Home-based machine shop: how to start

Long time lurker, first time poster!

At risk of providing too much personal info, I'm 44 and after a stint in the high-tech world, I now have the opportunity(?) to choose a career which better suits me.

I'm finishing up our new house. Once this is done, I'd like to go into business.

Strengths: math, engineering, curiosity.
Weaknesses: sales, machining experience, back.

I'm pretty handy, the family calls me "mr fix-it". I worked for 18 years in mechanical engineering (I'm not a degreed engineer but I can read prints well, I know geometric tolerancing, for instance and I have written g-code for a pump impeller cut on a toyoda mill - in notepad!). Except for the unpleasant working conditions of the manufacturing facility (no heat - brr), I always envied the machinists.

I now have three sons, the youngest of which has high-function Autism. I realize that the work world is going to be tough for them so I'd like to establish a business/trade they can grow into.

I have a 36 x 36 shop here at my house in Western Washington, it would be well-suited to setting up a small machine shop. I see three potential paths to get where I want to go;
1) take some community-college classes on the topic
2) spend some time working as a chip-sweeper for someone else hoping for an opportunity to learn.
3) buy some tools (I covet a monarch 10ee and a bridgeport series cnc 1 mill) and hope to teach myself the trade while making enough money to cover the cost of parts broken out of ignorance.

As I see it now, the biggest hurdle will be my skill level. I don't have the cash to buy a shop full of new tools, but I do think I have the cash to get a core set of useable equipment and build from there.

What do you think? My wife is the bookkeeper for a little machine shop, and it's likely that I could get a job there if I were to ask, but I'm unsure how much of an opportunity I'd get to learn what I need to know.

TIA

If you are going to do this, you need to do all the above(1,2,&3) plus some business classes at the j.c...excuse me, community college.

My advice is worth what you paid for it. I think to make money running a shop, there is no substitute for experience. Therefore, I would recommend the classes and taking a job in someone else's shop first. While you are doing those things, buy what you can afford for your home shop, and play with it during the off hours. Spend a couple of years at this, and only then can you evaluate if you're ready to go off on your own.

As big a hurdle as is your lack of experience will be finding a steady supply of paying customers. Do you have any in mind?

This move is going to require a lot of hard work and patience. Why is the work world going to be tough on the other two sons? Any tougher than normal?

If I had your circumnstances I would ask your wife's machine shop to send some of their trivial work your way. That way you will get experience doing the kind of odd jobs that are assighned to shop apprentices.

By the way, how are you going to support your family during the time it takes to build a business?

Skip the classes. Take the job at the small shop and be up front with them about your goals. I would see about doing inspection work/ machining for them so your entry pay might be a bit higher (put the B/P skill to use). Every spare second spent in your own shop making parts. You will lose money at first but less than you would waiting in line for a machine at a community college while earning zero.I believe in paying as little dues as possible. You will also learn more and faster on your own.Ask for help at the new job and here when you have questions. Most of the guys here know more than most teachers. Good luck with your plans.

Ted

The first step in my opinion is learning. Take some good books and read them. I think the older books about machine shop practice are the best; beautifully written and dealing with the actual manual machine tools operations. One must have the knowledge of this even if later operating a CNC. And try and find a good machinist to teach you by helping in their shop.
My own background is engineering/science but I do spend most of my day in front of a machine. I strongly believe you cannot create a good design unless you personally can make each part in it; just about every item I design I build it myself first.
A good way to start a shop at home is to buy a used lathe and mill (prices are very attractive those days) and rebuild them yourself. This will teach you a great deal and will force you to make some parts or repair them. I have started that way – quite a while back.

Good luck.

Lumberjack,
You need to find your niche. If the cost in your area is not outrageous, get yourself a business license for your home shop such as "Jeff's small machine, lawnmower, bicycle and skate board repair" or whatever. Separate/sever your business finances from your family finances.

Start fixing or making stuff you know you can fix or make; charge reasonably, keep receipts and invoices.

Take a few courses in the areas you need help-Vo Tech school, Comm. College, etc., hire a machinist to give you some professional tutoring, do not discount the value of expert instruction.

Take that part-time job sweeping chips if it will help.

Put it all together and steer it in the direction of your interest, expertise, and expected customer base. The Wright Brothers started with a bicycle shop and went into aviation, so can you.

edited: I forgot: Get good quality yet simple used machine tools. (a 10EE is good quality but far from simple) Get someone from the machine shop to check it out for you before purchase. You can trade up when the money starts rolling in.

