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On December 27th, 2007, Aaron Posnik hosted the liquidation of the old Chicopee Comprehensive High School, In Chicopee Massachusetts. The auction included tools and machinery from the automotive shop, welding shop, machine shop, wood shop, and cullinary arts program. The school district had just finished a two year construction project on a new building.
All of the equipment they wanted to salvage was moved to the new building. Everything else was put up for auction.

Turn out for the auction was huge. There were at least 300 people on-site. This made it difficult to move around or see exactly what was being sold. Many of the people were former students who wanted to see the school before it was demolished, and maybe get a chance to own one of the machines they had used when they attended the school.

The sale started in the automotive shop. Items in this area included frame alignment machines, tire changers, compressors post lifts, front end alignment machines, work benches, etc. The prices were generally low.

Next up was the machine shop. In this area were eight Bridgeport vertical mills, eight SouthBend lathes, a DoAll Bandsaw, a Kia cnc lathe, and a Milltronics cnc machining center. There was also a fair amount of tooling, benches, and storage cabinets. The machinery was used hard and was all pretty tired. The Bridgeports brought from $1200 to $2500. The SouthBend lathes sold for $650 each (all to the same buyer). This price seemed very high to me since most of the lathes were badly worn. Most were also broken or missing parts. The tooling, cabinets, and other machinery all sold for relatively low prices.

Next stop was the welding shop. Items in this area included seven mig/tig/arc welders, and LVD 10′ squaring shear, a P50 IronWorker, an Acorn 8’x4′ welding table with forming tools, a sand blast cabinet, a small jet milling machine, and various other tools and machines. The welders all brought high prices. As did the 10′ shear and the IronWorker. The Acorn table brought $2250. The small Jet mill brought $1100. I bought a big Cincinatti double pedestal grinder for $90.

The sale moved up to the lobby of the building, where there were some odd machinery parts, a delta toolroom lathe, and some cleaning supplies. I ended up buying a small metal cabinet that contained some drill chucks. Also sitting on top of the cabinet were two miter gauges and a rack & pinion fence from a Whitney No. 177 Variety saw. I got the cabinet and saw parts for $25.

Next up was the wood shop. This area included several Delta Unisaws, a Delta Shaper, a Disc sander, an Oliver Mortiser, an Oliver Stroke Sander, an American 16″ Jointer, a Whitney Variety Saw, an SCMI S-63 25″ Planer, two Delta Lathes, two Delta Radial Arm Saws, a Whitney 105 Planer, and a bunch of misc smaller tools, vices, and dust collectors.

Once again, most of this machinery was used hard and was very tired. All of the unisaws were mising parts. This didn’t stop them from bringing from $450 to $1250.

The two Delta lathes were in pretty good condition and ended up selling for $50 each.

The Oliver Mortiser was in pretty good shape and sold for $500.

The Oliver stroke sander was also in good shape and brought $450.

The American Jointer was in fair condition and ended up selling for $400.

The Delta Radial Arm saws didn’t get a bid and were passed.

The Whitney 105 Planer was pretty tired. There was heavy wear on the beds, the speed indicater was broken, and the drive line had been disassembled. It ended up selling for $1000.

I ended up buying the SCMI S-63 Planer for $400. This machine was pretty ugly due mostly to a very bad paint job. Everything on it moved nicely, and there was no wear on the beds.

I also bought the Whitney No. 177 Variety Saw for $300. This was a 1977 machine. It was in very good condition with no visible wear on any part of the saw. The low price was mostly due to the previously mentioned fence and miters being missing from the saw. There was one other person bidding against me. After the sale was over, I half jokingly said that he could have bought the saw if he had bid it up to $500. I told him I would have offered him the miters and fence for an additional $1500.

There was no forklift on site, so the loadout was a real pain. I had to move everything out on my pallet jack, and then drag it up the ramps on the trailer using a chainfall. This wasn’t alot of fun because it had been raining and snowing for most of the day. Even so, everything went pretty smoothly with the only difficult item being the SCMI planer which is alot heavier than it looks.

3 Responses to “Chicopee Comprehensive High School”

  1. Great buys Arthur! I especially envy the deal you got on the Whitney saw!

  2. Eric L. Lien says:

    Can you give me any info on my Delta Unisaw? It has cresent shaped tag on the front and the numbers…C 311 on it. Thank you, Eric

    • The owwm says:

      Eric,
      If you could send me a picture of the tag, it would help. If the number you provided is the serial number, it was manufactured in 1958.

      Thanks.

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