Is Government Liquidation contractually required to be brain dead?

Could be the military's fault, rather than GL's. Also, to my untrained eye, the damage looks not so bad. I would at least visit the facility and have a close look. I do agree with your general point though, it is sad what they do with our tax dollars...

i

Ignoramus15109 wrote: > Could be the military's fault, rather than GL's. Also, to my untrained

True, the bright orange rust looks both recent and shallow. How much work would it have been to spray/wipe/brush almost anything oily onto the shiny parts and preserve the value?

Maybe I'm just P. O.'d because GovLiq 'misplaced' the 25 HP generator I got a really good price on.

Not, that is quite outrageous! I would be PO'd to no end.

They did misplace a little item from one lot once, but were apologetic and gave me something else. On other occasions, they kept an oscilloscope that they forgot to give me, for half a year until I came back again, and gave it to me, and same happened with some airctaft parts. In both instances I was unaware that anything was missing. They would simply say, Igor, we forgot to give you this.

Could depend on local people also.

i

Iggy------

Rust------*any rust*------is extremely damaging to precision machine tools. It's just a matter of degree of damage, and what an individual is willing to tolerate. Rust destroys precision surfaces by uneven erosion and pitting. While a machine can be returned to operating condition, it can almost never be returned to a precision condition without a complete rebuild---including replacement of precision bearings and gears when moisture has penetrated gear boxes. The EE in question has likely been reduced to scrap iron, thanks to the wisdom of storing machines outside instead of protecting them in a warehouse. My experience in following the government surplus market indicates the government is responsible, not the auctioneer, although they do little to prevent damage.

It borders on criminal the way government surplus machines and handled------the EE is no exception, just another example.

Harold

Makes no difference. If there's rust, precision surface has been sacrificed. Further, unless the bright orange you speak of can be wiped off with a rag, leaving no trace, damage *has* occurred. As I said, it's just a matter of degree, and what you're willing to tolerate. It could all be avoided so easily!

Harold

That was my thinking, Harold. And it galls me even more that this machine wasn't some piece of junk, it was one of the most highly regarded models out there. 'Criminal' is not too strong a word IMHO.

Aside from wanting one of those fine old lovelies, that is your and my tax money rusting away there.

"Fred R" wrote in

Tales from the Nevada Test Site:

They keep a ten year supply of boots on hand at all times. The shelf life of the boots is three years.

They get new BIG roller cabinets of Snap-On tools every year. The old ones are buried in on site landfills.

Many things are never allowed to leave the boundaries of NTS once they go in. No matter if they are clear of all radiation or contamination. If they have been used to work on any equipment at NTS, they are ............

Landfill!

And starting off, they don't buy no junk. Everything is high dollar top of the line state of the art latest model.

Steve

Harold... Suppose that a chump like me buys this Monarch. Suppose that I clean rust by using, say, abrasive pads. Surely, some precision would be lost. But would I not be able to still use the lathe, at reduced precision?

For the record, I agree, there is a lot of waste. Just today I threw away about $5,000 worth (original cost) of military surplus equipment. Some low pass filters and a HP extender module. That number is not really a proof of waste, but I cannot help but reflect on this.

I sold a RG213 cable to someone for $40 today, it cost the govt $258 and the package was never opened.

i

I can just see the future archaeologists, discussing the "ritual objects" and their annual sacrifice, speculating on the rites that went along with it. jk

rebuild---including

First, I don't consider you a chump.

Yes, the machine could be made to run, which is what I stated, but running, and running properly, should not be confused. Knowing of your prowess with mathematics, just imagine a formula that doesn't balance------to the person that doesn't understand the ramifications, it may appear to be fine----but you---with your understanding, realize that something is amiss. That's the way it is with machine tools when you understand them well. All too many people are content to have a machine that will make chips-----which is *not* a measure of a machine's ability to make parts. As your skill level improved, you'd likely struggle endlessly with a rusted machine like the EE in question. Precision machine tools aren't like a plow. Rust hurts them.

Chuckle!

A few years back, I bid on a pallet of things from the local Army base. Included were surplus parts from the naval base nearby. There were a couple large stainless rod ends in the lot, with an original cost to the government of just over $1,000 each. They were new, one still sealed in the package. I sold them on ebay for a grand total of $22.

If you knew how the government deals with inventory, and how good and useful items are sold as surplus so other items that are needed immediately can be purchased (inventory cap), you'd throw up. I've seen assemblies worth $25,000 sold for scrap, well less than one cent on the dollar, only to be resold to the government when the need arose again. The system is badly broken.

Harold

I think that I agree completely. The machine could be made good for a non-demanding "hobbyist", but it would never work to spec, that's what you are saying.

