New (to me) Tool

[Professor Marvel]

Well Golly, I have been looking for a small arbor press for some time, and, because I am a CheapBarstitch Frugal
I have sort of choking on the Harbor Freight price for a chinese cheapie... and low and behold one of my local
thrift stores had this lovely Industrial Strength unit:

AMP 91085-2
Arbor Press For Backshell Kit Tooling
list price $5,985.53



fleaby price ~ $150

my price - $5

only downside is the 3.25" throat size, which I can live with....

egads I'm lucky!

prof marvel

[The Pathfinder]

Hey Professor, please tell me you ran straight to the store and bought lottery tickets before your luck expired. Dang, a $5000 plus tool for $5?? Did you swallow a four leaf clover or something?

[Major 2]

list price $5,985.53    could they be THAT proud of them ?   

nice score

[Coffinmaker]

I admit to being somewhat Miffdalated.  Also some confused/baffled.  What would one want with one of these Doo-Hickies in other than commercial applications for making Guided Mussel wiring harnesses???

I use to have a Hydraulic press for assembling mechanical things and crushing fingers.  Mine, however never approached FIVE GRAND??  WHAT COULD POSSIBLY make it worth 5K???

A weak and quavering mind is inquisitive 

[Professor Marvel]

I admit to being somewhat Miffdalated.  Also some confused/baffled.  What would one want with one of these Doo-Hickies in other than commercial applications for making Guided Mussel wiring harnesses???

I use to have a Hydraulic press for assembling mechanical things and crushing fingers.  Mine, however never approached FIVE GRAND??  WHAT COULD POSSIBLY make it worth 5K???

A weak and quavering mind is inquisitive 

Ah My Dear Coffin!

let us take a trip in the WayBack machine to days of yore long before anything like ebay, during the times of Squarish Tube TV's and computer were big monster roomsize things and Apples and Commodores were just starting up and the USA actually had a space program.....

back then, cables were MAGIC and the ability to assemble one of these was worth GOLD



The Big Guy in the biz was AMP, and they made PRECISION presses! back then they were built to spec one at a time, the the Big Boys
who were building cables for Telco, Computers, and Aerospace marked it down to "cost of doing business"

Later, when Osbornes and AltaIr's and IBM PC's took off, ribbon cables came of age, and connector & caBLE manufacture got dirt simple:



Then, except for strange exotic esoteric applications these AMP presses became... surplus.

thus the huge difference between "list"  ( btw with a 6 week lead time) and "used" or "ebay" prices.

These things are like the 12x36 Atlas lathes that "nobody" wants anymore....

yhs
prof mumbles

[paperchaser]

Oh my gracious.  This thread has brought back OLD memories:
soldering iron, 25-wire cable, and plenty of patience; used to make my own
null modem cables, too.  Thank goodness I'm retired.