Whats a fair offer?

[Steviestevo]

Evening guys,

I’ll start off by saying I’m an electrical engineer by trade.

I’ve been looking for a cheap ish bench lathe for about a year or so now. Nothing fancy, not looking for aerospace tolerances or anything, just something I can turn on, do a bit of light work to, turn off and call it a day.

This morning, a lad I work with comes to me rather sheepishly and tells me he’s got a lathe for sale. It’s one of these Clarke 300mm lathes.

I know they’re not the best on the market, but quite frankly this’ll be used to make my life a tiny bit easier for fittings when I’m welding, the kind of things I can’t do in a drill press or with a grinder.

Definitely interested.

He then proceeds to tell me that when using it over the weekend he blew something and the electronics cut out. Showed me a picture and yep… that circuit board is crispy.

Everything else is apparently fine (I have yet to check and obviously will do before I part with any money) but apparently Clarke/Machine Mart have quoted $$$ for replacement parts.

Obviously given my background some fried electronics isn’t too big a deal; I’ve got spare motors, control boards, switching supplies etc. so I can easily jerryrig a solution.

He’s asked that if I’m interested (which I certainly am) I should let him know a sensible offer as and when.

Assuming everything else works and it’s just the electronics that are fried, what would you guys say the lathe is worth in its condition? Obviously don’t want to insult the guy or make him feel like I’ve ripped him off given I have to work quite closely with him five days a week.

 

[Barking Mat]

Couple of hundred quid ?

 

[addjunkie]

Couple of hundred quid ?

Less its broke

 

[Kram]

Do you mean the tiny one, under 40kg, this type of thing? 7 inch swing. Do you have pictures of it?

Clarke CL300M Variable Speed Metal Lathe - Machine Mart

www.machinemart.co.uk

They are much smaller than the photo suggests. I can pick them up one handed. Good work can be done on them but it will be extremely limiting.

I suggest you get one a bit bigger. Mine is a 10" swing at 120kg, are still on the small side but will do most work without issue. It perfectly fits my maximum available space, so couldnt go bigger if I wanted to. I paid the new premium price as there were no used ones around.

Ofcourse if you have space, you can get a lot more lathe for the money, something like a Harrison L5..

 

[Steviestevo]

Do you mean the tiny one, under 40kg, this type of thing? 7 inch swing. Do you have pictures of it?

Clarke CL300M Variable Speed Metal Lathe - Machine Mart

www.machinemart.co.uk

They are much smaller than the photo suggests. I can pick them up one handed. Good work can be done on them but it will be extremely limiting.

I suggest you get one a bit bigger. Mine is a 10" swing at 120kg, are still on the small side but will do most work without issue. It perfectly fits my maximum available space, so couldnt go bigger if I wanted to. I paid the new premium price as there were no used ones around.

Ofcourse if you have space, you can get a lot more lathe for the money, something like a Harrison L5..

Yes it is that one.

As much as I’d love a bigger lathe my workshop is crowded as it is. This is probably the largest I could do at the moment.

 

[Steviestevo]

Less its broke

Any ideas? £100? Less? More?

 

[gaz1]

its scrap value so

50-100 and thats it

 

[dan treg]

have a look on ebay completed listings . the ones i saw were all a lot more than 100 or 200 pounds though but they were working ones

 

[m_c]

Is it somebody you know well?

I'd probably offer a couple hundred, but the speed control on lots of these size lathes isn't the best. It has been changed over the years, and generally improved, but I'd probably be looking to upgrade it to a better setup.

 

[gaz1]

have a look on ebay completed listings . the ones i saw were all a lot more than 100 or 200 pounds though but they were working ones

lol ebay and facebook are from many people thinking they have something worth selling even if its broken

 

[Erie Fred]

Is it just the lathe ? or is there some tools & work holding that goes with it ?

 

[Steviestevo]

Is it just the lathe ? or is there some tools & work holding that goes with it ?

Just the lathe.

I do have a fair bit of lathe tooling that came with a mill I bought about 18 months ago
not really sure why, it’s just sat in a drawer. But he doesn’t need to know that.

Is it somebody you know well?

I'd probably offer a couple hundred, but the speed control on lots of these size lathes isn't the best. It has been changed over the years, and generally improved, but I'd probably be looking to upgrade it to a better setup.

Like I say I work with him pretty closely. I’ve known him for about 10 years, doubt he’d lie to me about the condition when asked point blank but obviously haven’t seen the lathe firsthand.

 

[jimbo84]

I'd offer £100 as a start ( I like a bargain).

IMO if people ask for and are open to offers then they shouldn't really be offended at any offer, if they get offended then they have a price in mind and should state offers around £xxx, anyway I ramble.

They're not bad little lathes and can be tweaked to improve them massively, plenty of people on youtube that mod them, there's a member on here who makes some very good stuff with theirs, I can't remember who it is though to tag them.

As was said to me on here a number of years ago when looking for a lathe, any lathe is better than no lathe.

It's been mentioned by other members but look at sold listings on ebay for spares or repairs ones for a good idea of what they go for.

 

[slimjim]

£100,
Don’t bother fixing the electronics, either get a separate voltage controller, or a small 3 phase and VFD,

I had one several years ago, but as I have a boxford, I gave it to a friend

 

[minimutly]

its scrap value so

50-100 and thats it

Scrap value? Explain? Ok, I see the circuit board is fried, but it only needs a motor and vsd. But, why buy a modern lathe that only cuts imperial threads?

 

[Beeezer]

Got a Drummond here no motor plenty of bits with it.

 

[Jack_K]

I do have a fair bit of lathe tooling that came with a mill I bought about 18 months ago
not really sure why, it’s just sat in a drawer. But he doesn’t need to know that.

Does your tooling fit that lathe?

 

[northwest]

A hundred pounds and that would be my lot. You are going to have to fix it which is not going to be cheap if you do it properly and by the time you are finished you could quite easily have in the project what a working example would have cost you if not more. Sometimes getting something "cheap" could quite easily end up costing more than just buying one. I am sure there are plenty of people on here who can relate to that.

 

[addjunkie]

Another point ….they are very small. What do you want to turn? And how big is it?

 

[8ob]

He’s asked that if I’m interested (which I certainly am) I should let him know a sensible offer as and when.

Assuming everything else works and it’s just the electronics that are fried, what would you guys say the lathe is worth in its condition? Obviously don’t want to insult the guy or make him feel like I’ve ripped him off given I have to work quite closely with him five days a week.

I would pass on this and jump inevitable three stages and buy a proper lathe. Being a latheist is a bit addictive. always leaves you wishing you had bought something better. Save the pennies and buy the best you can afford.

Bob