My Biggest Pet Peeve AS A Hobby Machinist

[TorontoBuilder]

I was speaking with the owner of a commercial machine shop last night and found out that he too sometimes has the same issue I do... the issue I hate more than anything.

A little more about his business, he makes machined parts for various industries. He has two cnc lathes (I got to see one run, cool) two cnc mills, manual mills and lathes, etc and outsources things like bending and anondizing.

So many hobbyists too rely on outsourcing things we just can't do such as water jet cutting, EDM work, anodizing to name a few, and so so often when we reach out to small and medium sized businesses seeking their services those businesses either don't respond at all our are dismissive of our requests.

Case in point, back on May 2, 2022, at 11:39 AM I reached out to the sales department of Greenerd to inquire if they still produce and sell arbor presses and stops after seeing their literature. I want a stop for my 3E press. The website does not make it clear one way or the other.

They did not even acknowledge my email. Zip nada, nothing. I have a word for those types.

The same applies to a local heat treating company I requested a quotation from for cryogenic HT for wood lathe bowl gouge blanks I ground

 

[benmychree]

So, make your own ---

 

[TorontoBuilder]

So, make your own ---

Yeah in the case of the depth stop I already have the plans drawn up.

But, you miss the point. The service industry and small manufacturing is broken.

That option does not exist for the heat treating, the lathe bed grinding nor the plastic extrusions I wanted of the EDM cut stamping dies I need.

 

[great white]

Yeah in the case of the depth stop I already have the plans drawn up.

But, you miss the point. The service industry and small manufacturing is broken.

That option does not exist for the heat treating, the lathe bed grinding nor the plastic extrusions I wanted of the EDM cut stamping dies I need.

I’d say the problem is most shops want to do production runs, not onesies and twosies.

I can almost guarantee that if you sent that place an email stating you wanted 50 or 100 of that piece they’d be writing you back.

Very few will do a production run and let it sit on the shelf waiting for someone to need them. It just ties up capital in the hopes they sell them all. Its not a good business practice when an owner/manager is trying to maximize profit and lower costs (their costs, not yours).

Or, shops that will do one or two of something are going to charge high prices for the piece. Mainly because of labor cost and having to cover the purchase and maintenance of some very expensive machinery. Its not like a lot places in the world (like India) where they can pay someone a couple bucks a day to punch out stuff on machinery that looks so okd that it could have been in the machine shop on the Titanic.

Sucks, but thats the way business has gone in most NA shops. Small shops that will do that kind of work are a rarity these days and most are either out of business or on their way out…

 

[Chips O'Toole]

Professional machining is full of rude people. Have you been to Practical Machinist? Unbelievable manners. All sorts of filthy insults flying around. When I go there, I behave as though I were dealing with mental patients.

I belong to a bunch of forums. I've learned people with certain interests are nicer than others. Bodybuilders, fishermen, and gun people tend to be astoundingly conceited and rude. Woodworkers are okay. DIY people are okay. I haven't had any problems on tractor websites. Electronics people can be trying, but that's the nature of the breed. I don't think they can help it.

Habitual tourists are really rude. If you want to be insulted, try Tripadvisor. Food forums are full of, well, I won't use the word.

Religious forums are amazingly unpleasant.

Some of the worst treatment I've gotten was on an Alzheimer's forum when I was looking after my dad. Bunch of real jewels over there.

I assume the way certain types of people behave on the web is in line with the way they act in the actual world, except some tone it down in real life because they don't want to eat fists all day.

 

[TorontoBuilder]

I’d say the problem is most shops want to do production runs, not onesies and twosies.

Very few will do a production run and let it sit on the shelf waiting for someone to need them. It just ties up capital in the hopes they sell them all. Its not a good business practice when an owner/manager is trying to maximize profit and lower costs (their costs, not yours).

Or, shops that will do one or two of something are going to charge high prices for the piece. Mainly because of labor cost and having to cover the purchase and maintenance of some very expensive machinery.

Sucks, but thats the way business has gone in most NA shops…

The fallacy of the small shop owner is that many high volume low mark up parts is better than low volume high mark up parts.

In business class we learned the need to know your total operating costs down to the hourly cost to run any process.

I ran a business that served two distinct markets, production builders who were outright cheap, very cheap and cared little about the quality of the end product, only about price and code compliance... and architects and their clientele who cares far less about my charges versus the quality ie comfort, durability and cost to operate of their finished homes.

Neither class of client got turned away. They just paid vastly different prices based on the level of service that they got.

It's very poor business person who decides that I wont pay a high rate for a service rather than letting me decide for myself. I've a history of paying for what I need versus not getting anything

 

[TorontoBuilder]

let me clarify further... I'm willing to pay the hourly rate for a heat treatment oven for a full cycle, whether it be for 2 parts or 100 parts.

also, I had been intending to make enough gouge inserts to be able to sell inserts to fit turning tool handles where the original manufacturer went out of business and some of the owners are willing to pay a high price for the best. Why would I do this? Not for profit, but to make them accessible to me too.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

I make part of my living doing onsies and twosies of obsolete parts. The fun for me is reverse engineering the broken parts or assemblies . Since I charge by the hour, most jobs are time and materials.
I don’t advertise making quantities to avoid the pitfall of undercutting my profit.

 

[Chips O'Toole]

Seems like there is no such thing as a fix-it shop any more. I used to think it would be fun to open a place and offer simple repairs for people who can't machine, weld, do wiring, or work with wood. So many things get thrown out when a quick weld or a couple of new wires would put them back in business for decades.

 

[markba633csi]

You're talking about a modern day jack of all trades- they are out there but few and far between. Very hard to make it worthwhile unless one specializes somewhat in a particular area