20 bucks (also, I'm not dead)

[1mrchristopher]

Greetings pickers, lockies and assorted others!

I've been on 'vacation,' for the last week, which was really visiting family and seeing my sister in law graduate nursing school. Not much of interest in the picking world while I was over there, but I did peruse craigslist, and pick up a mini speedex for 20 dollars. It's only condition issue, a broken belt. I think a functioning duplicator for that kind of money is pretty OK, and I like its size. I'll probably keep my ilco 45 in the van, as the space it occupies couldn't really be used differently. My goal is to have a setup in the basement of my home to do some of those larger jobs in the winter when it isn't as desirable to sit in the van and do them, so that's my argument for shucking out the dough.

[billdeserthills]

That is quite a buy, does it have two-way vises or the newer 4 way?
Even if it needs new cutter shaft bushings and a new cutter shaft you
still got a great deal!

[cledry]

Wouldn't want to do a larger job with a mini Speedex but you got a good deal. I would fix it and turn around and sell it on for a profit.

[victorylocksmith]

do what cledry says, sell it. there is no point in being a collector of random tools that have no need. i believe that this is a fundamental problem a lot of locksmiths' have when first starting out, myself included today. How many key machines do you need? You can only really used one at a time and to be frank, i can understand if you have a nice code machine and want to save it so instead you use a beat up duplicator but, to have two duplicators is a bit overkill. i say sell the speedex because quite frankly it sucks, or keep it if it is better than than your ilco and sell the ilco. either way, sell it and spend the money on something that is more useful because, by keeping it around, all it is doing is collecting dust and not accumulating you the money you need for a truly useful tool such as a HPC blitz.

sell it man, and save up for a blitz.

[cledry]

I think even if you are a one man shop it is good to have a back up machine. What do you tell a customer if your machine goes down? Yes they rarely go down completely. At the very least you should have spare cutters, belts, switches, fuses on hand. We have multiple machines because we have multiple users but even in a busy shop a couple of Silca Bravo machines is all we have needed for duplicating regular keys.

[1mrchristopher]

I actually have a Blitz, and cut the majority of my keys on it. I know that there are plenty of people who dislike the Speedex, but it seems like a fine little machine - does a nice job. I'd rather focus my time on jobs than reselling equipment, especially considering what I paid. When the time comes that I can afford a semi-automatic duplicator, then I'll worry about selling one.

[dmcintyre86]

Wow good steal.
I am also keeping my eye open for another basic duplicator. Unfortuanatly i dont have permissions for the buy/trade or sell sections yet so craigslist and such are where im looking. I am saving the money i have to get a code cutter so a new duplicator will be probabally bought used.
Your post gave me hope. i figured i will be paying much more...hopefully i can find a deal similar to yours!

-dave