Quite sad... My biggest gripe is this. They write off perfectly good things, by falsely labeling them unusable or broken, so that they get new toys to play with and that their allowance for new stuff is not reduced. So, a lot of things sold by GL that are marked "broken beyond repair" usually work right out of the box or after trivial repairs (like that drill that had carbon dust and needed a good compressed air blow).

The nice thing about these sorts of items is that they usually are sold at a big discount. So, I bid on them knowing that it is a gamble, but in fact it is a gamble with the expectation of making money, the best sort of gambling (and the mist addictive).

Harold, I sell thousands of $$ of military surplus stuff per month. As an extra income. I know what you are talking about. It is quite disturbing what's going on.

I do not really know how to fix it, but if they did fix it, it would save enough money to hire thousands more soldiers to go to Iraq and maybe change things for the better.

Next week (if I get approvals) I will go and pick up stuff that cost the government approximately $176,000, purchased by me for 0.3 CENTS on the dollar. I expect that all of those things would in fact perform as intended, maybe I get 1-2 cents on the dollar for them when I resell them. $176,000 is probably close to what an average taxpayer paid in federal taxes for 10-20 years of his life.

It could have been worse, the system is not great, but it could be much worse. This stuff could be stolen or end up in landfills. At least it continues useful life and ends in people's garages and home labs and such, at very affordable cost. That's a good thing about it.

i

Maybe the government should try keeping things inside and listing them on ebay. It would have been better than this disgrace. ARRGH!

Wes S

You forget - anything "government" is required, by default, to be brain dead.

*** Free account sponsored by SecureIX.com *** *** Encrypt your Internet usage with a free VPN account from ***

Well, abrasive pads, no, but it CAN be fixed. I rebuilt a Sheldon 15" lathe (R15-6) which is in the same class of extremely high quality toolroom lathe. It was a total bear due to the hardness of the bed ways, but I came up with a technique that allowed me to restore the bed to better than new accuracy. (I didn't have to contend with rust, rather it was wear on one of the ways.)

I had to come up with some special instruments to do it, however. The Sheldon has a 6 FOOT long bed, so a 2' straightedge wouldn't do the job. Grinding of the bed on a large surface grinder would be the simplest way to restore that EE. But, rigging a toolpost grinder to the tailstock ways and towing it down the bed with a small gear motor and wire would be a major step to a good surface. That's what I did as my first approximation, and it got the wear down from .013" to .003" over 6 feet.

The Sheldon is now a truly fine machine, and more accurate and rigid than anything I've ever used.

Jon

That's very nice. Pretty creative use of a toolpost grinder. I will keep an eye on that auction to see what the lathe sells for. Another Monarch sold for 2k here in IL, a couple of years ago.

i

For the other end of the spectrum, look at eBay Item number: 7593268376

Drool.

I used to buy quite a bit from govt before the online stuff started happening.

I bought 4 2.5 ton trucks. average about 450 a piece.

All of the really good trucks went to the surrounding states forestry departments who would sell them in 6 months as a money raiser.

If they had flats or dead batteries the foresty departments would pass.

All 4 trucks ran fine. One had just come from rebuild. I asked the drmo guys what was up.

They said when a duece and a half went down it would go for repair and off of the units books. they would then order a new model.

When it had been repaired the unit would not accept it back. It would then sit on the lot for the next year waiting for paperwork so it could be sold. If it had flats or bad batteries during that time, I would get it cheap. It cost me about 60 bucks to go get them and tow them home.

But internet sales really jacked the prices up.

I have a problem in trusing that eBay seller. They have a tendency to call most everything "from government reserve" and to put on fresh paint. I've had suspicions that both are more marketing techniques than anything else. On the other hand the replacement drive (Sabina) is the one that the government used in rebuilds in the 80's, so it could be part of that program at one time. I note that they don't claim this one to be from reserve.

On the original topic the DRMO has a tendency to put pallets of plastic chairs under cover to protect them and to leave machine tools out in the rain (as shown in the original link), so when someone asked me to look at a 10EE at the local auction I wasn't expecting much. Here's a link:

This was, bar none, the best 10EE I've seen, and I spent 2 years rebuilding one. It was fresh from a government rebuild program done in

1994 where it was placed on a pallet, the tooling and a stepup transformer strapped to the pallet and the whole thing coated with LPS3 or the like. Stored in dry storage since, best I could tell. The only ruse seems to be a recent flash rust on the compound slide, something that a minute and 000 wool and oil would take care of. Only the fromt way cover on the cross slide was missing. The ways were mirror finished, better than my freshly ground ways; new drive but done right and with a nice digital tach on the controls. Inch/metric and everything felt right, backgear movement was nice so the dogs were not chewed up.

If I hadn't promised not to bid (and didn't have a rebuilt 10EE in the shop already) I would have been tempted. Really tempted. Defintely a real find.