Thread: Newbie question on Hercus ARM 9" value please

It's worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it, it may be worth $500 to $2000, depends who is in the market for it at the time.

I'd narrow it to $1000 to $1500 for the basic lathe, if it's as good as it looks.
If there's a quantity of good and useful accessories, they have value too.

Jordan

Seems a little over priced to me, however, what it's worth to you is the issue here. I've just been through the process of finding a Hercus 9"AR on the east coast and I would certainly have considered the one you are looking at if it completely met my needs, was in excellent, accurate working order and I didn't need any other accessories.
The things of concern to me would be;
I don't have 3 phase. This would mean, for me, the expense of a single phase motor or running through a VFD. = $150 to $400 depending on options selected, wiring etc.
This machine has a metric leadscrew. I need to cut both imperial and metric threads, so I would need the imperial change gear set (assuming it's not in the accessory bundle). = around $300
How far away is it? It cost me $100 in fuel to pick mine up. This is a consideration for me.
Does it have a matching tailstock and bed serial number? Tailstock number will be the same as the number on the bed if original. This is not essential , but indicates that it was originally set up in alignment. Mine did not match, and I had to spend a little time shimming the tailstock to achieve proper alignment. You may still need to do this if the tailstock is worn, but the matching numbers seems to make a difference to some people.
I expect mine will have cost me around $2000 by the time I've got everything I need.
If you don't need all the supplied accessories, you could offset the cost by selling some off. A decent chuck would be worth around $150 I think.
Good luck with the decision.
Greg.

Your right, thanks to the abundance of cashed-up young FIFO workers in WA quality second-hand lathes are scarce.
Sellers ask alot and buyers are keen.
Unless your looting a corpse.
I would expect to pay around $2000 in WA or $1000 in NSW. It just my opinion.

Mark

Thankyou for everybodys reply.
Yes he is asking more than all amounts mentioned and as I need to use it for Vintage bikes and the Lathe is Metric, it makes it a problem.
I also do not have 415V so it now will be around $3k + finding Imperial parts for it.
I forgot about the tailstock being matched as its been a couple of decades since using a Lathe.
Helpful group of people on here, I think I will leave it for a cashed up Miner and his Jap bikes.
Reading through this Forum has been great seeing all the projects and what others are doing to their Lathe.

Brett

Mine did not match, and I had to spend a little time shimming the tailstock to achieve proper alignment. You may still need to do this if the tailstock is worn, but the matching numbers seems to make a difference to some people.




Hi Greg,

How'd you go about shimming up your tailstock? I need to do the same to mine (when I get the time).

How's this old one? Plenty of accessories: milling attachment, indexing head (?), collet chuck, fixed and travelling steadies. Nearly worth the trip out to Cowra.

Hercus Lathe | eBay

Cheers Ben.

Yeeehaaa, Im now the new owner of the Lathe I asked forum members a rough price guide for. I mentioned to the nice fella I bought it from of this forum for Hercus which he was not aware of.
He read your replies and has had a good time reading through the posts here of everybody's exploits and gratefully dropped the price to where I am happy. He is a retired Engineer so the forum certainly has him interested, thankfully not enough for him to not sell it.
As its 415V I have to sort that to 240V but thankfully there is plenty of information here for it to be painless.
Looking forward to the day I get that chuck spinning now.

Congratulations on your new lathe! Re the 415V motor, check if it can be wired both star and delta. Cause if it can, for the price of a new single phase motor you may buy a VFD. This will hook up to 240V but drive the 3-pase motor with variable speed. MUCH much more useful, much quieter running, dollar for dollar a far better investment. Chris