hiring someone to sell equipment

Yep. The US is a great industrial giant.

OK, great.

Are you sure of this? I was able to sell flat belt pullies (40" in diameter) for a pretty nice price.

Absolutely! I'm aligned with Jon's intent, too. We all just wait for our lotto to come in. (My neighbor just won $110 on a $12 scratcher investment. Last month it was $900+, and a few hundred the month before. She's quite lucky.)

I was just commenting on the ironic humor of it all, which I love.

Perhaps. But if so, why does Gunner make his living decommissioning (and you hauling off) the dregs of so many failed businesses? Sad, it is.

The BP is my pride and Joy! 3-ph, 2hp. variable speed. Pretty complete R-8 tooling, XY DRO, power x. One shot oiler. Like new, not a scratch (almost)

At one time the shafts were driven by a one cylinder natural gas engine.

I don't know if any are that big. I do have a step pully, I bet that's odd.

I wonder if the owners know he does this or do they just show up one morning to a clean shop?

Ouch! Some friend you are. ;)

Yup. We've been watching.

Although I have a contractor's license (which I'm letting lapse next year when I fully retire) the largest jobs I've done have been porches and decks. Now, in semi-retirement, I'm doing only smaller jobs. It's averaging 3 hours a week, but this week will be heavy, maybe 6. That will pick up in Spring, but I'm happy with a few small jobs. This retirement stuff is FUN! By Crom, I may get organized and decluttered yet!

Oh, bull. We know it was run on methane from the old Gardner fart running that shop.

Are you the "Home and Garden Handyman"?

How did you know? The employees used to lovingly call my sweet father "Put-Put"...and it wasn't for his golf game. He said one advantage of being over 80 is he never had to hold a toot!

The asian tiger lost it's teeth over the last year, so it's appetite for American scrap has declined significantly.

But if a hobyist (or 2) was at the same auction you wouldn't get it either. I've seen "home shop compatible" equipment bir up to almost new list at auctions in my area. There is a local auction place that sells fleet vehicles, banctrupt business eqipment and stock, recovered goods from the PD, equipment from local school boards etc - and very little machine tool equipment goes cheap.

I was once at an auction for a machine shop that closed in NC. I had resear ched the price for a Lincoln tig welder that was there, and looked to be in good condition. Myself and two other guys bid for it, and it kept going up . The guy that got it paid more than the new list price. When I left he wa s standing next to it, wiping the dust off the top with an ear to ear smile . I thought,"What a wailing dumbass". Was my last auction, as I'd seen sim ilar things happen to many times. Just my .02 on auctions.

I was suprised that most of the stuff at the not quite local steel yard is domestic. The story was the really low grade scrap goes to china, the better stuff stays here for remelting.

That's me, until Oct 2016. But I'm in semi-retirement mode, accepting only those jobs I wish to take.

Not sure about other people.

As for myself, I feel very good about the industrial potential and future of the United States.

The churn in businesses, bankrupting of badly managed or obsolete companies, and competition, is what keeps America great.