I came for the VFD and possibly a few StrongHold clamps. Turned out to be a weak auction so I left with those and more. For better (the VFD and StrongHold) or worse (everything else!).
A TECO L510 VFD, brand new still in box. Thank you very much:
Having won (interweb auction) the VFD I now had to drive 40 minutes to the auction site to pick it up. How to make that drive slightly more worthwhile? There were a few StrongHold clamps hidden in this lot, along with some Malco hand tools and proper Vise-Grip welding clamps. Plus chinesium stuff. So...don't mind if I do!
Several weeks ago I picked up some Dewalt cordless tools as a gift for my son (black friday) and part of the conversation was him looking for a corded circular saw. There was one in this lot, so...don't mind if I do! It's an Evolution "track saw", though the "track" is fairly interesting in that the track included with this saw came in several short pieces. Key word being "
short". Saw itself seems fairly decent and I don't believe it's ever made a cut. The auction lot also included an Evolution miter saw, which certainly looks and feels like a toy saw. Included were six brand new Evolution saw blades plus the two blades on the tools, so eight blades total. Blades go for $29 each retail. Got the entire lot for less than the cost of one new blade. Plus it came with a wheeled carry bag? Weird auction. I've owned an Evolution cold metal saw for quite a few years and I lke it, it has served me well. Had I not owned that saw I doubt I would have bid on these. The track/circular saw seems fairly well made. The small miter saw? I might need to play with that before passing it along.
After winning those three lots I got a little auction-stupid and instead of thinking "what else would be good to have" I think my brain shifted to "what else can I buy". There's certainly some value in these two following lots, but it's sort of suspect value. But when bids stagnate at less than $20 per lot? This one is metal working tools. Decent dial indicator stands. The rainbow set of 1/2" lathe cutting tools alone goes for about $400 new at MSC and only three of them have ever been used. There's another set of C2 and C6 lathe cutting tools. I do like the set of orange painted cold chisels/drifts/punches in the wood display and I can use the "Bridgeport" hold down set just above it (dark, hard to make out, top row just left of center). It's labeled Bridgeport but I'm not positive it's authentic. Still, there is value. There's a set of never used reamers, and in the large wood box an unused set of "adjustable reamers" still wrapped in plastic. Adjustable? Anyone ever use an adjustable reamer? There's a boxed tramming jig in the top right corner of the photo. I can put some to use but some of it may get passed along. I'm a "hobbyist-fabricator", not a machinist, so I don't always need accurate-accurate.
And lastly, abrasives. Some ** grit flapwheels, some diamond. Not sure of the quality of these products, I don't recognize most of the branding, I'd venture a lot of this seems to be harbor freight. But if I get some use out of them, terrific.
Auction was online, pickup was at a private residence. Looked up the name of the tool owner after I got home, sadly he passed a few months ago. So this was an estate auction. Couple that with the "no advance preview" policy, so having to bid only based on auctioneer photos might have contributed to the low closing prices on these five lots.
All this for less than I've paid for a bottle of whisky. I'll take it. And maybe now go have a whisky! Cheers!