US, Ohio - Calibration & Testing Equipment Auction - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: EE54
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 15, 2025, 02:21:12 pm
content: Stumble upon this auction to liquidate a cal lab in Ohio. Brief look shows all kind of equipment (3458A, Calibrators, standards,...)According to the website, in person auction only on July 26. Details listed below.Though some of you guys would be interested in this.https://www.cbusauctions.com/new-events/72625

author: felixd
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 15, 2025, 05:01:13 pm
content: Why is it not happening in Poland

author: neverendingstudent
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 15, 2025, 05:37:02 pm
content: I'm in Michigan. It's a 4.5 hour drive for me plus unknown delays from construction. That makes for one very rough day... I usually never work or do auctions that are more than a 1 hour radius around me, but I think I may have to make an exception here.Thank you for the well-in-advance heads up EE54! This may be my chance to get a 3458A and/or a Fluke multifunction calibrator. I've wanted those capabilities for years as setting up my own cal lab and getting NIST accreditation has been a long term goal of mine.GREATLY appreciated.

author: pac1085
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2025, 11:15:07 am
content: Saw this the other day and im probably going to make the 6 hour trip as well. Figure I'll visit the air force museum while I'm there. Hoping for the same items everyone else will want. lol. I had my hopes up since there was no online bidding, but maybe stuff won't go so cheap with people driving in from out of town.I wonder if there is any sort of reserve on the items. I also wonder if any of it will be plugged in during the preview, to ensure no error codes etc (thinking of the 3458a's here)

author: Hydron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2025, 01:35:37 pm
content: Bring a portable AC power battery bank thing? Wouldn't need to be that powerful for most TE. Assumes that they'd let you test it though.You won't have competition from me sadly, given it's a long haul flight away

author: neverendingstudent
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2025, 01:01:12 am
content: Quote from: pac1085 on June 16, 2025, 11:15:07 amOn the one hand, we'll be bidding against each other, on the other hand, we're part of the same community...The auction page has a PDF download with notes from the seller. They aren't verbose, but it does not some as having issues / needs repair and also lists some of the options installed in some of the items. They do also say there is viewing / inspection of the items the day before the auction.Edit: beyond that I'd give them a call and ask "Hey, could you plug this in and press these buttons so the 3458A runs a self test, then reply with / show pictures of any error messages or 'no error' result?" Worst they can say is no.

author: bat
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2025, 09:30:43 am
content: Oh man there is no way!If anybody from the forums buys the Fluke 5500A and is willing to sell it back to me I would really appreciate it!!Same for those 3458A... they look like they are in rough shape but I could figure it out

author: maxamp
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2025, 06:29:54 am
content: It will be a long drive but I'm thinking about going. Should we try to organize a lunch or dinner at a restaurant to meet each other?

author: neverendingstudent
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2025, 04:53:38 pm
content: Wow, that drive was exhausting, especially on the way back, but worth it.I didn't get both of my primary 2 objectives, but I've officially joined the 3458A club! Had to let the Fluke calibrators go sadly.

author: felixd
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2025, 06:53:16 pm
content: Price You got for 3458A if I may ask?

