Thread: So many good Wadkins, so far away, such a small budget!

i was the second highest bidder on the pk saw. i am in melbourne and did not get a chance to look at it in person before the auctions end, I'm kicking myself for not bidding more.

Guys, looks like it was a Wadkin frenzy !!!
Lick your wounds and live to bid another day.......

Melbourne Matty.

Originally Posted by L.S.Barker1970

Guys, looks like it was a Wadkin frenzy !!!
Lick your wounds and live to bid another day.......

Melbourne Matty.

Yeah Matty,

Thanks for that, I spent this evening working on the stenner which made me feel better.

Cheers,

Camo

I bid on a few but my thought is that someone was trying to by the lot and keep the business going .

Originally Posted by localele

I bid on a few but my thought is that someone was trying to by the lot and keep the business going .

I think you might be right. Good eye. Looking at the 3 machines they all sold to the same buyer. Makes me feel even better, hopefully that means the old employees get to keep there jobs.

got all 3 of them machines and all i can say is there the finest woodworking machines when grouped together. no bad one on one but altogether are sick. That's the thing is all it takes is one sale and your in Wadkin heaven. you will be short cash but cash comes a goes wadkin does not in a grouping like this.

jack
English machines

Originally Posted by camoz

I had gone as far as calling around last minute to get an idea on freight cost, before eventually planning a road trip 9.5hrs each way with a hired car trailer (even though I am still trying to get over recent surgery so I would have had to convince someone else to drive most of the way, in fact nearly all the way).
Camoz

I know exactly how you feel. There was a bloody great jointer in Melbourne several months ago - thy only wanted $200 or so.
I was derangedly figuring out how many days it would take to drive there and back, and how that would fit in to working 7 days a week.
- sigh -

Paul

Originally Posted by jgforsberg

got all 3 of them machines and all i can say is there the finest woodworking machines when grouped together. no bad one on one but altogether are sick. That's the thing is all it takes is one sale and your in Wadkin heaven. you will be short cash but cash comes a goes wadkin does not in a grouping like this.

jack
English machines

Thanks a lot Jack. Just when I am just about over it, you have to go and remind me just what I missed out on.

Originally Posted by pmcgee

I know exactly how you feel. There was a bloody great jointer in Melbourne several months ago - thy only wanted $200 or so.
I was derangedly figuring out how many days it would take to drive there and back, and how that would fit in to working 7 days a week.
- sigh -

Paul

Paul,

I just read your post again, and then looked at your location. Perth to Melbourne then back to Perth. I showed my wife just so I could prove I wasn't the only crazy person.

Cheers,

Camo

Well gentlemen,

I can give a little background on this sale not that it will provide you with any consolation at all and I will not take it personally if you wish to "exit" right now.

I live about eighty Ks from Toowoomba and today I picked up the only lot on which I was successful . This was a group of four steel, fabricated tables (final price $79). I plan to make a router table/cabinet from one and I'm bugg***d if I know what I will do with the other three although I do have the makings of a saw bench with a brick saw style motor.

I visited the Toowoomba site twice checking the machines out and in particular the timber on which I was the losing bidder. I bid on the jointer and a grinding machine but was abysmally off beam with both those items. The granite setting table had me nearly as infatuated as Charlize Theron. Those smooth, tactile surfaces (on the granite) really captured my imagination, but I couldn't justify the money just for an exquisite sharpening surface (900 x 600 x 150 deep) and again my bid was hopelessly adrift.

On the Wadkin gear I could see potential, but not having 3PH I would have had to either use VFDs (assuming the motors were not too large) or convert to 1PH with either scenario resulting in at least $300 extra and probably more. Interestingly the lathe looked to be only around 2HP and I remembered I have a timber mill bandsaw so bringing another bandsaw home would have been a lot more than the marriage could cope with.

The other thing was that the business was an old foundry that closed down. The woodworking gear came from the patternmaking shop and was definitely very well used. There was no opportunity to evaluate the condition of the machines other than visual inspection. You also had to have a licensed electrician perform the electrical disconnection. I thought the gear went too expensively.

Remember too that GST and the buyer's premium had to be added to the final price. This represented an additional 16% approximately, which Grays do explain if you persevere looking through their blurb, but clearly people forget.

The auction was extended for an additional seven days and my understanding is that the original arrangement was that purchased machines could only be loaded by them and this was going to cost a thousand dollars er machine. However Grays removed that condition, when there was a dearth of bidding and the bidding became frantic towards the end. All the Wadkin afficionardos came out of the woodwork .

Regards
Paul

A little more background information. I went back to the foundry again today as I had been offered some fibro sheets for nix. The successful buyer of the timber was not interested and was going to leave them there. Grays just wanted them cleared out. On Friday I had the ute loaded when the offer was made. I had come off a particularly stressful nightshift and I was not in the mood for loading and unloading, but after the weekend I decided to go back and see if they were still there, which they were and I now have them in my possession. Looks like my shed, when it is built will have a lining too.

