Too good to be true? Clausing 12x36 cheap in SF Bay area

It appears as though it has been deleted. Otherwise I would go for it in an instance. Currently we are making do with a Craftsman 12 inch metalworking lathe from the '50s. That is less than 20 minutes from where I live.

Ah, so it does. Probably a typo, the guy meant the price to be $2995 or something like that. Oh, well.

Even worse -- now he's running an auction! Claims he got 23 calls for it immediately and guys were throwing cash at him. Here's the current ad:

Doesn't seem to be the most ethical seller. I'd be wary.

Cash is still king!

I sure feel bad for the first guy that thought he was getting it at that price.

Jon

On Wed, 26 Oct 2005 23:34:36 -0700, with neither quill nor qualm, "Jon Danniken" quickly quoth:

I feel more pity for the greedy asshole selling it. Sucks to be him.

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More to the story: the "auction" post was flagged off by the Craigslist community -- terms of use specify no auctions. Good job, guys.

Next, here is a report from someone who says he saw it, and it's a wreck:

"BEWARE: I saw this lathe late last night. The ways are in very poor condition from years of heavy use and abuse. The chuck has made contact with the ways creating many dents, this apears to be from chuck removal. The chuck and material has made contact with the compound while in motion causing many gouges on all surfaces. The original compound was removed and replaced with a VERY sloppy replacement. There is considerable backlast from all movements and the variable speed hydrolic system has

3 leaks I can detect which caused the lathe to not be capable of holding a steady rpm. There is next to no tooling with this lathe and the owner plays dumb like he knows nothing about his lathe. Anyone that plays dumb about a lathe they own makes me feel they are trying to hide something. This is the reason I really looked over this lathe last night. This is a very good parts lathe so for 299.00 (the price it was offered for) I decided I would buy it and use the parts on my other lathe. This is the point when he told me he had so many offers that he would have to hold off on selling me the lathe and accept offers. I had showed up with a truck, trailer and rigging to move the lathe and he wouldnt sell me the lathe. I wont go back as I wont play this game. As a parts lathe this is a good lathe however the cost to repair a clausing 5914 to a usable state is to high to pay what he is now seeking. I also dont like his bait and switch tactics so I had to let others know what is going on with this lathe. Good luck to the eventual buyer. I hope you have good luck with this lathe but be carefull what you are buying and what you pay for it. "

So, yes, Virginia, there is NO Santa Claus and the original post was indeed too good to be true. If you recall, it said the lathe was "in good working condition".

Oh, well.

Regards,

Bob

"Bob" wrote < SNIP>

. If you recall, it said the lathe was "in

It always amazes me, no, wrong word, angers me, when people describe something as "like new" or "excellent condition" when from the photos they attach you can see it's well used and probably abused. The most descriptive condition report I've seen was for a bunch of Hardinge 5C collets that were scarred on the faces. He said "these collets have a lot of experience. I bought 'em.

The guy selling the clapped out Clausing should be outed to the rest of the world so he can be properly shunned. Rant mode off. Tom