Places to look in Phoenix for tools

[Casey Carr]

Similar to Damon, I'll be travelling through the Phoenix/Tucson area this weekend and coming back through the weekend after. Even more important, I'll be pulling a trailer when I come back through the following weekend. My jointer is in sore need of a soul-mate, and I thought I'd look for a planer while in Phoenix. I plan on looking at AZ Hardwoods along with Timber Woodworking in Mesa. I'm not too set on what I get as long as it's quality. I like the way my Northfield jointer is built. Solid! So I was kind of leaning towards one of the older models. I've been looking at Powermatic 180's and 221's on ebay, but can't get anyone to answer questions on anything I'm interested in. I'd prefer single phase since I didn't think my jointer through well enough and only bought a 5hp phase converter, so not big enough to push a planer.

I'm fixing to have a fairly significant addition done to my house, and the only access into my back yard is through a narrow 36" gate. I'm most likely going to need to knock a section of block fencing down and build a new gate, so I need to start moving on this, and I've convinced the wife I can't do it without a planer! :) Can't have the back yard accessible from the street, might run into problems with my mastiff wondering out to the street!

So are there any other places to look for used equipment in either Tucson or Phoenix? Thanks for any leads!

[Rick Fisher]

I have a friend in Phoenix and am always jealous when I read Craigslist in his town.. it always seems full of gems.. Big city, rough economy .. I would check it out ..

[Casey Carr]

I've been scouring craigslist also, nothing that impresses me too much though. Really only looking for a planer, but might pick up a drill press while I'm at it. Haven't ever been happy with my shop fox. Can't get the runout even close to being acceptable. Not going out of my way for a drill press though.

[Jim Rimmer]

Drop the Wood Whisperer a note and see if he has any ideas. He lives in Phoenix area.

[Craig McCormick]

If your passing through on a weekend you better check the hours at Timber Woodworking. You might miss them.Azcraig

[Dwain Lambrigger]

Just let me warn you...I go through Timber on a monthly basis, and there are no bargins to be found there! That being said, I have never found anything that I needed badly enough to start bargaining. There is some good stuff there, unisaws, some nice drill presses and several RAS's. I have never seen anything by Northfield. I speak with the restore/repair guy there. He is very nice. I would walk around back and see a lot of old and out of shape stuff. If you have the ability to work on a piece of machinery, you may be able to find what you want, and they will sell that stuff as is.

AZ Hardwoods has some nice older tools as well. You will find a lot of powermatic, delta and some grizzly and shop fox mixed in. They know the value of the tools they sell and over price them anyway. There are currently a few good big planers on sale in Craigslist. Good luck!

I bid you safe travels.

[Damon Stathatos]

AZ Hardwoods...They know the value of the tools they sell and over price them anyway.

My general impression was that the prices he was throwing out were high as well and from the few examples I got, I figured that around 60% of his asking price would be more in line with 'my kind of deal.' I certainly wouldn't have been shy to offer such, or even lower (just to give myself some room) because he should know what they're worth to someone who's not a complete push-over. When you see his inventory of machines and the condition they're in, there's no reason to pay top dollar and a good (buyer's) deal is totally justified.

Make sure to leave a little room on your trailer for a bit of mesquite. I had always been curious about it and was buying it 'in the blind' (rough sawn) but was really happy with the graining once I finished out one of the boards. Perhaps someone else on this forum can direct you to a better source for the mesquite as I paid $8 bd ft (for shorts), however the measurements were fairly liberal so perhaps a bit less. I wasn't buying all that much of it so didn't even bother to haggle but I now think that I'd like to maybe start bringing some of it into the So Cal area and including it in with my current mix of woods.

Three rough sawn boards:
206548

Same as above, center board finished:
206549

Close-up of rough sawn grain:
206550

Close-up of finished grain:
206551

[Casey Carr]

Thanks guys, sounds like AZ hardwoods is defnitely worth the trip. See what shape some of the stuff is. I wouldn't balk at paying top dollar if they're in top condition, rebuilt and what not. In fact, right now that would be what I'd prefer. Another project is something I don't need, and if I could just find an older planer that worked without having to tinker with it, I'd pay for that privilege right now. And I'll already have another project building a mobile base for whatever I might end up with. Just have to see what's there and what he's willing to come down to. I'll call both places tomorrow and find out if they're open on Saturday. I'm hoping to get to the Phoenix area around 2-3pm tomorrow, so I will hopefully have a little bit of time. Just depends on how many stops we need to make for my 16 month old little girl!

Not too worried about coming back with any lumber. I make enough trips to SE Arizona I don't necessarily need to bring back any with me right now. Now if anyone knows of a place that sells clear grade Western Red Cedar at decent prices, I might bring some of that back with me.

[Paul Symchych]

I think you will be out of luck at both places as far as Saturday opening. both are M-F.

