Laura M said:
A client purchased a screw machine business and along with it came a cabinet FULL of gages. Most have no calibration sticker. There is literally every size, of thread ring and thread plug gage, in additional to some pin gages.
So there is probably $1000's of dollars, but many have not been used in the years since they've acquired the business. But to tell them to get rid of them seems like throwing away money.
The obvious solution is 'calibrate before use' but that of course requires sending them out, so if it's needed urgently that won't work.
In the event I can convince them to unload them, does anyone know a company that buys/sells used gages?
Any suggestions?
I've only been following this thread with half an eye, but it occurs to me to add this comment.
The very fact these gages were in a cabinet WITHOUT calibration tags or labels says to me they were probably "production gages" rather than first article or final inspection gages.
(Even poorly run shops normally had two sets of gages and they kept the master gages as a half-a$$ed calibration tool for the production gages - I've even heard the phrase "close enough for government work" when evaluating such shops as potential suppliers.) You don't give much identifiable information for folks really familiar with thread gages to do more than make wild speculation about whether they have more value as scrap iron than as usable tools. I'm curious - did each ring size have a matching plug to use for day to day checking to see whether it was still in calibration?
Are they mostly straight or tapered threads? Makes a big difference in initial price and resale value.
Were they all from the same manufacturer? (Once I found a gage manufacturer I could work with, he got ALL my business and a lot of referral work from my suppliers and customers as well.) If so, why not drop a dime and ask if the supplier was doing a lot of calibration and certifying as well? If yes, he might be a logical guy to approach for a suggestion on where to sell/donate the gages.
Inherit any former employees with the business? What can they tell you about the gages? Maybe all the certs are stuck in another drawer, matched to serial numbers on each piece. Lots of small job shops didn't bother with individual tags on serial numbered pieces - they just recalibrated each time an new order came in for such a thread. The fact the gages were all in a cabinet rather than scattered throughout the shop would support that theory. Did the shop have a separate metrology area (a lab?) or was this cabinet just part of the tool cage for the general shop?
Bottom line: I can't imagine a reputable shop buying non-adjustable ring gages off ebay, There are just too many things that could make them worth less that the shipping cost. The amount of time spent speculating about these would be better spent just running the female gages against male masters to determine if they are in calibration or have other problems (rust, galls, missing wax over the calibration screw, etc.) and reserving the ones that pass initial muster to have individually calibrated and certified if and when an order EVER comes along for the thread size. Scrap the remainder rather than offload junk on a naive buyer in ebay (Worse - the buyer may be a shoddy operator who will underbid you for a job!)
