[TheForge] Fw: Auction Block was Cranes

Mon Mar 16 21:22:44 EDT 2009

Its interesting to me how regional this is- up here, where I live, we  
are seeing virtually NO auctions.  Maybe one, every six months, in a 3  
or 4 state area, with any decent machine shop equipment. I watch the  
ads, and the amount in California, which has, for at least ten years  
now, been the big growth area for machining and manufacturing- well,  
the number of auctions in California is about the same today, as it  
was when I lived there in the early 90's.

So this liquidation of industry is happening in some parts of the  
country, but not in others.

Generally speaking, the manufacturing companies on the west coast are  
young, with modern equipment, and most are holding their own, or at  
least not going out of business at a frantic rate.
Boeing, for instance, still exports something like 50 billion a year  
in planes, and most of their equipment these days is quite new- so  
there is very little ex Boeing equipment hitting the market these  
days. In LA, there are literally hundreds of small to medium sized CNC  
machine shops, and every month, 2 or 3 go under, but thats about the  
normal pace for the last 20 years.

Of course, aside from NOMMI in the bay area, we have no auto  
manufacturing out here. We do a fair amount for export where I live- a  
lot of boats, for example. The small boatyard down the road from me  
just hired a couple of guys, as they have an order for a few boats  
from Saudi Arabia. The big boatyard in Anacortes has been building oil  
response tugs for Alaska. All of these types of companies are buying,  
not selling, equipment, so for a good 1500 miles from me, there is  
very little used for sale, and almost no auctions.

Really, these days, the USA is 5 or 7 micro economies, and they all  
act differently. Real estate is hardly down at all around here, except  
for the overbuilt suburbs an hour out, which nobody really wants to  
live in anyway- and they are only down 5% or 10%. No deals to be had  
up here. Used cars are still expensive, there are still the occasional  
help wanted signs, and the welding supply and steelyard both tell me  
business is not down much, if at all...

Ries

On Mar 16, 2009, at 6:14 PM, David E. Smucker wrote:

What is scary now it the level of top flight equipment -- less the 5  
years
old being auction off as whole shops go under.  Lot of items look like  
they
are companies that supported auto manufacture.  Almost all of these are
major CNC machines.

Back 15 years ago I used to work with a first class shop in Ohio called
"Service Guide"  over the years they had bought all kinds of major  
machine
tools at sales like these in tough time at pennies on the dollar.  The  
owner
would just salt them away in a warehouse he had.  Then he had two first
class machine rebuilders working in his shop putting them back into  
better
than new service.  I think he had more that 10 Gray Boring mills  -- the
really big ones.  He had so many machine tools that each machinist had  
his
own, lathe or boring mill.  No one else used it -- so if they had a  
problem
with the machine they knew how and why it happen.  This gave him the
limitation that he only ran his machine tools one 10 hour shift per  
day --
but he sure had a happy crew.  He did run two shifts of welders and  
ran his
furnaces 3 shifts.  Most of his business was rebuilding rolling mill
equipment for major mills in steel and aluminum.

Andy,  They are still going strong it looks like -- check out this URL

http://www.serviceguideinc.com/cohistory.htm

You will love their list of machine tools

Dave

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Andrew Vida" <osan at netlabs.net>
Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 8:36 PM
To: "Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Fw:  Cranes

>
>
> David E. Smucker wrote:
>> Andy,  What we can afford and what we would like to have are two
>> different
>> things.  No matter how rich, having a bridge crane that travels  
>> outside
>> of
>> the building makes little sense unless you are in a business that
>> requires
>> it.  Nothing Terry has said seems to show that.  Sealing up a  
>> building
>> end
>> wall in northern Illinois winters is not easy -- I know what -20 F is
>> like.
>
> I wasn't speaking to practical need, just to what would be nice.
>
>> Lots and lots of stuff going on the auction block every day now.  I  
>> get
>> several notices a week of major equipment auctions.  Should be able  
>> to
>> find
>> a lot of fork lifts for sale in the Midwest.
>
> Ever wonder where they are going? :)
>
> About 10-12 years ago just about all the old Pratt & Whitney hydraulic
> rifling machines quietly left US shores for... that's right!  Mexico!
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Ries Niemi
Industrial Artist
http://www.riesniemi.com/