New toy for the shop

[LiveWire]

Nutz, if I recall right, you are on the west side.

I won an auction for a vacuum former that is in Zeeland, MI. I need more info than what the auction company people are providing me over the phone to figure out how to get it back here. I am hoping someone can go there with a tape measure and get me real foot print dimensions, maybe shoot a picture or two of the underside to see how it can be lifted. Based on the rough dimensions I was given, it will just fit on a 16' car hauler.

It looks similar to this one but with manual clamps and is 4x4:

[Nutz4sand]

I live right near Siver Lake sand dunes (12 miles to the entrance)

So Zeeland is an hour away from me. I am currently packing/packed to move to Northern Michigan (at least for the winter) and have 1 pickup load of stuff to move at this point.

I was thinking of going SOON but its not set in concrete. I am interested in going up before the snow but if there is a way I could help I can try to run down there for a measurment maybe if these guys cannot get it???

I could do pics too. I think some guys are a lot closer to Holland than I on here (and Holland is like 5 miles from Zeeland or so). Not sure who but I have seen some and I think it was here. It might have been MBN.

[LiveWire]

I called and spoke to someone at the building. He said he did not have a tape. I have bid on some other stuff at these type auctions and been to them in person. Former employees of closed businesses probably are not real helpful and the auction companies descriptions are usually limited to what is written on the machine. I think they are used to when everyone came in person.

Right now, it is looking like I am going to run out there. It needs minor disassembly to load and no one wants to touch it. So far, I believe it will fit on a 16' car hauler. It would suck getting out there and that is not the case.

[Nutz4sand]

http://www.dtsfab.com/index/index.php?action=profile;u=572

Thats Deranged. He lives in Allendale which is pretty close to Holland. If he cannot help yah I could but I don't have any extra $ to burn right now for gas and what not. My truck gets around 15 to the gallon if no headwind. I won't have any spare cash for another week at this point and I may have a guy buying some stuff off me but till the cash is in my hand thats just talk.  Imma relook at the members list and see if anyones IN Holland itself.

[LiveWire]

I would have paid for gas if it was you, but truck and trailer is in route now anyway. Should be about half way there. I had someone with a bit bigger trailer than mine go in case the guys rough estimates are off. On top of everything else, I had surgery Wednesday to remove the plate from my ankle. So I was not going to be much help loading. I saw no point taking off work just to supervise.

Now I just have to figure out how to power the thing.

[LiveWire]

It took up every inch of the trailer and then some. The feet of the one piece were within a couple inches of the end of the trailer with some of it hanging off the tail. The auction company manager was not happy about not bringing a rigger. Other auctions I have been at, there was a rigger on site to give you a quote right there. Here, I would have had to pay someone to come in just to load the one piece of equipment. They just load so I still would have had to go take it apart.

[fabr]

Seems to me the auction company could just kiss my .................... well ,you get the point.   Great find. What you plan on for it?

[LiveWire]

My friend who went to pick it up had an envelope with cash in it if they pushed hard on him getting a rigger. He just started loading up the smaller stuff and eventually the auction guy came around. It is not that heavy relative to a mill. The oven is just bulky.

I am already having fenders made by Maier for the FL350R Odyssey. I own the molds. Long term, I may bring that in house, but probably not. They have a special plastic alloy made for them though in order for it to shine. What I am really looking at is new parts. I will do parts like air boxes that do not need to be shiny. The odyssey floor tub is very difficult to make. I can pay someone else lots of money to figure out how to make it or I can play around with it myself. Once I complete the mold, I could ship to Maier or buy plastic from them. The Formula Cross body panels are fiberglass. I had come to the conclusion previously that it would be better to make them all white then have vinyl wraps applied for color. I can do the same thing with a dull plastic. There are paintable grades of plastic available as well. I can easily do the hood as is. The side panels are too long, but I can split. They have scoops in them so seaming at the scoops will only leave a small seam above and below. The roof and quarter panels are 1 piece that I already planned to split into 3 for replacement purposes. I'll make air boxes for those too instead of just open elements. A molded dash would be nice too. I might do some low volume work for people as well. I believe this unit would have been over $30K bought new. A shop that had to pay for it would not want to do little jobs that would interfere with the ones they need to pay the bills. If I have it heated up, I would not have a problem with 'hey what would happen if we suck a sheet of plastic over this'.

[ace]

That's great,
I'd love a Dash to hold my digitron, a fuel gauge, and an analog tach!

[stuvy]

what a clever little machine, for $30k new even at half that its a bargin, providing you can make some back your well in. Good luck with it mate

[LiveWire]

That's great,
I'd love a Dash to hold my digitron, a fuel gauge, and an analog tach!

The hard part is the mold/plug. It would be a plug in most cases which is where the plastic is pulled over a male form. I think plaster will hold up for one or two parts. Bondo will hold up a bit longer. MDF/particle board works for very low volume too. As of right now, it does not seem like it would be that big of a deal to pull a sheet over a plug someone would ship to me. If it comes out nice, great. If not, figure out next steps from there.

what a clever little machine, for $30k new even at half that its a bargin, providing you can make some back your well in. Good luck with it mate

It was a bargain, but the discussion with the power company this morning for new service was a little bit of a reality check.

[stuvy]

swings and roundabouts Livewire. im an enternal optomist so i feel youl make the money back in no time

[fabr]

Cool as can be LW!!! Nice find.

[LiveWire]

Cool as can be LW!!! Nice find.

I'll give credit where credit is due on the find. My wife found it. She is sure to point that out whenever she over hears a conversation about it.

The bad part is she has been scouring auction sites ever since looking for the next deal.