What made you become a Home Shop Machinist?- The Dark Side

[geotek]

Local clubs can be helpful. About ten years ago a freind approached me and asked if the Home Metal Shop Club could help out. He had a friend who was now stricken with alzheimers and could no longer work in his shop. They had some used machinery dealers come by and give quotes for the shop. The best quote he got was $5,000. So we threw a big garage sale for the club. The sale netted over $10,000 and we even cleaned out the building for the wife. It worked out well for the family and the club members.

 

[jworman]

Some time ago I found a program promoted by the insurance institute (who ever they are). It is an asset inventory program that allows you to set up different 'rooms'. You then can fill each room with the room contents. The room does not have to be a physical room.

I've set up many rooms. I have all the physical rooms in the house and one for stuff in the yard. When it came to the shop, I made up a metal room, a welding room (same physical room as the metal room) a wood room and so on.

For each entry, you can put what you paid for the article, what the article is worth, purchase date, make, model, brand, place purchased, serial number, and description.

The next page lets you add photos of the device (as many as you want, I think), then there is a place for receipts (scanned in as a .jpg) and finally attachments (more .jpg files go there).

You don't have to fill out much of anything, or you can fill out as much as you want. I took a photo of each drawer in my tool boxes.

The program will tell you the total value of all the rooms, and the total value of each room. (Scary).

With the replacement cost and purchase price on the same page, I figure it shouldn't be too hard for someone to come up with a fair price when it comes time to dispose of the shop.

You can print the list by room, or the whole inventory.

Best of all, the program is free. It does take a while to put everything in, especially if you add quite a few photos to each thing you have.

The program is called WYO (What You Own) home inventory. The link is:

http://www.whatyouown.org/

I guess I don't have to say I'm no stockholder in the company. If I was I probably would be annoyed that they are giving the program away. I've been using it for about 5 years. Now all I have to do is delete anything I give away or sell (not much) or just add the new things.

I'm sure I probably left things out. I opened a copy in front of me and I think I hit most of the high spots.

John

 

[randyjaco]

Hey Mayhem,
I have downloaded your program several times. First from the original location then from the Forum. I just cant get it to work.
I tried to use the short cut from Unzip. I then moved the files to the Desk top, then to a special folder. Each time I get a notice that the path doesn't exist. I tried opening the Data file with Access. That told me that there was a problem with the file. I have Access 2007.

Randy

 

[Maglin]

I've always been interested in building stuff. I started with a grinder and a torch to get things made that I needed. Now I have a couple of mills, Lathe, bandsaws, Welders, and way to much automotive tools. I find a lot of enjoyment in making more tools with my tools. Eventually I'll be actually making stuff with my tools instead of more tools but currently I find it a very good stress reliever and a way to get some time to myself.

 

[Weldfab]

Basically out of necessity. Didn't have anyone to go to for things I needed made or repaired.

 

[Weldfab]

In the earlier thread Tony said " a hobby that has a continuously increasing asset value to boot."
That got me thinking: What happens when you can no longer use your shop?

Let's face it; you are going to die, have a stroke, a heart attack, etc. What happens to your shop and accumulated treasures that are really of no value to most of the people you know? I don't have any kids that could make use of my equipment. The shop would be a liability to my wife.

I am hoping that I still have another 10 years of use of my shop, so there is no immediate need here, but it is a topic that we or our loved ones are going to have to deal with sometime. Now is probably a better time than later to think about it.

So does anyone have any ideas of how a spouse or loved ones can liquidate this asset of continuously increasing value?

Randy

Never gave this much thought when I was younger but as I age I've been pondering it some. I have no spouse or kids so I'm left with leaving everything to either my 4 sisters or 1 brother. None of whom is interested in any of it. Reading through some of these post have given me somethings to concider so when the time comes they may be ready.

 

[randyjaco]

Have a look at page 5 of the user manual. The contents of the zip file need to go into a folder on your C:\ drive. The folder needs to be called C:\Tool Log

There is a picture, showing what you should see in windows explorer. Access needs to know where to look to find thinks linked to the tables and forms. I just downloaded the file, unzipped it described and it fired right up once I double clicked on the shortcut.

I have been asked about the window sizes and positions and this is one thing about access that frustrates me. I have been working for sometime on a usable solution which I finally finished late last night. I will upload the updated front end, with instructions on how to update the database. This is easy and will not affect your data, as only the user interface changes.

Thanks Mayhem,

That is a very nice program, Just like something I might have paid for. Now comes the hard part- entering all that data 8^)

Randy

 

[chief]

In the earlier thread Tony said " a hobby that has a continuously increasing asset value to boot."
That got me thinking: What happens when you can no longer use your shop?

Let's face it; you are going to die, have a stroke, a heart attack, etc. What happens to your shop and accumulated treasures that are really of no value to most of the people you know? I don't have any kids that could make use of my equipment. The shop would be a liability to my wife.

I am hoping that I still have another 10 years of use of my shop, so there is no immediate need here, but it is a topic that we or our loved ones are going to have to deal with sometime. Now is probably a better time than later to think about it.

So does anyone have any ideas of how a spouse or loved ones can liquidate this asset of continuously increasing value?

Randy

well i'm 65 and hope to have another ten good years in the shops, none of my kids want any of my tools to use, but i'm sure they would sell them as fast as they could if i left everything to them,