Many people would like industrial equipment due to its larger capacity and speed, this is particularly useful where users make a small living on the side, or make their entire living from fabrication and fabrication work.
For the purposes of clarity I will confine it to items such as metal cutting bandsaws or lathes for example.
Most people only have a domestic 240V supply in their home workshop and most industrial equipment is three phase 415V and this is the first issue, the first port of call is to do a little research and find out if the equipment you have your eye on came as multi voltage meaning 415 and 240v and find out its motor size. Once you have found this out you have the size of 240v motor it came with and in most cases it will give the motor speed and often its frame size and you can do a search for just such a motor in 240V single phase.
If you cannot find such a motor, or do not want to search for a motor because you have one of a similar rating in 240v then its modification time and often you can find most machine drawings online to give yourself an idea of what is involved in adapting your motor to fit, then trust your fabrication skills.
Why not just search for industrial equipment in 240v? a fair question, but one which has already been answered, most industrial equipment comes as 3 phase 415 volt; anything in 240v is snapped up by dealers who pay over the odds for it knowing they can charge the domestic market buyers an even bigger premium.
So, where are these bargain buys? the best choices are auctions of company stock which are often companies selling off old stock to replace it with newer or updated stock, often you need to go to the company premises for viewing and the auctions as the cost of moving stock to a sale room is prohibitive.
Many items can be found in a sale room and you find your nearest sale room which holds auctions of industrial equipment where you may find items such as industrial bandsaws for example, as they are fairly light and you can load a lot of them on a lorry which makes it viable for the auctioneers to collect. Many auctions of such equipment means the public do not attend so you are up against trade bidders who want something for nothing and will not pay anything like an item is worth which keeps the sale prices down as they have to refurbish and sell at a profit. This means the worst competition, the private buyer who will pay over the odds is eliminated, meaning you pay the keenest prices giving you scope to look at buying a new motor for your equipment and still getting a bargain and the benefit of bigger industrial equipment.
Bankruptcy and liquidation sales are excellent places to pick up industrial equipment ripe for conversion to 240v as these sales are not widely advertised and you do need to do a little homework, the best way is to search local publications and read their notices. You can subscribe to the London Gazette and either will send you E-mail alerts of all proposed bankruptcy and liquidations as well as firms closing down in your preferred area.
You have to remember that many sales rooms and auctioneers charge a buyers premium which is usually a percentage (but not all) and this buyers premium is a percentage of the hammer price and this percentage or premium is liable for VAT to be added.
There are a lot of bargains to be had if you do a little research and have sufficient engineering nouse, and you can pick up plenty of heavy duty equipment and convert it for peanuts.
During my time at British Coal I picked up an 18 month old Startrite metal cutting band saw with all its spares packs and 127 brand new blades for the princely sum of £20 and I kept it for 20 years, it was ultra reliable and when I sold it, it still went with over 100 blades and several spares kits.
For the purposes of clarity I will confine it to items such as metal cutting bandsaws or lathes for example.
Most people only have a domestic 240V supply in their home workshop and most industrial equipment is three phase 415V and this is the first issue, the first port of call is to do a little research and find out if the equipment you have your eye on came as multi voltage meaning 415 and 240v and find out its motor size. Once you have found this out you have the size of 240v motor it came with and in most cases it will give the motor speed and often its frame size and you can do a search for just such a motor in 240V single phase.
If you cannot find such a motor, or do not want to search for a motor because you have one of a similar rating in 240v then its modification time and often you can find most machine drawings online to give yourself an idea of what is involved in adapting your motor to fit, then trust your fabrication skills.
Why not just search for industrial equipment in 240v? a fair question, but one which has already been answered, most industrial equipment comes as 3 phase 415 volt; anything in 240v is snapped up by dealers who pay over the odds for it knowing they can charge the domestic market buyers an even bigger premium.
So, where are these bargain buys? the best choices are auctions of company stock which are often companies selling off old stock to replace it with newer or updated stock, often you need to go to the company premises for viewing and the auctions as the cost of moving stock to a sale room is prohibitive.
Many items can be found in a sale room and you find your nearest sale room which holds auctions of industrial equipment where you may find items such as industrial bandsaws for example, as they are fairly light and you can load a lot of them on a lorry which makes it viable for the auctioneers to collect. Many auctions of such equipment means the public do not attend so you are up against trade bidders who want something for nothing and will not pay anything like an item is worth which keeps the sale prices down as they have to refurbish and sell at a profit. This means the worst competition, the private buyer who will pay over the odds is eliminated, meaning you pay the keenest prices giving you scope to look at buying a new motor for your equipment and still getting a bargain and the benefit of bigger industrial equipment.
Bankruptcy and liquidation sales are excellent places to pick up industrial equipment ripe for conversion to 240v as these sales are not widely advertised and you do need to do a little homework, the best way is to search local publications and read their notices. You can subscribe to the London Gazette and either will send you E-mail alerts of all proposed bankruptcy and liquidations as well as firms closing down in your preferred area.
You have to remember that many sales rooms and auctioneers charge a buyers premium which is usually a percentage (but not all) and this buyers premium is a percentage of the hammer price and this percentage or premium is liable for VAT to be added.
There are a lot of bargains to be had if you do a little research and have sufficient engineering nouse, and you can pick up plenty of heavy duty equipment and convert it for peanuts.
During my time at British Coal I picked up an 18 month old Startrite metal cutting band saw with all its spares packs and 127 brand new blades for the princely sum of £20 and I kept it for 20 years, it was ultra reliable and when I sold it, it still went with over 100 blades and several spares kits.