To add to what has already been said, AZ Hardwoods has a collection of serious iron at times but they seem to make no effort to "pretty" them up. I think they work, just aren't all cleaned up.
Timber's used stuff looks very nice and the stuff on the floor looks to have been gone through and cleaned up.

Az Hardwoods recently had some very nice mesquite.

[Joe Jensen]

Check Timber, some parts of the year they are open Sat and some parts of the year M-F only. I used to think it was Winters yes summers no, but I've been surprised in the past.

With Timber, nearly everything is on consignment and negociable. I bought a really nice MAX OSS from a school for $500. It was $900 on the tag. Asked Timber to call the owner and he said yes.

Craig's list is pretty good here especially for big stuff. there is a 12HP SCMI 24" planer that's been hanging on Craig's list for at least 6 months. Also, a ton of machines on Craig's List are from a repo consignment seller who I think is the brother of the owner of Timber. This place is called Arizona Hardwoods www.azhardwood.com/ Their prices are high too, but they have piles and piles of stuff. Something like 50-75 old Unisaws, big stuff, etc. Fun to look, but call first to make sure they are open.

Have fun and drive safe...joe

[Joe Jensen]

How big is your trailer? Here is an Oliver Stratoplaner, top and bottom cutters and separate feed motor, 100HP total :)

http://phoenix.craigslist.org/cph/tls/2571936854.html

[Casey Carr]

Thanks Joe, but I think I'll pass...I'd need a bigger trailer, not to mention garage. :eek:

I didn't actually get to either of them as they were closed today, but AZ Hardwoods would have been willing to let me in if I was interested in anything. Timber will be open on Saturday starting in October I guess. Called both on the way in and told them I was looking for a 18-20" planer. All AZ Hardwood had was the 12hp SCMI Joe mentioned, or was that Timber? Phone number matched one of the places anyways. He also had a grizzly, just not too interested in grizzly stuff. Haven't been too impressed with what I've seen. Maybe I'm not giving them enough of a chance, but I've seen a jointer first hand that had rather large pits in the casting and have a shop fox drill press that I can't bring within tolerance, so I'm staying away.

The guy at AZ Hardwood said to give him a call when coming back through as they get a lot of stuff all the time, so I'll do that. Maybe a Powermatic 180 or 221 will walk in between now and then.

I'll keep checking craigslist also. A few of them popped up in the last few days, so maybe I'll get lucky while I'm down here.

[Joe Jensen]

There is a big old rusty Newman 24" for sale $850 on Craig's List. I'm assuming you have a child at ASU or U of A?

[Casey Carr]

Heaven forbid I have a child that goes to ASU! My wife graduated from U of A and would most likely disown any child of ours that chooses ASU. No children of college age, my only one so far is 17 months and we were going back home to let the grandparents see the little girl.

No planer for me this trip. I called Timber and AZ Hardwoods, but nothing what I was interested in. Didn't actually go to either, and probably a good thing as the trailer I had most likely wouldn't have held the planer, and I know I would have tried! :)

There's a powermatic 221 on ebay right now listed at $3450 that looks really good. I just can't get the guy to answer any questions on it. If it's single phase, I'd probably jump on it, see if he'd let it go for $2500 or thereabouts. If I don't find one fairly quickly, I may just buy a new one. I don't have time to tinker with one to bring it back to life, I'd prefer a rebuilt one or at least working, and if that fails buy new. A lot of these are covered in rust, and if that's how they've treated them, scares me what else I'd be having to deal with.

[Chris Fournier]

Man if this was a skill testing question the results would be disappointing! Mesa is a short drive from Phoenix and St. James Bay Tools is located there. Very nice handplanes etc. I made the trip to visit this company while I was in Phoenix and it would have been worth it to walk there! If you like hand tools, you should drop by.

[Joe Jensen]

Heaven forbid I have a child that goes to ASU! My wife graduated from U of A and would most likely disown any child of ours that chooses ASU. No children of college age, my only one so far is 17 months and we were going back home to let the grandparents see the little girl.

No planer for me this trip. I called Timber and AZ Hardwoods, but nothing what I was interested in. Didn't actually go to either, and probably a good thing as the trailer I had most likely wouldn't have held the planer, and I know I would have tried! :)

There's a powermatic 221 on ebay right now listed at $3450 that looks really good. I just can't get the guy to answer any questions on it. If it's single phase, I'd probably jump on it, see if he'd let it go for $2500 or thereabouts. If I don't find one fairly quickly, I may just buy a new one. I don't have time to tinker with one to bring it back to life, I'd prefer a rebuilt one or at least working, and if that fails buy new. A lot of these are covered in rust, and if that's how they've treated them, scares me what else I'd be having to deal with.

Timber has had rebuilt PM planers with Byrd heads, but they are expensive. I think around $6-7K. before the recession they claimed to be selling several a year, but they had the same ones for a long time. Not sure if they are still there. I think the Byrd head alone is like $3K for the 24"