Unusual Opportunity

UPDATE to May 8/006:

The two Cronite engraving machines that were for sale in Los Angeles, CA are now sold.

However, as a result of my putting info about them on my web site, several additional machines that are for sale have surfaced. There are six Cronite engraving machines in a shop in Kentucky.  These are going back to the Cronite factory in Parsippany, NJ, on May 18th, and can be shipped to any buyer from there.

As with the first two machines mentioned on my website, the Cronite Company is prepared to sell these machines "as is," at a price considerably below one half the cost of a factory reconditioned machine.

Any needed parts are available from the Cronite Company, to bring these machines back to good-as-new operating condition.

Cronite engraving machines are used to do the finest engraving imaginable. (The US Mint uses them.)   The design has evolved over about the last 100 years or so. They are manually operated, completely non-electric, and do not use a rotating cutter.
 
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(Click on the photo to see a larger image.)

These machines allow a duffer to produce results that in some cases even a master engraver could not do.
Anything you can do as a line drawing - any type face (lettering style) you like, a graphic design, a logo, a drawing of an animal or a boat or whatever - can be turned into a master, and used with one of these machines to produce a reduced sized engraving.

The machine scratches your design down through a waxy resist to bare metal.  After you have traced out all the lines on the master, you remove the workpiece from the machine, and etch the design permanently into the metal. You can etch into copper, brass, aluminum, steel, stainless steel, silver, etc. 

I don't think there is any other machine in existence to equal a Cronite engraver for making clock dials.  They can be used for numbering feedscrew dials as well as for doing work on flat surfaces. They will do finer work than any machine that uses a rotating cutter. "Trophy shop" engraving is simply not in the same league at all. 

As I guess you can tell, I'm a big fan of these machines. The photos on this page show a Cronite "Zero" engraver which I bought from a engraved stationery printing shop here in Vancouver about 10 years ago, and restored.  When I got it, it was so dirty I thought the big washer at the base of the column was rusty cast iron. It turned out to be polished bronze!
I made a master for a little rearing horse about 5" tall.  From that master I engraved the same little horse at about 0.070" tall on a piece of copper. At that size (with a microscope) you can still see his eye!
Working from hand cut masters 1-1/16" tall, I have engraved numbers 0.010" tall (as near as I can measure them), and the resulting numbers - even at that extremely small size - are an absolutely flawless duplicate of the masters. (Again, you need a microscope to see that this is so, but it is.)

It takes about 5 minutes for a total duffer to learn to make masters.  For about $10 or so you can buy a hand graver for making masters, or you can make one yourself from a piece of 1/4" drill rod that is just as good, and far easier on your forefinger.

A factory-refurbished Cronite engraver normally sells for about $2500 to $3500.

These "as-is" machines can be had for $750 to $1000 each.

This is a rare opportunity to purchase a highly desirable and useful machine that will do things you can do almost no other way.

Shipping will be the buyer's responsibility. Shipping weight will be about 330 pounds. A Cronite engraver is about the size of a bench drill press, and typically these machines are found on a factory stand. If they are on a stand, the stand is usually about 3' tall, 3' long, and about 24" front to back.  The machine is easily removed from the factory stand, and the whole thing could be put in a car or SUV. (I brought mine home in a Ford Explorer.)  Any required crating and shipping will be done at the buyer's expense.

I can supply you with a write up giving various pointers on how to go about refurbishing one of these machines. A person with average mechanical aptitude can do it, and obviously a machinist is well equipped to carry out certain small fixes that might be difficult for lesser mortals to do.

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(Click on the photo to see a larger image.)

If interested, or for more details, you can contact me - Guy Lautard - at 604-922-4909, or The Cronite Company, Inc., of Parsippany NJ, at  973-887-7900.
NOTE:
If you purchase one of these machines, I can supply you with

1. a write-up I did containing some general advice on refurbishing them,

2.  a great deal of vital and very detailed information about using and adjusting these machines. This info is photocopied (with permission) from an old Cronite book that is virtually unobtainable today, and

3. factory drawings for making what Cronite refers to as the "Gun and Knife Engraver's Universal Attachment." This modification permits engraving on items thicker than about 1/2" - for example when engraving numbers on a shop-made feedscrew dial. The factory charges about $340 to add this modification to these machines, but any basement machinist can readily make this item for himself without difficulty. The drawings were given to me by Cronite president Bob Steffens, with permission to photocopy them and the info on using and adjusting Cronite engraving machines, and to offer them as set forth here.

If you want this info (the refurbishing advice, the chapter from the book, and the drawings for the Gun and Knife Engraver's Universal Attachment), send me a note stating what you want, and $25. 


NOTE
Something else you will in due course need if you buy one of these machines is an engraver's pad.  This is used when making hand cut masters for your machine.  These pads were expensive 10 years ago, and do not seem to be offered now. I have had a few made up. Click here to see further info about this simple but extremely useful item.

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