I was eeking out a living working in my home shop and building up business, and then the "ole lady" said YOU WILL GET HEALTH INSURANCE. Well, that was the end of that. Back to a real job.

I agree with what the previous posters have said.When I started working in a machine shop, I did the grunt work like all beginners. One of my coworkers suggested that I take a welding course at the local community college. It was the best advice. I took 2 years of classes at night and became a decent enough welder to become certified. I was able to move around from shop to shop, since many small shops have welding equipment but no need for a full time welder. I would weld one hour a day average and machine the rest of the time. Bosses loved it because I made them a lot of money since I made beginners wages. I would move on when there was an opportunity to learn more. Moving around was an excellent education. Also, read everything that you can, especially trade magazines, to find out what is new. Good luck.

develope and market a product related to something you know about.
I started with paintball stuff.

Ditto on "something you know about". Make use of whatever expertise you have in the things that interest you. You'll have more fun working on things that interest you, and if you do have a lot of knowledge in that area you won't be starting from the bottom on trying to come up with new products/improvements to existing products.

UPS/USPS goes most anywhere, so if your niche item is small enough to ship for a reasonable fee you can have customers all over the world. The USPS flat-rate Priority Mail boxes are a huge bargain if you have small but heavy things to ship.

If you've got an "in" at the local machine shop, then see if they are amenable to at least a part time position. It sounds like you've got enough experience to skip past the "chip sweeper" stuff and do real work for them in the areas you are already proficient, while learning the machining skills you lack.

I'd suggest buying tools that are ready to run, as the idea sounds like it is to learn how to operate them and not to become a machine tool restorer.

Keep in mind that once you start up the business you can write off a lot of the purchases - you still have to pay for them up front, but you get some of the money back later when you offset income against expenses/investment. Set up the business properly from the start - you are lucky in that you've got an in-house bookkeeper already.

cheers,
Michael

My wife is the bookkeeper for a little machine shop, and it's

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I would not whisper one letter of mach.... to anyone, lest your wifes employer catch one phrase of that idea as he will look to you as compitition, and since your wife is the bookkeeper she will loose her job because she know who the fellows customers are and what the prices are etc etc... talk about a trojan horse... yikes...

Seriously, get a good lawn mower or 2 and get a few contracts. Very low overhead, needs only a little shed to store it. Good for the health, no major hassle and it pays good.

Yes I do have a home machine shop. I'm not sure the investment is worth it. There's better "investments" and business opportunities to make money with.
Now if you just love the trade its different. It's the major reason I do it.

I often think I've got $25,000+ invested in machines and tooling to build a $50 part in 4 hours time I could have bought with a 15 minute trip to the Depot for $19.99.

I definitely enjoy working in the shop, I've half-heartedly tried to make some change on the side, which was interesting because of the things I learned from doing varied jobs and of course the higher time pressure, but wouldn't even come close to the pay of my day job even if I had enough work to keep me busy 16hrs per day. I do have some product ideas that are stalled because of my impending shop move.

This isn't to say you can't do this...but I think jumping headfirst into a machining career without already having the basic knowledge is on a path of much resistance.

One thing you must ask yourself in any business venture is: how am I going to beat the competition?

And you must know the answer to this otherwise all bets are off. It's not something you can really figure out as you go.

The other problem besides the vast scope of technical problems is the time and technique of beating the bushes to scare up some customers...deep-pocketed ones are best

So free advice, if I can give it is to supplement your day-job with shop time....because there's a fair amount of investment that you'll have to overcome too, no matter if you go with manual or CNC machines. Besides your 'bread-and-butter' machines, you may need vises, workbenches, parts washers, blast cabinets, toolboxes, rotary tables, collet chucks, sine plates, surface plates....the list is endless, and the needs and costs of those "secondary items" are not always easily-defined, especially if you aren't intimately familiar with varied types of work in the shop.

Hello,

Keep your job,study and work at home as a hobby. If the hobby grows into a resonable " business ",then you might give it a try. You need to be passionate about the adventure, but you also have to take care of your family and yourself. Best of luck and I hope it works out well for you !!

Brian

I often think I've got $25,000+ invested in machines and tooling to build a $50 part in 4 hours time I could have bought with a 15 minute trip to the Depot for $19.99.

