The Rumford, Me. auction was at the Thurston Mfg. Co. They seemed to make rolling pins, bar stools and windsor chairs; all of which are now available cheaper at China's Wallie World. Machines at this auction went for nothing, meaning some didn't even get takers. Thompson was one of those. When he didn't sell for an opening bid of $10 he was consigned as future-scrap. I will get into why he is in my yard in a minute. I held myself tightly in check as a beautiful old Hendey lathe, about a 12"chuck, went for $75. A 12" Sheldon Shaper: $20. You get the idea.
I bought a few other things. The Clipper No.9 Belt Lacer on the left was $25. A steal in my book.
This Thompson is the little guy in their lineup. His mag chuck table is 6x18". Same size as the little K.O. Lee I use at school, but an awful lot bigger. Aside from the fact that Thompson is fully hedraulic and has a coolant spray system I think they simply built these things as heavy as they could for accuracy. He was difficult for a fork lift with a 5k# capacity to pick up. He really isn't any bigger than a good sized table saw, a little taller, that's all. I glanced at the motor and it has a plate on it for wiring for 220v or 440v. Boy, am I lucky! The 3 phase part i can deal with.
In these pics Thompson is on Rimjob-the-trailer. I think he will stay there over the winter. Why pay to have him put on the dirt now, and then pay again to have him put in my "new" shop - which I will surely get built next summer.
I could mention here how I had left the light-duty hitch on Thomas-the-truck, the one with the too-small ball, and how the entire tongue flew up in the air when Thompson was first lowered onto the back of Rimjob. But why embarrass myself? Besides there was this very intelligent dude who had put the correct hitch and ball under the seat.
