Got your Running Shoes On??

Californians!

If you are unfortunate enough to be trying to make a living doing Machine Shop in The Golden State, you have, as of today, one last chance.

You get to try to Un Elect your Governor, Mr Gray "Who Turned Out The Lights?" Davis.

It's Official, There is gonna be a Special Election!

When I lived in Greenbelt, Maryland, we used to call the place "Granola".

Even it you took away all the Fruits and Nuts, you still would have the Flakes.

If Californians refuse to pick this bug out of their cereal bowl, y'all with a fierce cast iron fetish will be in The Deep Kim Chee!

Mr Davis will probably survive.

On Election Day, at least 218,382 Blond Boys will get up off The Beach and vote to preserve their lifestyle.

317,487 Variuous Slackers will also vote to keep getting Their Checks.

18,765,892 People over 65 will also come down on the side of Mr. Davis. Never mind that there are only about 15,000,000 people in California, We're Talking AARP here!

Machinists!

High thee to the nearest Athletic Shoe Store!

Try on some Cross-Trainers for the Fast Footwork you will have to do if This Guy stays in office.

Try on some Running Shoes for the Bee Line you are going to have to make out of there when this guy finds out that he is safe in offie and deceides it is Payback Time!

Untie your Safety Shoes, Slip off your Weejuns, Leave the Wingtips on The Closet Floor.

Nikes.

RUN!!!!!!!!!

No running shoes for me Jim.
I'm lacing up my big sh*tstompers and am ready to kick some butt!
This company has been through tough times before. We can make it through them again with the right strategy.
Even though I am on vacation, I am here at the shop working. Unfortunately, our survival strategy will result in some long hours here. I now must do everything in the shop. I get to do all the production, toolmaking, maintainance, floor sweeping and toilet cleaning.

Yesterday I talked to a friend who owns a roofing company. His workers comp rate has gone above even money. I think he said for every dollar he pays his employees, he has to pay workers comp $1.04. He is having a very tough time competing with the illegal roofers out there. Customers are only paying attention to the price. They are ignoring the liability they accept by hiring companies operating without workers comp.
In Calif, if you hire a contractor that is not insured, you automatically accept the liability for the workers on your property. It doesn't even matter if the contractor lies or shows bogus papers, you are on the hook for his workers.

Replacing Gov. Davis will only be the start. We are facing a very tough road the next couple of years.
Fixing this workers comp debacle has to be a priority. We are actively involved with the politicians who are working to change things. We decided that watching from the sidelines and just voting is not enough. We are trying to make our voices heard. We just yesterday received a nice personal thank you letter from a state senator who doesn't even represent our area. We support his efforts to change things so we contributed to his campaign.
Most of our customers are within 75 miles of us. It makes no sense to flee to another state. We owe nobody a penny on this building, property, or machinery. The cost to relocate this shop would be staggering. We won't even consider that.
If it gets too bad here to continue in business, we will just sell everything off, rent this very desireable building and property out, and go do something else.

Until then, we are just hunkering down in survival mode and doing the best we can.

No running for me.

Les

Les, from different posts I gathered that your shop is long established.

What does your shop make and about how big is it?

It would be sad if your crew had to stop running a machine shop.

If all your customers are within 75 miles of your shop, then they are under the same stress your shop is.

The worry is, might they go out?

As far as Attack vs. Defense it usually figured that it takes three attackers to subdue one defender.

We in the machine trades are an overall minority anyway. In Califronia there is an overabundance of attackers.

Hold On!!

Don't look East, the Dipsy Doodles in D.C. are on Their Side!

We are a stamping shop. It was started in 1947 by SWMBO's father.
Our niche is that with our extensive inventory of punches and dies, we can blank or punch many more round sizes than the competition. Up to 4" you can call out your size in three decimal places. If we can't hit it on the money, we should be able to get within .010-.020.
There is generally no tooling charge for round blanks or holes.
We also blank up to 15" diameter for 1/4" material.
Rings and circles is our specialty.
You want a 2"OD X 1"ID out of 1/2" thick HR?
No problem, and the lack of draft angle will amaze you if you know stamping.
We also do a lot of bolt circle patterns. We are good at making holes. We also make all our tooling in-house.

Our customer base is fairly wide and varied. I see our parts in use on a daily basis. Every time I pass a stakebed or bobtail truck on the road, I usually see our parts. Every Boeing jet that passes overhead has our parts. We supply utilities, display makers, construction companies, refineries, defense contractors, aftermarket car, truck, and motorcycle companies. The list is pretty long. We do quite a bit of work for other stamping shops that don't know or have our heavy punching capability. Most of our work is 1/4" or thicker.
Working on a quote to blank some circles out of 1/2" thick 304 SS right now.

If all of our customers went out of business or left the state, there would be virtually nothing left in this state.

Due to the workers comp situation, we have changed operations quite a bit.
It pisses me off to stand in the middle of the 6500 sq ft shop and imagine all the people that could be working and paying taxes and spending money in the community.
In years past there were 25 employees working two shifts. Not anymore.

Les