Shran
Junk Collector
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I did a 2 hour long machinist rain dance around my 60s vintage Atlas (Craftsman) before I bought it. It had barely any time on it and just needed cleaning.
Beware, tooling IS valuable when compiled together in one place. Bare machines are NOT. I don't mean just piles of cutters and a steady rest. If it has a slotting attachment, work light, milling attachment, knurling tools, various different centers, dogs, 3, 4, and even 5 or 6 jaw buck chucks WITH both jaw sets for each, etc. . . Lots of variety, thats what makes a machine/tooling lot valuable. Besides condition anyway.
I bought a South Bend 9A last year and have been pretty frustrated with the lack of tooling I have for it. Every piece is like $2-300. Buying one with a bunch of stuff is definitely a must. People like to split them up though! I watch auctions quite a bit and it seems like every time machine shop stuff comes up for sale, it's split up into different lots, and often it's obviosly done intentionally so that you have to bid on multiple lots to get a complete thing. Lathe by itself and the tool holder in a separate lot, and the steady rest & tailstock in a 3rd lot... ahh don't even get me started.
What model Atlas/Craftsman lathe do you have? I picked up this little fella a while back, sold it right away because I was afraid of breaking it on bigger stuff but it would have been OK for really light duty use. I didn't have any of the change gears or anything with it either which was kind of a turn off. There is another one for sale on FB MP right now for $100, includes all the stuff, kind of tempting.