I thought I'd tell a story of my "Ebay buy of the month".When you fool with tractors, cars, trucks, and airplanes, among other things, you often find need for a press to force stuff apart or press in things such as bushings, bearing races in hubs, etc. I've always wanted a hydraulic press and I despise the cheapie stamped steel presses with the bottle jacks mounted in them and their wobbly mountings. At work we have a number of Dake brand presses and I have admired the quality of their construction and their design. One in particular interested me was an old 25 ton "H" model which I thought would be particularly suited to my needs. Quite by chance I did some searches on Ebay and turned up a couple of the Dake 25 ton models. One interested me, it had a $50 starting bid (with a reserve, unknown to me at the time of course) and it was located in Edison, New Jersey, some 900 driving miles from me!!! The listing was lacking any description except that it was a "Drake" (misspelling of the manufacturer's name, Dake) and that it was a "10 ton". Dake never made a 10 ton in this design so I emailed their tech rep and asked him to look at the listing. He confirmed my suspicions that it really was my dream come true, 25 ton model. The pictures were poor and I emailed the seller to confirm it was in good working condition and not damaged or the frame bent, etc. He verified it was OK and I found out he was a middle man, listing it for someone who was not familiar enough with the internet or Ebay to want to list it themselves. Anyhow, I waited and in the last hour, I made a $252 bid, enough I suspected for to beat the reserve, No one else had bid on it, probably due to the 10 ton description. Ebay showed me as the winner at the $150 reserve and when I got home that nite it showed me the winner at $191.38!!! It seems that four SECONDS from the close of the bidding a $188.88 bid was received and I did not know it. I was still the high bidder but was "jacked up" by the last second bidder. So soon after that I set out up I 85 and I 95 for Edison, NJ. I battled high winds on the road (scary when its blowing 40 mph and you are crossing a very high bridge over a river, and lots of traffic, but I arrived. We loaded it in the back of my Ranger. I had carefully planned it out and knew it would lay down in the bed with the gauge and the legs removed, with only about an inch to spare both in length and width. We set it on 4x4's laying down, using a strap and a boom and hook on a forklift. The seller and I chated for a few minutes in his office (I'm conviced he's the nicest guy in New Jersey, great fellow) and I reloaded the truck with my toolboxes and extra wood blocks and other items and reinstalled the camper shell, and set out South on the Jersey Turnpike. Numerous tolls, several traffic jams and a number of rest and wake up stops later I arrived back home. 1875 miles total drive, one nite in a motel and the gas and tolls, I still don't have over $500 in the press total including the purchase price. The only other ones I've found on Ebay were $649 starting bid and one in an Ebay store for $1250! Dake has made the press for probably 40 years or more and new it sells at MSC for $2750, the exact same unit. The Dake presses are hard to find used, everyone likes them alot and tends to keep them, when they do sell its word of mouth, most of the used equipment and machinery dealers don't want to mess with something as small as a 25 ton unit. In fact that is why this unit was on Ebay, it came from a chemical plant that was being closed down (sold overseas) and was used by the plant maintenance department. The seller told me the used machinery dealers wouldn't buy the press, drill press, and other small shop equipment, and that is why they resorted to Ebay. The press was filthy dirty and I removed it from the truck with an engine hoist (it weighs 450 lbs) and pressure washed it and changed the oil, buying new, recommended oil for it from Grainger, and it works like a champ. Gotta go, there's a bead blasting cabinet coming up for bid..... ..... ..... Charles
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