Troy Clark of Clark Machinery Sales, LLC joins David to discuss what buyers should be aware of when buying new equipment. Spoiler: buy with the end in mind.
About this segment of Blackbird TV
Guest: Troy Clark, President, Clark Machinery Sales. To learn more about our guest, visit ClarkMachinerySales.com, or call 410-252-5494.
Recorded: September 28, 2020
Published: May 25, 2021
Segment transcript
Here with Troy Clark. From Clark machinery sales, what’s important to your customer or your client? I think a lot of them want to know like buying a house or buying a car. I think they want to know if I get a certain machine can I resale it in for five years or seven years or… Yes, I need a machine for the specific Thing that I’m doing. They’re going to swap it out for five years, and so that’s why it drives me nuts when people buy a lathe then they don’t put the tailstock on it, right? Like it’s 5 grand new, just get the tailstock, because it’s a 10 grand slice in the price when it comes time to resell in for five years, it’s just that they don’t know that math. “But I don’t need a tailstock now.” That’s right, but you’re gonna want that 5 grand back in five years. That’s that’s a really that’s a really valid point, and an is an appraiser, if a machine doesn’t have a tail stock. I think even as an auctioneer, I mean you look in the machine right? There’s no tailstock, and he said wait a minute, this is a chucker at that point. It goes from 100% buying opportunity to maybe 10 to 15. Those guys who just are just chucking up. But then you gotta have a bar-feed or a robot or something, but it’s not a universal so just little things like that I think. I think that’s a big thing, and that’s something that I’ve never really had an intellectual conversation about. Is that tailstock on the machine really, really, really great point. What about other accessories that you see on equipment? Number one if you’re going by vertical machining, centre or horizontal spend the extra dough and get the coolant through the spindle, please. I’m begging you, please please. Through-spindle cooling. No one’s ever angry that it’s got it. Right? It’s almost like air conditioning on a car now, right? Yes! Yes you… you just… you may not need to blast that high-pressure coolant to hit deep holes, you know, clear, right? You gotta blast those chips out of the holes, that’s fine, but you will want it at some point and everybody else is going to require when they go to buy it. So just coolant through the spindle, big big deal or through spindle coolant whatever you want to say. Great point. Begin with the end in mind when you come and buy this piece of equipment, if you’re buying a new piece of equipment, particularly, you want to make sure that you have options that are going to maintain the value of that equipment for the next person that’s going to want it. Yeah, and I get it if you know that you turn your machines into boat anchors, that’s great. You’re gonna run it for 20 years and then dump it. No worries. A lot of people have that they have specifically dedicated jobs and it’s all about return on investment. You’re going to shave off that 5 or $7000, whatever it is, for the tailstock, but the coolant through the spindle, 4th axis drive, just those little things, but if you think you are going to want to update your machine, do yourself a favor, it makes your machine sell more quickly, it makes it more palatable to the entire buyer database. Begin with the end in mind. Big fan of that. Great thought. Troy Clark, Clark Machinery Sales, Hunt Valley, Maryland. Thanks for joining us today. Thank you, David.