About a month or so ago I was looking for an 8" jointer and happened to find one on Craigslist. I called and the gentlemen said he still had it and we made plans to have me come look at it. I knew that if it was as good as the pics I was going to buy it. He only wanted $450 for it and that was the lowest price 8" jointer I had ever seen on CL. So my friend Derrick and I went up to meet with Harvey the next Saturday. When we got there the jointer was exactly as described and I bought it. But the amazing thing was that Harvey had a lathe sitting in the corner that was huge. Derrick saw it first and immediately jumped on it and asked Harvey if he was going to sell it as well. He said yes but I was expecting to hear and enormous price. But true to Harvey's nature as we have come to know him he told Derrick he could have the lathe for $450 the same price as the jointerSo he immediate said he would take it but that he needed to send the money to Harvey over the next couple of weeks.
Harvey said no problem and come and get it when you want. So over the next several weeks Derrick has sent Harvey money to pay off the lathe. Derrick works as a tree guy and his work is very schedule isn't consistent which is why he had to send Harvey payments. So today was the day to go pickup the lathe. We got there and Harvey had already taken it all apart and we started lugging the assorted parts up the basement stairs to my pickup. Everything was very manageable until we got to the lathe bed. This thing is almost 6 feet long and solid cast iron. It took all three of us to get it up the basement stairs. Harvey is 83 years old but if you saw him you would think he was significantly younger and he is a big man who is stronger than most men half his age.
So long story short we got it all out of the basement and loaded into my pickup. Then we discussed all of the hardwood he had as we had talked about buying all of that as well. He had yet to give us a price but I figured it was going to be way more than we could afford. But once again Harvey surprised us and asked us if $250 was alright??? Before he could even finish I said SOLD! He has so much wood we couldn't take it all this trip. We did take a bunch of it today but only about a tenth of what he has. Maple, Oak, Mahoghany, Black Locust, Cherry, and some really exotic stuff that weighed a ton. I can't tell you how nice a guy Harvey is and it just blows my mind that he was so cordial and generous to two complete strangers when we first met. He told us he knew that the lathe was worth much more than what we paid but that he was much happier selling it to a couple of guy's that he truly enjoyed meeting and like and that he knew would appreciate and use the tools as much as he did.
A quick story about the lathe he told us today. He bought it from another guy who either worked for or knew someone at the Stanley Tools Works and the lathe was used only in the model making department at the Stanley Tools Works to make patterns for the castings they made their tools out of. I was so excited to hear that story and to know we had a lathe that could have had a hand in making the molds that later made some of the hand planes etc. that so many people covet today. We got it back to Derrick's new garage/shop and immediately set it up and checked everything out. It could easily start turning tomorrow if we plugged it in to a 220 outlet but Derrick wants to do some maintenance on it and clean it up a little bit before we start making chips with it. I don't know how much this lathe is really worth as I cannot find anything online anywhere about it. I did see a similar lathe made by the Oliver Company that was listed at $10,500 so it is somewhere in between $450-$10,500 I guess but I don't really care as it wasn't purchased to flip and make money with it will be put to work and hopefully some very nice turnings will be created with it. Thanks for reading this little story as it was an exciting day for both Derrick and myself although the lathe will live at Derrick's place I will have free access to use it and just knowing that is worth it and i wanted to share with the hardcore turners here because I know I will be asking more questions of the brain trust here as I am no turner but would very much like to get into doing lathe work and this tool is like having a Ferrari to turn with.
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Originally Posted by philip labre
