creative machine funding ideas

that's a lovely bit of machining! Chances are, if you find something useful but too expensive to buy, someone else will too. Make and sell a bunch of them until everyone has one, then move onto the next useful thing.

I sympathise about the machinery desires vs. funding constraints. I'm in a similar position (single income family, medical and dental bills for the kids etc etc) with the added bonus of having to move in a year or two's time, so even if I could afford better machinery, there's no point buying it here and then paying to move it somewhere else. I just make do with my small jewelry style lathe and drill press converted to a "mill". if nothing else, they're excellent teachers on the limits of ones machinery! Something that I do occasionally to help fund tooling purchases is buy a job lot of tools that has something in it that I need, then sell on the things that I don't need or can't use. Not so much to make money, because I haven't :), but it reduces the cost of the things I do buy. That and swapping skills/ parts for things you need, which can work really well.

good luck!
 
After retiring I took some courses in college and finally locked myself into a part time job at the school teaching machine shop classes. My wife and I split my check, 50/50.
She saves her half for vacations and I use mine to buy machines and shop supplies. I always called it my "super secret tool fund" but now she knows about it so I call it my "semi-super secret tool fund" and she has no idea how much I really have. Along the way, I helped myself by buying old lathes, cleaning them up and reselling or parting out depending on wear.
 
bosephus said:
i am still waiting on my nephew to show up and take a few good pics for me to list on ebay , but while i wait i'll show you with a few less then good pics of what the neck size die looks like while i wait .
and a finished product
Click to expand...


That's a great start Steve!!!!
:thumbzup3:
 
why thank you , now that i have a start on it i need to do some head scratching and come up with a few more ideas .
now if i can just find my smart pills to help out

is it funny that most of the ideas that i have come up with require a mill :rofl:
 
Mybe the first thing you fund with your earnings is a milling attachment for your lathe:)) Now you can do some milling until you get the real deal
 
a milling attachment is not a bad thought as a temporary stop gap , i am giving that idea a real good think .

the real good news is , my simple neck sizing die might just be a winner of an idea . i currently have 7 watchers and a bit over 50 page views .
it doesn't sound like big numbers , but then this isnt something millions of people want , i have done well with other reloading items in the past with less views and watchers .

i have also had three inquiries about making the die for specific brass thicknesses and bullet diameters . so things are looking rather promising .

fingers crossed watchers turn into bidders , and the inquiries turn into cutomers :nervous:
 
lets raise my currant funding level to $68, one of the inquiries paid off .. a bit over 3% of my goal ... yipppy
 
Congrats! It's all down hill from here. (let's just hope that ain't a cliff)

Mark
 
well well well , having a great day today towards the mill fund .

a fella from finland hit the buy it now button on the die auction , so after ebay and pay pall fee's i can add another , $24.65 to my fund
and a member here decided to buy my large tool holders , adding another $25 to my growing fund ,... bringing me up to the grand sum of ....

$118.65 ,.. woo hooo at this rate i can see me owning a mill quite a bit sooner then expected . :thumbsup2:


i am off to relist another die , and my girl friend is cooking me italian sausage for dinner ,.. thanks for the help and support gentleman
 
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