What are your current shop hurdles, and how will you beat them?

[CITIZEN F16]

At my last move I wound up tossing some stuff I really shouldn't have. So I hear you there. The one good thing, was, I was able to pick up a new customer, as they saw the machines coming in!

I guess it all came out in the wash for you. I swear as soon as I scrapped, threw away, or gave away, something I had not used in 10 years+ I needed it 6 months later. Before I made the last move of my life (I hope) and down sized I had a few pieces of equipment that had a bad weight to value ratio with scrap junk steel at $60 a ton. Some of it a pain in the ass to self rig with my limited equipment and others I would have to hire a rigger or rent equipment, making it a loss to haul it off. For $60 a ton who wants to self rig a 1950's oddball copy of a Hardinge HC to get $85? So during the moving sale if I had something I knew the prospective buyer loved, as soon as he started haggling I gave conditions on dropping the price, which was taking something that I would lose
money hauling off.

Moral of the story, I threw in a 3" diameter round of 12L14 a foot long I used to use as a door stop on some deal and forgot about it. I got a job from a current repeat customer just pricing material out at remnant price thinking I still had that chunk.

I priced the material at $25, a dollar a pound. I paid $160 to replace that chunk off an internet metal store, OOOPS!

If a person learned from their mistakes in this trade I should have an I.Q. that would make Einstein look mentally handicapped.

 

[jatt]

Current shop hurdles, hmm where to start... What I did to beat em.

Moving away from being "the shop for all occasions" - 'oh we basically do everything' to being more selective.

Well guess its an ongoing work in progress, but its helpful in the sense that dont have to carry as many different materials. Many items we carry can buy up in bigger quantities, so there's cost benefit there. Even little things like taking entire part rolls, instead of just requesting small cuts off one.

My storage and ease in finding of consumables like bolts etc.... my next project.

 

[Cole2534]

Here's an idea that I put in place recently-

For your email setup a rule or sort filter that anything containing the word 'unsubscribe' goes to a certain folder rather than you main inbox.

It's an easy way to sort advertisements from actual email traffic.

Programmed via Mazatrol

 

[Ox]

Ya know, I designed something like this in the past but never built it because ??????? I have enough material and time. That is now this weekend's project.



That's also a killer for me. 25 extra of this, 0 of those....but I can't afford to drag my shop through the Lista catalog.

What I have found very useful and economical are the inserts for compartment boxes. They're available in a lof of configurations and cheap enough. Durham Mfg 229-95-16-IND $13.28 16 Compartment Box, 13-3/8"W x 2"H | Zoro.com

I have oodles of the Durham cabinets around here!
You can git them in several different layouts that work best for your app.

16C collets
S26 pads
S20 pads
inserts
5C collets
ER Collets
TG collets
etc
etc
etc

I didn't know that Zoro was carrying them.
I'm sure they are 1/2 the price of MSC, but soon enough Zoro will be raising their prices as well....


I have 2 Houte big drill cabinets too.
1 for new drills and one for used drills.


---------------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[CITIZEN F16]

I have oodles of the Durham cabinets around here!
You can git them in several different layouts that work best for your app.

16C collets
S26 pads
S20 pads
inserts
5C collets
ER Collets
TG collets
etc
etc
etc

I didn't know that Zoro was carrying them.
I'm sure they are 1/2 the price of MSC, but soon enough Zoro will be raising their prices as well....


I have 2 Houte big drill cabinets too.
1 for new drills and one for used drills.


---------------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Most of my collets are out in the open in homemade holders made out of scrap wood. Cosmetics don't matter to me, I haven't had a customer in my shop in decades.

 

[BT Fabrication]

physical shop size.... and $$$

 

[Cole2534]

physical shop size.... and $$$

If you're not bringing in enough money, why do you need the space? Not being condescending, just curious about your logic or situation.

Programmed via Mazatrol

 

[pgmrmike]

Same old issue of whether to hire another mill guy or run it myself. Being a job shop in the oil business means you never know what is coming, and when they will need it. Hard to schedule when you have no idea what the workload is going to be. Most of our work is 2 weeks or less, often a couple of days. Sometimes its due the day after the matl arrives.....

