Clarke 'Super 7' edger hardwood floor sander, $20.
Equipment used to maintain wood flooring is horribly expensive. Professional grade machines like rotary drum sanders and floor edge sanders like this Super 7, are expensive pieces that you must know about. Learn to spot this type of equipment now and you stand to profit when you see it!
Industrial sanding machines used to refinish hardwood floors cost a great deal of money to buy new, which naturally means they'll have lots of potential bidders looking for them on eBay. A little time spent now researching some of the various companies that make hardwood floor sanders will come in very handy when you spot one these jewels out in the world!
The Clarke Super 7 machine is used for the sole purpose of sanding wood floors. The '7' in its name comes from the fact that it uses a 7-inch diameter round sanding disk, whose rubber backing mount can be seen in the photo below. This sander is called an 'edger' because it's designed to be used in conjunction with a larger walk-behind rotary drum sanding machine that normally weighs well over 100 pounds. Although the walk-behind machine can cover more area in less time than our little Super 7, it can't get as close to the wall as the Super 7 can, which is why every floor sanding business needs a larger walk-behind sander, as well as an edger sander, in order to get the job done.
This Super 7 sander is a great example of the stuff I love to run across, because it represents a sort of 'magic recipe' you should always be on the lookout for:
The Clarke Super 7 floor edge sander is a small piece of industrial machinery that does a very specific job.
Although it's not readily recognizable by the layman, it's still in widespread use in its specific industry. And...
It costs a small fortune to buy new. And as we all know, expensive new can often mean expensive used.
This little formula can make you more money than you'd think, so tuck it away in your mind. Clarke still makes a machine nearly identical to this one, which you can buy new for around $1500. It's no wonder people search for better deals of these little floor sanders on eBay!
As you look at the Super 7 sander in the photos, you'll notice that it's in fairly nasty shape, appearance-wise. But you can bet that there are plenty of floor sanding businesses out there who'd rather save themselves a grand by paying me a few hundred dollars for this ugly machine.
A word of advice about electrical machinery, which you may already know: always be sure to plug the machine in and let it run for a few minutes to make sure that it at least runs. You don't have to actually sand down a floor with the darned thing, but being able to tell your bidders something like, 'although I haven't used this machine to sand a wood floor, I have plugged it in and found that it it runs,' goes a very long way toward putting your prospective bidders at ease.
This Clarke Super 7 edger sander sold on eBay for $245.
