leave Cali day 10

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