Someone please school me on these tool prices...

I do a lot of searching for metal working tools here and there, and I see these Eckolds and other machines for big bucks. Are they a real sophisticated machine or are you paying for the Eckold name? The one pictured, they are asking $25k+ and ive seen an old "Townsend" brand shrinker for $7k...Might just have to stick all my manual powered tools!!

 

Hey Matt,

Eckolds are the real deal, are duty rated and will last several lifetimes They'll shrink, stretch and shape depending on which dies you have. Yeah, your paying big bucks for a name, but what a name! The tooling for these, if you have to buy some is mega bucks as well.
If most of your build budgets run five and six figures, yeah, you could probably pay one off

 

if you want real tools, you have to pay real prices, if you use them everyday, nothing else will do and the price really isn't that big of deal, they make ur money back hundreds of time over

 

Those are serious industrial tools, for running production.

There are lower priced options.

 

Can't school you, it's something that you will have to try out yourself and see there is no comparison. I wish I had never bought ANY low end equipment, hard not to do when money's short.

For example. We had cheap hand cranked bead rollers in the shop for years. Straight out of the box the frame has to be reinforced. The shafts ride on soft (almost pot metal) pillow blocks with no bearings. The gears and dies have set screws with no key ways. The hand crank is not a wheel so you are wanting to tip the machine over when you really start to crank it. Then after making a wheel fit, you be dying for motorized and foot pedal control. Which really won't matter because the throat depth is not there. Which really doesn't matter because the pressure screw that pushes the top shaft down stripes the threads or breaks from repetitive use. Which really doesn't matter because the dies are junk to begin with, right out of the box.

I felt the pain and spent thousands on a Lazze bead roller. Night and day....worth every penny.

Can't wait for the eckold, but honestly I think the Bailigh power hammer is what I'm going after next. And it will cost.

 

Don't get me wrong, i have my exspensive tools, I was just taken back by the price on this one inpaticular..I have my list of tools and machines that will eventually be in the shop, one giant dent in the wallet at a time. I learned a long time ago about cheap tools..I did get my nice big bead roller for free from Baileigh so that took one off of the list!!