This story starts with Boeing Surplus, which was once a retail store which sold excess tools and supplies and machines from all of Boeing manufacturing in the Seattle area. That much beloved store went away some time in the first decade of the 2000s, perhaps 2004. In 2015 I heard that Boeing had opened a new online version of their surplus store, set up as an auction site. The very first time I visited that site was in March, 2015. I spotted what looked like an industrial grade arbor press. There was only one picture and it was hard to tell whether it was a plain, ratcheting or compound type. Hardly anyone knew about the Boeing surplus auction site at that time and I put in a bid and won the auction for $509 with a total of 17 bidders. After selling my old one and subtracting the profit I'd made on that, this cost me about $450. This is the picture they posted:

As you can see, the arbor press, platen and factory stand were banded to a pallet. Since I couldn't tell any details, it was somewhat of a gamble. All that the auction text said was:

"AS SHOWN AVAILABLE WITH BASE IS A PRESS IN GOOD CONDITION. ITEM SOLD AS IS AD LIMITED TO US BIDDERS."

At any rate, I rolled over there and hauled that pallet home to my driveway. Here it is assembled and on a rolling dolly:

By this point I realized I'd struck gold. The machine showed few signs of wear. The platen was still shiny, and the rack was tight but moved freely. None of the holes in the compound block were worn oblong. Even the paint looked perfect. It had several cool Boeing placards on it, which I decided to leave on. The handle was slightly bent so I took it off and straightened it and put it back on.

An arbor press like this one is worth a custom-made rolling base. Here is the one I made:

And here is the machine on its new base, ready for service:

I had owned a few smaller arbor presses prior to acquiring this one. I found that I rarely used them. This one, though, is extremely useful. I use it at least once a week. With compound engaged it gives me 8 tons of force which covers many different jobs. This Famco 3-1/2C arbor press is one of my favorite shop machines.

Thanks for reading!