New (old) Tools

[Mike Henderson]

Some of you may have seen my thread earlier asking about drum sanders. After hearing your advice, I started researching drum sanders and found that a new one would be fairly expensive. So I turned to Craigslist. I set up a few RSS feeds for different searches and last night got a hit.

A guy only about three miles from me was selling four tools, including a Jet 16-32 Plus drum sander. The price was pretty good, so I called him immediately - his ad had only been up three hours. I went over to see the tools (about 9pm), but he wouldn't break the group - it was buy all four or none. So I bought all four. Today, I rented a lift gate truck and picked up the tools. So here's what I got.

The Jet 16-32 Plus
307979

An 8" jointer with helical cutting head. The brand is "Pioneer" which I never heard of but it seems to be a decent jointer.

307978
307981

A Rikon disk and belt sander in rough shape. May not be working.

307980

And an older 2HP dust collector. I have no need for this since I have a dust collector in my shop already so I'll try to sell it. Everything else, I plan to keep.

307982

We ran everything except the Rikon sander so at least I know the motors are good. It was a good thing I went over to his place that night because the next day when I went to pick up the stuff, he told me that people were calling and offering him more than he asked for - more than I paid him.

So what did all this cost me??? $500. I think that's a pretty good, especially for the Jet drum sander and the jointer.

Mike

[Vijay Kumar]

You !!! Congratulations what a gloat.

[Rich Greinert]

Nice gloat Mike! I paid that much last year just for a used 16-32 drum sander with stand. You do indeed suck! Good score.

[Mike Schuch]

$500 is a pretty good price on an 8" jointer with a spiral head alone... the others are just.... well.... you suck! :)

[Matt Day]

Whoa! Great deal for sure! How long did it take you to say that you'll buy all 3 when he told you the price? About 2 seconds?

Nice haul for sure.

[Frederick Skelly]

Great gloat Mike! You sure got your moneys worth. Good on ya!

[Rich Riddle]

If you look at the manual and pictures of a Jet jointer JJ-8, it will be identical to the jointer you purchased. All those Asian clones seem to come from the same factory. I have restored two of them for friends and ordered Jet parts as needed in the replacement (if cheaper parts weren't available).

[John A langley]

Mark you seem to be able to put your hands in a can of trash come up with diamonds good job

[Barry Richardson]

Great score! I would have taken the whole lot too!

[Cary Falk]

Pioneer is the house brand of Western Tool Supply. Or I guess they used to be. I only see Jet and PM listed on their site now. Grizzly parts will probably fit it if the need arises.

[Mike Henderson]

Thanks for your notes, everyone. And especially thanks for the pointers to a manual that will work for the jointer and to where to get spare parts.

Just a bit more to the story. I noticed the Craigslist ad late in the day and sent a text to the guy. The ad had only been up 3 hours. He replied and told me that if I was interested, I had better come over immediately because he had a buyer coming in the morning and as far as he was concerned, first cash got the stuff.

When I told my wife that I was going to some guy's house at 9 in the evening she was not happy. She told me to leave all my money and credit cards at home, but of course, I couldn't leave the money if I expected to buy the stuff. So I drove to the guy's house, it was in a nice subdivision and the guy was a doctor. He had just bought a combo jointer/planer and planned to buy a bigger sander - so he wanted to get rid of the stuff.

We spent quite a bit of time talking, as woodworkers do - my wife eventually called me to make sure I was okay. But all was good, we did the deal and I picked up the stuff the next day. So I got some tools and made a friend. Not a bad evening.

Mike

[Steve Mathews]

Dittos on the good deal and better yet, thanks for a good story. Enjoy your new tools and new friend.

[Mike Henderson]

Thought I'd update everyone on these tools.

I have the jointer and drum sander set up in my shop now - both electrical and dust collection. I'm still waiting for sandpaper for the drum sander but I've used it with the sandpaper that was on it. They're both very nice tools. The jointer is especially appreciated. Up to this point, I did all my jointing and flattening by hand - but it's very nice to be able to walk over to the jointer and get the job done in seconds.

The drum sander is also nice but it's fairly slow. I do appreciate the ability to get a panel sanded flat.

I have the dust collector and the disk and belt sander listed on Craigslist - and the dust collector also listed on eBay. The dust collector is not the modern style that most people want today (with the filter cartridge) but for someone getting started it should be quite useful for the price. The disk and belt sander is nice but I just don't have room for it and it duplicates function with another sanding tool I have.

If they don't sell at the prices I listed them for, I'll just slowly drop the prices until they do sell. There's always a price that will sell.

Mike