He seemed quite pleased with that arrangement, and why not? Minimum fuss, no price labels to stick on everything, and good $. Good on him!
When I lived on Long Island, in the early 1970's, I had that relationship with a few of the "junktique" dealers along Merrick Rd in Western Suffolk county. It started when I told a dealer that is price was too low, and gave him more. Then word got around.
C W Burfle posted:When I lived on Long Island, in the early 1970's, I had that relationship with a few of the "junktique" dealers along Merrick Rd in Western Suffolk county. It started when I told a dealer that is price was too low, and gave him more. Then word got around.
Ah yes, the Mike Wolfe (American Pickers) approach. It is a relatively inexpensive investment in good will and future sales and demonstrates integrity. From a seller's point of view, what's not to like!? Good move.
Jim 1939 posted:quicklyDremel is a hobby tool, If you have a real job to do use a real tool.
Don't minimize what a Dremel tool and cutoff discs can do. I had a circa 1900 Yard Limit sign with bolts rusted/frozen to the post years ago. With the fiberglass cutoff discs, the bolts were quickly cut off.
Tom
Ah yes, the Mike Wolfe (American Pickers) approach. It is a relatively inexpensive investment in good will and future sales and demonstrates integrity. From a seller's point of view, what's not to like!?
Please don't compare me to Mike Wolf (or worse his partner in the show). I realize that he is looking to make a living, but if the numbers in the show are to be believed, he is not paying fair money for most stuff. On more recent shows they seem more honest about telling their marks that they are buying for resale. But in the earlier episodes they seemed to be trying to lead people to believe they were buying for themselves. They still slip into that mode from time to time.
When I advocate the HF drill press I am talking about the small cast-iron $50 deal.
I drilled over 30 #56 holes in brass yesterday with my oldest press - no problems at all. I drill bakelite, synthane, circuit board fiber, aluminum, nickel silver, steel . . .
If you have trouble with drill bits grabbing, remove the rake. That is essential for brass - a standard drill bit in brass can become a lethal weapon.
My drilling may not be precision, but go back to the early 1990s and see my construction articles in OGR - these locomotives are fabricated with this same drill press. Even the axle holes in the main frame. Those articles describe "removing the rake."
My opinion? As long as these presses are $50, you are wasting your time looking at garage sales.
Dremel has traditionally been THEE professional small rotory tool of choice for many decades 
A 5/32" bit fits my mini- chuck but 3/16th will destroy my tool? Beyond normal sure; but come on HW 
(They make step-down shanks for drill chucks under 1/2" too ) . Basically, if the Dremel dies during that job, it spent much more time being severely abused previous to this.
I don't think it is the best tool for all 3/16ths holes, in every material, at any thickness. But there is more than one way to skin a rat, an other than shank size I think most Dremel could handle the above job with a touch of care.
bob2 posted:When I advocate the HF drill press I am talking about the small cast-iron $50 deal.
Those articles describe "removing the rake."
My opinion? As long as these presses are $50, you are wasting your time looking at garage sales.
A comment and a question - 1st the question: what is a rake?
Now the comment: After hitting up a large flea market and quite a few garage sales and finally, Craig's List, it seems that anyone with a used benchtop press seems to be asking $50 or more, and many of them are from China, so I would agree - waste of time on most of them.
That said, there is an old one or two I want to look at - the gent runs a machine shop and has some he will sell and guarantee - he wasn't actively selling them at all, just listened to my story and said he might be able to help.
I just thought I should resurrect this for a moment to reprise just a couple of the forty or so models I have built from the ground up using the cheapie Harbor Freight drill press. I bet I have drilled ten holes a day average for over a quarter century with the one in the kitchen. Herewith - the first one is Hi-Rail, and may have run a foot or so on Myron Biggar's railroad. He didn't like it much because it only had one roller and would stall on his switches. Oh- and no sound or smoke, so "Yuk!"
The second 0-6-0 is probably #4 in a series of similar models. The original model was copied off an HO Roundhouse switcher, and reproduced in 17/64 in four days flat, between airline assignments. I did the article in a hotel room in Las Vegas. The good old days.
The Mallet was part of an effort to demonstrate that my basic technique could be used for a collection of models, and I took photos of mocked-up Consolidations, Ten-Wheelers, and 4-4-0s. I know of four folks who built models following my article.
But the point here is that, if you want to build in O Scale, just get one of these incredibly cheap and quite good drill presses, a set of good drills, a drill press vise, and some cutting fluid. And take the rake off of any drill bigger than about #50, for safety's sake. There is a picture of how to do this using - yes! - a Dremel tool in my 0-6-0 article. I would post it if I had a scanner and remembered which issue it was in.
I finally had some time to go to Harbor Freight and check out the much discussed bench top drill press. Today's price $65 minus 25% discount, about $49. First thing I did was to tighten the chuck by hand to the fully closed position. Then grasping the chuck, I moved it sideways - yep, sure enough, it had a some movement. Since they were quite busy, I just found a bench vise and a runout measuring device (they called it a 1" Travel Machinist's Dial Indicator), put it all on the stand and checked - sure enough, 0.006" runout. I checked the much more expensive (and larger) one sitting right next to it and it had no measurable runout. That's too bad, but that is exactly what many of the reviews had stated, that the chuck wobbled, for lack of more precise terminology. You get what you pay for. So I put the gauge back (wish I had bought it now) and just bought the vise with my 25% off coupon.
I will find one somewhere else, maybe even check another HF to see if another display unit might measure up better. Probably won't be much difference, but I remain ever optimistic 
Sorry. I did not mean to imply that the cheapie HF was a precision tool. Mine has easily that amount of slop - I will measure it tonight.
This morning I drilled twelve # 65 holes in brass with it, for tender hand rails. No problems. I bet I drill at least that many #56 holes tonight for my Reading G1 handrail posts.
I have the same HF drill press, for precision drilling I recently picked up this little gem. It's another "oldie but goodie" for precision drilling.
gunrunnerjohn posted:I have the same HF drill press, for precision drilling I recently picked up this little gem.
Similar to mine - mine has a variable speed control.
I'm going to have to start going to garage sales with you guys! Or wherever you're finding those little gems!
In my case, I found it right here in the forum. I got it along with some other stuff that Rich was selling off. I got a nice press and tools with it, as well as a couple little saws.
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