author: neverendingstudent
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2025, 08:54:01 pm
content: Quote from: felixd on July 27, 2025, 06:53:16 pm$3400.There were 2 there, I got the newer one (2005), another guy got the older one (1988) with the option 002 high stability reference. I think I'm ok with that though, since when I powered them up before the auction that one initially failed full testing and showed error 205 "Hardware Failure -- Test Value Out of Range: 244". Could just be initial cold-start values being too far off though, since later in the day it did pass self-test. Mine passed all tests first time, though both *did* have error 114 "System Error -- Nonvolatile ram checksum" in the stored error log. The owner told me they had been unplugged in storage so I'm guessing the charge in one or more of the Dallas NVRAM chips died out, though I'm guessing it is still able to charge since it was good after being plugged in. Hopefully I still have cal data stored and only user data got lost.I have it plugged in at home now and reading 5V from my DMMCheck Plus r8, it's been consistently showing 4.999975 to 4.999979 (though typically the last digit is floating more between 6 and 8 ) for a couple hours now, with the only actual warmup delta happening in the first 20-30 minutes or so. For reference, my Keysight 34465A (last cal Jun 2023) reports it as 4.99994V. The newest cal sticker on the 3458A is 16-Apr-2018.EDIT: after running the full ~12 minutes ACAL I'm now getting 4.999986V on my DMMCheck 5V source, and with 4-wire output enabled on my Advantest R6144 outputting 16V (the most accurate output I believe) I'm reading a slightly noisy (the Advantest is slightly noisy - don't know if it's just my unit or normal for that model) 15.99998V (plus or minus 20uV) - so it fluctuates between 15.99996 and 16.00000. Very nice. Between the 2 sources, if I can presume them accurate, that's between 1.25 and 2.8PPM off. Not bad at all!Additionally, the owner supplied me with a folder of documentation for that specific unit, WHICH INCLUDED EVERY PRIOR CALIBRATION WITH FULL DATA!!!!!! I was overjoyed when I saw that.There was also the shipping-damaged Fluke 5700 multifunction calibrator, but after bidding passed $4300 I couldn't justify buying it with my current finances. Sad.Other than that, I got a literal van-load of other gear.Some random transfer standards for resistance / capacitance / inductance, a stack of old analog oscilloscopes, something like... a hundred pounds of test leads of every type imaginable? Oh, and some handheld multimeters and LCR meters.There are also a bunch of custom manufactured Unitek cal standards and test fixtures that I reasonably assume I now have the only ones in existence, since the auction was the liquidation of Unitek's assets.Edit: damn! I missed an awesome opportunity. I should have taken a video walkthrough during the inspection hour before we started - that would have been absolutely awesome to share.

author: pac1085
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 27, 2025, 11:43:50 pm
content: Congrats man, nice to meet you. I tapped out on the 3458A's before the $3k mark. I would have chosen that one too. I actually thought someone outbid you on that and you missed out, but glad to hear you took it home!I was surprised at how much some of the stuff went for (higher than you can go on eBay and buy it for lol)The 5700A came with the 5725A amplifier and cable, the cable goes for $700-1k on eBay and the amplifier around 10k. The amp looked to be in pretty good shape, just a dent at the bottom. Still too much for me to risk but someone got a deal. supposedly the 5700a worked, just banged up.. who knows.Someone stole the fully functional Fluke 5500A + 5725A + interconnect cable for 9k...Kinda sad I didn't win the Fluke 5220 transconductance amplifier, since it's the one piece I needed to finish my rack but it wasn't worth it.I did get a cool Unitek decade resistance standard though, 0.001 ohms to 1 GOhm, and he gave me the folder of cal data going back to 1991 when it was built (It's never needed any adjustments). And a clarostat high power decade resistor box which I have some uses for.I left pretty early, there were a few other things I wouldn't have minded picking up (box full of HP board extenders, for example), but it was probably going to be hours before they got to them. Hot sweaty building didn't help. Ended up going to the USAF museum in Dayton for the rest of the day. All of the old planes there smell just like the inside of old test equipment so that made me happy.What did they end up doing with all of the parts bins and manual boxes? Did they go super cheap? There were a few gold mine parts bins (like the one loaded with the big dipped mica resistors)

author: neverendingstudent
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2025, 01:00:04 am
content: Quote from: pac1085 on July 27, 2025, 11:43:50 pmIt was fun to meet you too!I actually had to NOT buy most of those simply due to not having enough room at home. I paid a premium to bid for my choice of a single parts bin - the one we saw that had the 34401a parts - I think you were the one to pull the drawer and we saw there was still an input jack assembly in there. Practically all the rest went for between $30 and $100 for lots of 6 to 10 of the bins - yes, $100 for 10 full parts organizers! I just didn't have the space at home....At the very end, the ENTIRE BACK ROW OF EVERY TABLE FULL OF BOXES went for $1 (on the other side of the C-shaped building, not the middle of the C-shape). I conceded bidding on that for the same reason as above - I just don't have the space. The auctioneer absolutely wanted to be done and refused to let me bid on smaller lots at that point. I kind of understand - same reason you left - it was hot and he'd been working in that heat the whole time. He also wanted to ensure everything actually got removed which I'm sure is part of why he did it how he did.I was also surprised on how high the bidding went on certain items - like the scopemeters. Another forum user asked me for one if I could pick them up cheap (he offered to fully reimburse me) - but then that first single meter went for just under $300 and there wasn't much point. Maybe if those hadn't been among the first items to start off the bidding it would have been different.

author: Vgkid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 28, 2025, 05:09:28 am
content: Make a post about what you guys got.