I can bid on a mill stand, refer to photo please, whichis basically useless, however, I am am wondering if I could cut chunks off this and use it for cast iron engine parts, particularly if it would be possible to machine cylinders or any other parts from this? There are also some parts that can be used on this, the table, the jack, the two screws. At the present bid (1$) it could be worth getting and taking to the scrap yard and simply selling it immediately. I would rather cut off chunks for engine parts tho'. If one were to buy this, how would one cut it up? Acetyline torch would not cut it would it? (I don't have one anyway). I have a plasma cutter, that should cut it at least in half an inch, maybe more. How about a cutter/grinder? would that be economical? time consuming? I have never cut cast with a grinder/cutter.
You would be far better off going to your local auto parts store, and asking them for used cast iron brake rotors. They are easier to break down for casting, very cheap or free, and small enough to transport in your car trunk, or (like me) in a motorcycle saddlebag. The local "AUTO-ZONE" store a mile from my house has forklift pallets loaded with them, and will let me take all I can carry. I discovered them when I was dropping off oil for recycling, and noticed the pallets loaded with brake discs. They are all made from very nice cast iron.
A story about a big thing, and good intentions. I have a very nice Onsrud Broken Arm Router, that has 2 arms that unfold out to 15 feet. It was an ultraprecise machine, that has NO PLAY at all, when the arms are fully extended. When new, it probably cost $80,000, in 1965. Todays price would probably be $900,000. It was used to fabricate large aircraft parts out of aluminum, following a master pattern. With CNC machines, these routers have no function today. I bought it for $100 when the Learjet factory I worked at declared it redundant and sold it, and a lot of other equipment, off. Their tradition was always to offer to employees first, which was very nice of them. None of the employees wanted it, and I bought it at the public auction sale, after there were no bids at all for it, and they said it would be cut up for scrap. I hated to see such a find machine destroyed, so I bought it. The policy now (with new ownership) is to bring in an outside industrial liquidator firm, and employees don't even get a chance. .In any case, it cost me $300 to transport it to my backyard, where it has sat ever since. (It was moved by ASR Transport in Tucson. (They are the same people who move the "RENO" the oldest privately owned steam locomotive in the U.S. which is used in about every western film ever made, and the men there joked that it spends more time on a semi truck being driven up and down the I-10 freeway for movement to filming locations than it ever spent on the rails) the owner of which was attending the auction to offer his services as a transport company to auction buyers., and who happened to be standing next to me and overheard my comment about it being too nice a machine to be destroyed, and said he would give me a cheap price on moving it, since I was just a worker, and it was local. I thought it would be good for boatbuilding or making large furniture. Now I want to get rid of it, and the fuel to take it down to be scrapped will barely be covered by the price paid for it as scrap, with the labor of loading it not included. I figure if I back my pickup truck up to it, and unbolt one part at a time, the truck can carry it in several trips to the local scrapyard. It is probably somewhere around 6000 lbs weight at a minimum, probably more. By the time I get rid of it, I will be sorry I ever bothered trying to save it. I am going to make one last attempt to sell it, and then I am done with it. The moral is, don't buy big things unless you have a real plan for them.
