Value of used small Atlas lathes & mills?

Where are you located?

Stuart, Fl

Might want to check completed eBay auctions to get an idea - you should find quite a few of these machines there.

For both machines, the real determining factors are condition and accessories. You can easily spend far more on the accessories than on the bare machine.

My guess is that the lathe is in the $250-$400 range. With a couple of chucks, a faceplate, and a tailstock chuck, you'd be in the $500-$600 range. Add a milling attachment and the steadies and you could be at $800-$1,000. The 6" lathes don't sell for that much less than the 10" and 12" lathes. Neither do the 6" Sears AA/109 lathes, which are often mistakenly called Atlas lathes, and are a real step down from the Atlas.

The milling machine is worth a bit more. I'd say in the $400-$600 range for the basic machine with arbor and plain vise. You mention an X-Y vise, which I'm guessing is not Atlas. The indexing head and tailstock for that machine is a real plus as it's not too common, and alone should sell for $150-$250.

Hope this helps,

John Martin

Thank you John, We are in the same ballpark. I do have the steadies and milling vise & drawbar plus hollow headstock and Jacobs tailstock chucks. Also a boring bar set, face & angle plates, carriage and cross slide stops, dogs, wigglers, all tool holders including cutoff and threading.

I don't know if milling on a small lathe is an invention of the devil or I'm just a lousy machinist, but I never liked mine. :) Arch

(note to mrbill2; The mill is in Bucksport, Maine, Lathe is in Stuart, Florida)

I just bought one of these a few weeks ago in N Texas. The lathe market here seems similar to Florida. I gave $300 for a slightly rusted, complete Timken-bearing lathe. It came with a drawer full of tooling, but nothing of value like change gears or steady rest or extra chucks. So basically it was a bare lathe in working order but in need of TLC.

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Arch wrote:

I bought a 6" Atlas lathe in practically new condition (newer, square housing model) a few years ago for $350. It had live & dead centers, jacobs chuck, manuals - well, the only accessories that were offered for this lathe that I didn't get were a follower rest, 4-jaw chuck (sniff) and milling attachment! I had just received literature from Sherline the week before, and had decided that would be the lathe I would buy. I took a vacation day the next Wed and went to the flea market (it's the neatest place - only open on Wed, so there are loads of interesting vendors, and only 2 miles from my house). I got there early, and saw the lathe. Guy got it from his grandfather, and said "I'm a taxidermist, what am I going to do with a lathe?" I gave him $50 to hold it for me, and drove into town to get the rest of the bucks. When I returned, he told me that he could have sold it at least 6 more times. (All the folks I've ever dealt with there are pretty honest. If you buy a heavy item, they will let you leave it there until you get done shopping and can drive over to pick it up. I've never been stiffed by any of them in 25 years. Good 'ole Southern boys - and some good 'ole Yanks, too.)

Arch wrote:

You got a great deal, congrats.

So where is this flea market, exactly? :)

Well, you go down past old man Grubb's barn, turn left, and continue to the place where the Hick Cup Tavern used to be before it burned down, then...

Oh, you want a real location? It's located just outside of Pickens, SC, on Hwy 183 towards Walhalla (referred to around here as Hog-waller). It's actually 2 flea markets located next to each other. The "newer" one was started by Larry Hinkle, who operated the world's largest Jeep dealership nearby until maybe 15 years ago. I don't remember the names of the 2 places (Bargain Exchange, for one?), but folks 'round these parts call it (them) the Jockey Lot, after a large (and boring) flea market of that name near Anderson, SC. The first weekend of each month brings a big antique sale to Charlotte, followed by one in Atlanta the following weekend. Lots of the dealers show up in Pickens on the intervening Wed, since it's pretty much on the way (and just about half way between). That's usually my favorite day to go - the expensive stuff is left in the trucks/trailers, but they put out the smaller, cool stuff that I like (and can afford).

One more acquisition story: A guy who operates an auction in GA shows up there pretty often. One day I almost tripped over a large cast-steel 'something' with a microscope attached. It was filthy, but I saw that it had a filar eyepiece that I could use. I asked him what it was used for, and he said "To look at germs - ya kin see AIDS!" He wanted 15 bucks, so I paid and picked it up later (heavy). After I got it home, I was cleaning it up and saw what I thought was a broken glass piece on the end of what clearly was a balance beam. I thought "Hell, now I'll never figure this out", but as I cleaned that part, it was obvious that the "glass" wasn't broken - it appeared to be faceted. I unscrewed the holder, and rubbed it lightly across the steel table/stage, and it left a deep scratch! The glass turned out to be a diamond, about 1/3 carat. Turns out that it is a Vickers hardness tester, and it functions fine. I told my wife that I bought her a diamond at the Jockey Lot, but she still wants to pick out her own stone! Last summer, I also bought an old 80 lb anvil from the same guy for $35; the top is pretty beat up, but it has a nice rebound to it. Eventually, I'll try building it up per the instructions I found posted here some years back.

If any of you are ever in the area, it's a great place to shop. Regular vendors come from as far away as Ohio and NY, with irregulars from as far as CA. I shop for "stuff" until most of the dealers start to pack up (around 11:00 am - it's an early event), then I go for the produce. Some guys will sell me a case of whatever for a couple of bucks just so they don't have to haul it home, and have it spoil before the next sale.

Joe