Help pricing old non-working harbor freight mill


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Thread: Help pricing old non-working harbor freight mill

  1. #1

    Default Help pricing old non-working harbor freight mill

    So the story is, I have a HF mill with a couple hundred hours on it and a recent belt drive conversion on it. Then a month ago I was cutting something and I guess overworked it and it cut out on me. The fuse is fine and poking around a few places with a multimeter shows electrons are flowing. But I'm not sure if the motor is bad or the board. But it doesn't turn on and start spinning. Not wanting to throw money at it, I have replaced this little guy with a precision matthews 728vt. So now I'm here trying to figure out what to do with the old one.

    Looking for help deciding on what this thing is worth. Is it even worth packing this up and shipping it? Seems like it would be a good base if somebody wanted to make a CNC project or if somebody wanted to diagnose and replace the motor or control board. It just doesn't seem like its worth it for somebody to pay the high shipping cost.

    Can somebody point me in the right direction here? If its feasible, I'd like to get it off to a new home for a fair price. Otherwise what do you do with them? Scrap them or part them out?




    Youtube video showing alignment and such isn't all clapped out.


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  2. #2

    Default Re: Help pricing old non-working harbor freight mill

    These things are inexpensive to begin.
    In a non-working condition, I'd be surprised if you get more then $50-$100 for it.
    Then you got to figure shipping and hassle of negative reviews or someone trying to open a claim against you.
    If you had some tooling included with it, that might be worth more than the HF mill, but it sounds like you're keeping it for use with new machine.

    If it was me, I would put it on local CL and see if you get any bites at $150, knowing whoever shows up will try to get it for less.

    Otherwise, keep it and play with spare parts.



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    Member koenbro's Avatar
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    Default Re: Help pricing old non-working harbor freight mill

    Scrap it. The fair price is under $50, and that’s before the hassle of transferring it.


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    Default Re: Help pricing old non-working harbor freight mill

    Oh ouch ! The machine looks in nice shape plus it's been converted to a belt drive.
    Original type replacement motors for these things aren't cheap so your reluctance to go there is understandable. Still selling as-is won't fetch much. I'm no wizard with electricity but there must be a simple way to test a DC motor ? Is it possible it's a brush problem ?

    Anyone who says "It only goes together one way" has no imagination.


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    Default Re: Help pricing old non-working harbor freight mill

    Quote Originally Posted by koenbro View Post
    Scrap it. The fair price is under $50, and that’s before the hassle of transferring it.


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    I'd take that at $50 any day. Got spare treadmill motors+controls.

    Anyone who says "It only goes together one way" has no imagination.


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    Default Re: Help pricing old non-working harbor freight mill

    Quote Originally Posted by giantpune View Post
    Then a month ago I was cutting something and I guess overworked it and it cut out on me.
    I'm guessing that there was a far amount of vibration when you were cutting.

    I have a small mill from Busy Bee Tools, similar design. Had a similar thing happen. Got it working again, but lost the RPM indicator. Definitely, the board was damaged from vibration on mine.

    The boards on these kind of mills can't take vibration. I extended the wires on mine and mounted the electronics box on the wall next to the machine. This isolated it from the machine vibration, preventing any further damage.

    I recommend you consider doing the same on your new mill, mounting the box on a wall next to the machine.

    A retrofit to an AC induction motor and VFD should get it up and running again, should it not? Or replace the board.



  7. #7

    Default Re: Help pricing old non-working harbor freight mill

    Quote Originally Posted by cyclestart View Post
    I'm no wizard with electricity but there must be a simple way to test a DC motor ?
    Supposedly if you just put a 9v battery up to the terminals, these motors are supposed to spin very slowly. I tried that and this one doesn't spin. I never tested with a good motor, though.

    Quote Originally Posted by NIC 77 View Post
    I'm guessing that there was a far amount of vibration when you were cutting.

    I have a small mill from Busy Bee Tools, similar design. Had a similar thing happen. Got it working again, but lost the RPM indicator. Definitely, the board was damaged from vibration on mine.
    Yep, I had it chooching pretty hard and it was vibrating when it went out.

    So thats where I'm at on diagnosing it. Either the motor on the board.

    Sounds like its worth more parting it out. The belt drive conversion is pretty much new and was $150. I'm thinking pull that back off and sell it separately.
    Then I reckon list the rest as parts/parting out and see what people want. I'm not too hung up on it. Kinda sucks taking a hit on it, but thats the name of the game when you shop at the Harbor Freight. The new precision matthews mill will fill that hole in my heart. I'll just be happy to have the space back on my workbench from this one and get some cash to blow on more tooling.



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    Default Re: Help pricing old non-working harbor freight mill

    Sell the belt drive for almost full list. It is a demand item and is light to ship. Ebay it.

    Put the mill back to stock and sell the rest for $ 100 to $200 non working. I know everyone is saying its not worth anything but if you want to buy one you just cant find a X2 mill for $50.

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    Default Re: Help pricing old non-working harbor freight mill

    I'll buy it for parts. Take it apart and place the parts in a USPS Flat Rate Box.

    Actually others would buy parts and maybe even pay more. A non-working mill is not worth much but as replacement parts it is worth more

    I'm building an X2 based CNC and need to machine the bottom of the XY table

    You also have an LMS belt drive kit installed and those have value too.

    Chris
    albertson.chris (at) gmail.com



  10. #10

    Default Re: Help pricing old non-working harbor freight mill

    Quote Originally Posted by arizonavideo View Post
    Sell the belt drive for almost full list. It is a demand item and is light to ship. Ebay it.

    Put the mill back to stock and sell the rest for $ 100 to $200 non working. I know everyone is saying its not worth anything but if you want to buy one you just cant find a X2 mill for $50.
    This turned out to be the best guess. I listed it this morning online locally. $120 for the belt drive, $180 for the mill, $300 total. Went to take a nap, and when I woke up, I had 3 interested buyers.
    I'd say that was a fair price. Multiple people were willing to buy at this price. Still could have gone higher and sold it a little slower.



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    Default Re: Help pricing old non-working harbor freight mill

    I cut mine out the other week. Now it's not right either.
    It is the pot/switch unit. £10 part.



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Help pricing old non-working harbor freight mill

Help pricing old non-working harbor freight mill