Parting with an old machine can be hard. It was likely a huge investment, and has probably served you well for dozens of projects, so trashing it, especially while it still functions perfectly fine, can be a hard decision. However, if a machine is just gathering dust in the back of your shop, there are great benefits to selling it off before it breaks, rather than waiting around out of obligation until it's worthless. Money, for one, is a pretty nice benefit. So with that in mind, we're going to be doing a series on selling your machines over the coming week, to give you all the knowledge you need to feel good and ready when you're parting with ol' lathe-y. Before we even talk about how you sell a machine though, one has to ask: how do you even know when it's time to sell? Well, I'm glad you asked:

If a new machine is already on the way

If you've got a new machine coming in a few weeks, it's already time to start thinking about moving the old one. The sales process takes some time, even if you do it through a used machinery distribution service, so if you know the thing is already on its way out, the time to look into getting rid of it is now. There's certainly no sense in keeping it around as a back-up. Unless your shop strictly needs an extra machine around, it's just going to start to fall apart without regular upkeep, and if you're spending time and money maintaining a machine you don't use then it's time and money wasted.

You're closing a shop or a plant

This one is a little more obvious, but it's still worth mentioning. If you're closing down a location, you're likely going to have a lot of machines that you don't need. In this case you'll probably want to liquidate the machines. If you want to get rid of them fast when doing so, though, an auction is a great liquidation option. Machines on auction tend to go quicker than through conventional sales means, especially since you can set your own end date, while the auction process ensures you'll still get a good amount of money for your investment.

Even if you don't know the logistics

A big concern when selling a CNC machine is always the logistics of selling it. How will you make sure your machine reaches interested buyers? How will you cover the cost of transporting the machine, or storing it if you just don't have the space in your shop anymore? You may not exactly have the means to haul a CNC lathe from Chicago to San Fransisco. While that may have been a concern in the past, none of that should worry you now. With the plethora of online machine selling services available to you now, many will handle the logistics for you completely, so as soon as you're ready to get rid of it, it's as simple as getting into contact.

If you want to learn more about selling CNC machinery, check out our free guide: