I spent yesterday at an auction of an old metal shop. The usual story, a going concern sold to a new owner that ran it into the ground. The bank forced the sale. Yadda, Yadda, same old song, different verse.
Most of the equipment was old and obsolete. I about turned around and left after making my preliminary walk through of the pre-sale inspection, except I had promised to meet a friend and help him in assessing the Clausing drill presses. Roy found me and we went back to inspect the drill presses, quickly eliminating the first, due to a cracked pulley, moving on to the second, which was in decent shape, and the third, variable speed model which was missing several pieces of the variable speed transmission. Since he was actually acting as a proxy bidder for another friend of ours, who is rebuilding a variable speed Clausing, we settled on the VS DP as the likely "parts donor". He'll have to tell you about his adventures with the Clausing Monster.
Anyway, the auctioneer was having a hard time getting bids on the small stuff so they just starting piling lots together and selling the pile. A bunch of 4 1/2" grinder flap wheels caught my eye so I bid in and they added a 48" rule and a 12" rule to the pile which I won the bid at $7 USD. I was pleased to acquire 4 new Klingspor flap wheels for the price of one but my heart jumped when they handed over the rules and I caught glimpse of "L.S. Starrett" on the 48"-er. A genuine C404R-48" heavy temper, in reasonable condition.
When I got home last night I cleaned the rule with some thinner and began to wonder what it would actually cost to purchase a new one. A quick look at the Starrett website gave me the pertinent information on the rule and confirmed that it is still available. C4 designates the rule as a "heavy temper", the 4R is the "scale style" (1/16", 1/8", 1/32", 1/64"), satin finish stainless steel.
I went to the usual Starrett suppliers looking for a price, where I found the C404R-48 a "price on request" item. Failing to find the exact price, I did find a price on a C604R-48. The C604R is the next step down in the line-up but the sale price of $173.99 tells me I am indeed lucky SOB!
I may send the rule over to my buddy at his NIST metrology lab and have him check it to see if it is still as straight as it should be. A 4 foot machinist straight edge could prove handy!
I'm chuffed!