 

[kustomizer]

Same old issue of whether to hire another mill guy or run it myself. Being a job shop in the oil business means you never know what is coming, and when they will need it. Hard to schedule when you have no idea what the workload is going to be. Most of our work is 2 weeks or less, often a couple of days. Sometimes its due the day after the matl arrives.....

I have a friend that makes a lot of that and often the shipping costs more than the part

 

[Ox]

I have oodles of the Durham cabinets around here!
You can git them in several different layouts that work best for your app.

16C collets
S26 pads
S20 pads
inserts
5C collets
ER Collets
TG collets
etc
etc
etc

I didn't know that Zoro was carrying them.
I'm sure they are 1/2 the price of MSC, but soon enough Zoro will be raising their prices as well....


I have 2 Houte big drill cabinets too.
1 for new drills and one for used drills.


---------------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

-----------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[Cole2534]

-----------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Where have you found the best place to buy them?

Programmed via Mazatrol

 

[Ox]

AFAIK I have only ever bought them from MSC, but you, or someone else here just posted that Zoro carries them, and I'm sure that Zoro is WAY cheaper than MSC.
But I haven't looked at the Zoro site for these to know if they have the sleeve selection that MSC offers or not?

I don't think that I've bought any of these in several years now.... Like ... Maybe a dozen or more?


------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[wheelieking71]

Zoro = Grainger for non-corporate. In case anybody didn't know. Seriously, same company, different price scale.

 

[CITIZEN F16]

Current shop hurdles, hmm where to start... What I did to beat em.

Moving away from being "the shop for all occasions" - 'oh we basically do everything' to being more selective.

Well guess its an ongoing work in progress, but its helpful in the sense that dont have to carry as many different materials. Many items we carry can buy up in bigger quantities, so there's cost benefit there. Even little things like taking entire part rolls, instead of just requesting small cuts off one.

My storage and ease in finding of consumables like bolts etc.... my next project.

Sometimes you have to do that starting out, take what you can get. As for bolts, etc I just have one of these.
Commercial Garage Rolling 22 Bin Storage Rack Steel Frame Shelving Unit 4 Wheels - - Amazon.com

 

[CITIZEN F16]

Zoro = Grainger for non-corporate. In case anybody didn't know. Seriously, same company, different price scale.

Grainger, the vendor of last resort for me.

 

[Plane Parts]

Mine is, "do I dare ramp up and rehire employees after our state governor shut us down with the stroke of a pen?" Our can't understand normal thinking of a governor shut down my customers, and basically my shop, with the stroke of a pen because of muh covid. It cost me hundreds of thousands of lost business and hundreds of thousands trying to keep the lights on and the crew working. All for nothing. Do I try to rebuild when it was so easy to just shut down the state??? No. It is not. Moving to a different state is not really an option since the customer base happens to be local. But we'll see what happens.

 

[Cole2534]

Mine is, "do I dare ramp up and rehire employees after our state governor shut us down with the stroke of a pen?" Snip

I think you have to do that.

Programmed via Mazatrol

 

[MCritchley]

Grainger, the vendor of last resort for me.

Yep, me too.

 

[ghost_rider]

Finding qualified employees or ones with enough mechanical ability to train.

Material that isn't 4 months out. Hard to make or quote a part that we cant make because material is not available.

Organization and the ability to run leaner because of lack of being able to find employees. Less tooling costs because people throw out used end mills because they do not know what is or isn't good. Looking for tooling because some guy grabbed it and put it in another area. minimizing setup time by utilizing probe routines that are programed to find the various offset zeros efficiently.

 

[Cole2534]

Less tooling costs because people throw out used end mills because they do not know what is or isn't good. Looking for tooling because some guy grabbed it and put it in another area. minimizing setup time by utilizing probe routines that are programed to find the various offset zeros efficiently.

Hell, I fight both sides of that battle all by myself.