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Isn't that still an advantage because you can tax deduct your machine tools and supplies as business expenses, even it the business loses money?

One other issue after re-reading is that there are no guarantees your boys will want to "take over the family business".

They may not love it like you do...and want something else totally different in life.

Teaching them how to work hard day in and day out and pushing them to do their very best pays benefits no matter what kind of field or profession they will ultimately select.

I think CNC is way overrated.

I would get a manual Bridgeport for starters and worry about CNC milling when the business justifies it.

I work a manual Bridgeport next to Hardinge machining centers and I can make many parts faster than they, both long and short run. Not to brag, but to show you an opportunity. But then, I have 50 years experience. I work the machining centers as well sometimes.

example:
milling SS part .063 thick 2" long and .200 wide from stampings, all 4 sides get milled.

by the time an operator opens the door to the hardinge, blows out the vise from the coolant, places a part in the vise, closes the vise, closes the doors, hits start

i have a much shorter distance to move my part from left of the Bridgeport table into the vise, take it out and put it on the other side of the BP table, blow the part clean while still travelling and before opening the vise

I can do twice the number of parts in the mamual BP because i hardly move at all. I am almost falling asleep as i work, no stress at all.

I learned a lot while working piecework in Germany in the 50's. Ever inch counts.

Thanks everyone for the helpful replies.

Fen2art: I'm very amenable to taking CC classes, but I'm reasonably comfortable with my business finance skills.

Rklopp: Finding a shop in which to learn has appeal - provided I can get the skills I need. I can very likely get some business from my wife's employer as well as my former one.

Spherical: cashflow is not an insurmountable problem, by building a house and simplifying, we've learned to live on a relatively small income.

Smallshop: Your suggestion rings true. The day job pays for the learning (conducted mostly at home) and even if I'm chip-sweeping, there are skilled machinists onhand to answer the questions which arose from breaking stuff the night before.

Astolpho: I'm all about reading. I also agree that I want to learn the basics first. I watched my former trade morph from "draftsman" to "cadd technician". Not to disparage the skills of those who entered the metalworking trade as "cnc operator", but I think something has been lost.

Larry in LV: my vision for the near term is to create only slightly more than a self-sustaining
hobby but I don't want the quality of the output to be limited by the quality of the tools. I anticipate that it will be a number of years before I get to that point, so I'll probably start with a more modest lathe.

Daryl: Luckily, medical insurance is provided through wife's employer.

Doug/dsergison: The local area is fairly industrial with a lot of heavy equipment. The machine shop my wife works for is one of four in town each of which is quite busy doing work for logging companies and mills. In particular, the wife's company has a hard time keeping up with the workload of rebuilding hydraulic pumps (which requires a couple of facing and turning operations). I have a couple of product ideas kicking around (mostly in the area of centrifugal pumps - my background) that I'd like to work on, but I can't justify the expense of a machine shop on that basis alone.

Michael: the idea of buying new tools to avoid the headaches of used has merit. Paradoxically, mostly not because I dislike the idea of rebuilding, but because I've found few sources of used tools which includes tooling. I wouldn't mind tool restoration if it didn't also imply a scavenger hunt for unobtainium tooling.

Thanks GaryE, being upfront with the wife's boss is something I intend, if for no other reason than it is my hope that he can be a customer for those "nuisance jobs" alluded to above.

SND: I recently turned down an opportunity to buy a home inspection business which pays the current owner 6 figures. It just boiled down to the idea that home inspection is not my passion. (admittedly $350 for 3 hours' work was hard to pass up) I've also considered getting my general contractors license, but building one house is enough to say; "been there, done that". I have no great desire to continue doing it.

Matt: there are admittedly big gaps in my practical knowledge, but working for 14 years designing things for machinists (who weren't shy correcting me when I suggested they do something stupid) did teach me quite a bit. I don't expect that my kids will follow in my footsteps, but I do hope to be able to teach them portable skills. I'm sure that you're absolutely correct about underestimating the required investment. A day-gig is probably advisable, for educational and financial reasons.

richardny: my primary reason for suggesting a BP cnc mill is that it would preserve the manual capabilities (which I want for all the reasons you mention, but also because there are many tasks for which it makes no sense to write a program) while enabling me to do engraving/decorative work such as plaques, signs and custom car/motorcycle parts.

Thank you everyone for the very helpful responses!

More money in home repair.