Steve@Reliance
Hot Rolled
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2006
- Location
- Milton Ontario Canada
A former employee stopped by on the weekend for a visit and we were discussing the goings on at his new shop. He mentioned the problems he has tooling up jobs and pointed to the tap organizer It's one of those plastic drawer things you get from the hardware store for about 20 bucks, and all the taps up to 1 1/4" are in there, all the bigger ones are lined up in a drawer.
"Man, if we could even get something like that life would be better, every tap in the shop is in one big drawer from 0-80 to 2".It takes me forever just to find the right tap, if we even have it. The bosses won't buy anything, or let me spend the time to even organize"
This took me back to my employee days and the guy I worked for, he had the same approach. I would be in a situation where I would need to say, tap some 10-32 holes in some stainless and all the taps would be wiped right out. the standard response to a request for taps would be "just use what we have" and then he would be pissed when a tap broke in a hole. This is just one example of hundreds of those little "it took me 3 extra hours to finish this job for the sake of a $10.00 tool."
Even after 11 years, I am still investing in the shop and moving forward, Maybe not quite as much as I used to but by now the shop has most of what we need to get the job done. I will forever be intolerant of trying to get jobs done without "appropriate" tools. I am not going to buy a $300.00 carbide drill to drill 20 holes in a piece of 1018, however I try to use common sense when trying to make tool/equipment purchasing decisions. And I can't be all wrong after 11 years and being where I think I am at a decent spot in life.
I see many examples like the above in shops where they won't buy a tool for any reason, unless the job absolutely cannot be completed without it. Or what is usually worse, buying the wrong tool because it is cheaper and the boss thinks maybe they can squeak by with it. For what a machinist cost around here, it doesn't take long to pay for tooling if the job gets done faster.
I would like to get input on how y'all make your purchasing decisions, and do you feel your building the shop up, or having the right tools is just the it's done in your shop, or do you not buy anything unless you absolutely have to and why. And how your decisions impact the bottom line at the end of the year.
"Man, if we could even get something like that life would be better, every tap in the shop is in one big drawer from 0-80 to 2".It takes me forever just to find the right tap, if we even have it. The bosses won't buy anything, or let me spend the time to even organize"
This took me back to my employee days and the guy I worked for, he had the same approach. I would be in a situation where I would need to say, tap some 10-32 holes in some stainless and all the taps would be wiped right out. the standard response to a request for taps would be "just use what we have" and then he would be pissed when a tap broke in a hole. This is just one example of hundreds of those little "it took me 3 extra hours to finish this job for the sake of a $10.00 tool."
Even after 11 years, I am still investing in the shop and moving forward, Maybe not quite as much as I used to but by now the shop has most of what we need to get the job done. I will forever be intolerant of trying to get jobs done without "appropriate" tools. I am not going to buy a $300.00 carbide drill to drill 20 holes in a piece of 1018, however I try to use common sense when trying to make tool/equipment purchasing decisions. And I can't be all wrong after 11 years and being where I think I am at a decent spot in life.
I see many examples like the above in shops where they won't buy a tool for any reason, unless the job absolutely cannot be completed without it. Or what is usually worse, buying the wrong tool because it is cheaper and the boss thinks maybe they can squeak by with it. For what a machinist cost around here, it doesn't take long to pay for tooling if the job gets done faster.
I would like to get input on how y'all make your purchasing decisions, and do you feel your building the shop up, or having the right tools is just the it's done in your shop, or do you not buy anything unless you absolutely have to and why. And how your decisions impact the bottom line at the end of the year.