Now here is the interesting bit, 'cos the first paragraph was just me woffling. I was talking to the Grays blokes on site and it is just as well Camo and Scamp did not make the trip up here to view. You would have been right royally p****d off. Mike you were nearly on the right track, but the foundry is not re-opening. It will probably become a derelict building with all the windows poked out by hooligans.

However there was primarily only a single buyer. One person or company bought all the machines including the cherished Wadkins, the steel tables and that amazing granite setting table. Bear in mind there were nine auctions all together!

I was told that it was an "international" buyer.

You and I were never going to win anything significant. I'll bet Paul is congratulating himself on not travelling from Perth too (thanks for the message btw).



Regards
Paul

very interesting. still. i want that saw!

Originally Posted by scamp

very interesting. still. i want that saw!

Noted .

Regards
Paul

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

Noted .

Regards
Paul

FWW Magazine has asked me to wright an blub for my Wadkin PK that they are show casing in a few months.

here is what I sent them. SO Get your PKs now because when this hits the streets you don't have a snow balls chance in hell of getting one



"The Machines is A 1950s 18" Wadkin PK slider. This is a dimension saw for solid timber . This saw was built far beyond wood working machine standers and the precision and engineering was directed to pattern makers and engineer firms . these saws did not sale to the furniture industry pre say(far too pricey) . The level of fit and finish was unequaled. All the rise and fall gear work run in enclosed oil baths with bronze gears and no dust can gum the works. The saw is about 2000lbs with a sliding table 36"cross cut that you add wood lips for zero clearance cutting(the only slider i now that had this in the world) and a 5 hp direct motor drive. The saw never came single phases and was for the 3 phase industry due to the special motor that was develop in the late 20s and consequently when the saw was designed(first generation). Wadkin were the first to add motor driven(1928) machine to there line up in England and the PK was the first with a tilting spindle.the saw is very rare and was made until the early 1960s when it was drooped. I believe this is the best saw every made and the PK represents the zenith of wood working machine design reached in the 50s. There are adjustments for ware in all the moving parts and in the 60 years it was in service under industrial use every day cutting solid mahogany the saw still had not used them when i received it. You can not ware this saw out through from use and with simple maintenance was built to withstand industrial abuse for decades. The pattern work for the casting on this machine are works of art, the skill and care/ribbing and the sheer shapely forms not needed for function must have been from pride of work and the pattern maker craft. This work makes the saw a piece of art. The sliding fence uses a scribed /eched in ruler(1/16)set in the table and has a sliding fence plate(you can slide the plate foe and aft for cutting reaction wood and the timber never gets tramped between the blade a fence) it tilts 45 dregs and has a micro fine adjusting feature that is as smooth as silk. the saw has a riving knife (NOT A SPLITER) that rises and falls with the blade as well an over arm crown guard that is never in the way. These safety guards where standerd in 1926 even though the riving knife is new to many today.



I must say that John Hutchinson(AKA Hutch OWWM) gave me the heads up to an auction of a furniture shop that was closed after 170 years in business. I payed/won it for $100 and just about drooped dead. I had been looking for years and had $1500 ready to drop on that saw. no one there was getting it for less than that and i may have gone higher too.I had it in my head i was coming home with a Wadkin PK. it was not until after that i realized how complete a saw i had gotten and how rare this was for a slider saw let alone one from England.



The machine got a complete rebuild thought it did not need it. I reworked and made/ polished all the handle and added brass and rosewood fence and tennon jigs of my design("jackifide"). small things like repainting the machine tags by hand and painting the wadkin cast letters red where a lot of fun, The old wadkin machine have BSW threads and if any have work old British cars will know the spanners can cost a lot . I must say I still can no figure there wrenches out.



When i started working on Wadkin machines there were no manuals or any information on this maker. Mathew Fazio(L S barker OWWM)AKA Melbourne Matty and myself have shared a passion for Wadkin and we together started the English machinery side of Vintage machinery. We have seen it grow to one of the largest resources on the net, and his collection of old English machinery catalogs(largest in the world) has been the main source of information on Wadkin. His help with my dream( the Wadkin Temple) is nothing short of amazing. He has found me 60 year old OEM wadkin parts and ship them to me here in Canada and i am indebted to his passion and friendship in our adventures to save these wonderful machines.please mention his name I could not have done it without his help.WE have become great buddy for life because of Old wood working machines and Mattys contribution to saving old machine information by collecting old catalogs(dirty papers)is unequaled .



These machines will never be made again to this level of workmanship. It was unsustainable. you can only build the best saw in the world that never wares out before you go out of business. I would not say that restoring these machines is for everyone but if you have a passion the finest tools in the world and you want the Roll Royce of wood working machine that's the price you have to pay. I find it one of the most satisfying things i have done in my life and the friends i have made make it the best.





jack

English machines