Used Equipment: Vetting the Value

It can make a difference in what company you’re dealing with, agrees Salem’s Spears.

“I haven’t had any dealings on the software side, but in terms of parts manuals, electrical schematics and such, for the most part those are e-mailed to us from the Italian vendor at no cost,” he says. “We just get an e-mail address, push a button and send them out.”

Click photo to enlargeIt’s important to remember that a warranty doesn’t transfer with any machine, although Park’s Walerius says there are other options out there.

“The warranty stays with the original owner,” he says. “Now, they can buy a service program from us, and that will help cover some of the things with the machine.”

Beyond that, different equipment manufacturers take different approaches to dealing with new owners. If you’re lucky, you’ll find a piece of equipment from a company such as Park or Salem.

“Our feeling is that someone new is buying it, and they become a new customer for us,” says Spears. “We treat them as a new customer, and set them up with an account and do the credit check and all that. That piece of equipment is now going to be producing and consuming products, and we’re happy to work with whoever we can. We’re glad for the business.”

On the extreme other end of the spectrum, Kruschke tells a story about a man he knows who thought he’d gotten a very good deal on an English-made CNC, only to find out the manufacturer was out of business.

“He can’t get an operator’s manual for the CNC machine,” Kruschke says. “He can only make it do about two functions and can’t figure anything else out. It’s certainly no bargain; he’s a little sick over the whole situation.

“You have to find out what’s there for support.”

DOLLARS AND SENSE

For a would-be buyer diligent enough to pursue that saw or CNC machine this far, it’s also important to remember one other thing, according to Rollin’ Stone’s Jackson: The cost of the machine is only a portion of the final price.

“It’s true that it’s usually the larger portion, but you still have a lot of other things to sort out,” Jackson says. “You’re got to get the site prep done; there’s trucking to get it from where it is to where you are; there’s the rigging and other things to consider. It’s only a good deal after you consider all those things.”

Stone Equipment’s Kruschke adds that those costs aren’t going to differ much whether the piece of equipment is new or used.

Training is another item that’s going to cost the same whether it’s a new or a used piece of equipment, and while you might think you know how to run a machine, Granite Machine’s O’Connor says factory or technician training can be crucial.

He tells of one shop where he installed a saw; at the end of the job, the owner remarked on how glad he was to have the new saw up and running as his current one was so slow.

“I walked over to look at it and the guy was cutting at about 20 percent of where he should have been cutting,” O’Connor relates. “I asked if I could do something to the machine and turned a feed knob to where it should be. Immediately it started cutting like a house afire. The owner looked at me and said, ‘I just spent $50,000 I didn’t have to spend.’”

It’s also important to remember that there are some pieces of equipment that probably are in such tough shape they’re really suitable for nothing more than scrap – or parts.

“The last auction I went to, people were buying $100,000 machines for $3,000 for the parts,” says Salem’s Spears. “If you’ve got some warehouse space to tie up for a year or two, you can save five, six, ten times that amount on the motors and specific parts on those machines.”