Over the past ten days I have sold two old Henry Craftmaster band saws as well as a Champion and a General floor model drill presses. Today a friend of mine asked if I wasn't a little bit sad about lettting some of my machines go, especially after putting so much effort into fixing them up. This got me thinking about sellers remorse. Now I know more than a few people have experienced buyers remorse but I don't often hear anyone saying they were sorry they sold something.

Over the last five years I have probably bought and refurbished around 30 pieces of old woodworking equipment. Along the way I have sold probably 20 to 25 pieces including some of my original shop equipment that were Asian imports. Other that period there were probably only two pieces I wish I had kept.

 

The first was this 1947 model delta 6" short bed jointer with the cast iron stand.

 

 

I put a lot of time into the rebuild but ended up selling it as I just could not bring myself to moving back to a 6" jointer after I had been using an 8"and I did not have room for both. Luckly I sold it to my nephew so I retain visiting rights but am still not completely over selling it.

 

The second was this 1953 Unisaw Junior.

 

I got this saw as a project. It had been disassembled and put into several boxes and bags by the previous owner. It was, as he had stated ; all there, but proved to be a real treat to put back together. First I had to identify all the parts which had been mixed together with some Unisaw parts as well as parts for a Delta 10" tilt top tablesaw. Vastly different then disassembling a machine yourself before putting it back together.

 

It turned out beautifully and to this day I still have tinges of regret about selling it. Maybe I won't fell so bad when I get the tilt top done.

 

This leads me to the follow question. Have any of you ever experienced sellers remorse about a particlar machine? If so what was it?

 

Oh I do Gerry for sure!!

About 6 years ago I sold my Hitachi f1000A Combo Planer. A bit of a back story here, right after I came out of the Army, I became employed at Sea World of San Diego in 1991 in the carpenters maintenance shop. I loved that job, it was awesome, I hung doors, built custom cabinets for the office areas and trainers areas, re-roofed structures, provided structural maintenance on anything that was built of wood, and I got to show up to a job on the bay, in San Diego, in a very classy theme park, and the atmosphere was awesome, but, the pay was not good, I could not raise a family on it so eventually I had to leave after I re-educated myself through schooling and night classes and became a Land Surveyor for which I am still to this day. In that shop we had some great machines to work on and one of them was the Hitachi f1000A and I absolutely loved it. We also had a massive 14" 3 Phase Powermatic 1970's vintage table saw, along with some other great tools.

 

When my wife and first child and I moved to purchase a home of our own after we were able to afford it (re-education paid off!) I sought to create a shop like my beloved maintenance shop I worked in for Sea World. And part of that experience was tracking down a Hitachi f1000A and I found one! I bought it for a song and a dance, I think around 650 bucks, it was in pristine condition, with barely any wear marks on the beds. This vintage of Japanese machinery was made in Japan, and was built tough, there was nothing cheap or shoddy about this machine, it was a beaut. Then one day I got a wild hair up my rear, and thought I'd be better off with a different planer so I sold it, and I still regret it to this day. I sold it to a shop in Northern CA, the fellow who bought it off of me on Ebay was so excited that he found one in this good of shape, he drove down to pick it up, an 8 hr drive one way. I still kick myself in the a!# when I think of it, it was a great machine and if anyone ever wants to purchase a planer joiner combo machine, you should consider the Hitachi f1000A's. Parts are readily available still to this day even. Thanks for provoking my memory down sellers remorse lane Gerry!  By the way, the machine in the image is not mine, but mine was just like it, but much much shinier and cleaner, boy I sure miss that old Hitachi!

Edited December 26, 201510 yr by Courtland

By the way Gerry, those are some beautiful machines, please post your machines in our classifieds here when you are ready to sell one again!

Gerry,

I can relate on a smaller basis. I usually never sell my machines, but I have sold some parts I later wish I hadn't. 

When I needed them they ended up costing time and double what I had sold them for.

I've still got my 1937 Delta 654 jointer to redo. It's the companion for my 1160 "Tilty".

Once you've played with a "Tilty" you'll be hooked. 

8 hours ago, Larry Buskirk said:

Gerry,

 

Once you've played with a "Tilty" you'll be hooked. 

 

I hope you are right about that Larry. I've had the tilty stored in my rathole for over two years now,about time to get at it. Although I would never give up my big Unisaw I am looking to set up another saw expressly for dadoes. I'm thinkin the Tilty should do the trick.

Edited December 27, 201510 yr by GerryinBelleRiver