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  1. D

    Haven't checked the price of the Hardinge index heads in awhile......

    I have an unused 20 hole plate. With their new pricing it's in the $4 to $5K range. The only explanation I can figure for their price increases is they want to get out of the tooling biz. Around 1990 a friend purchased a new Hardinge indexer for $1800. Di Acro seems to be on their last...
  2. D

    Hardinge, how about this for a little inflation...

    https://shop.hardinge.com/All-Products/Workholding/Fixtures-and-Vises/Index-Fixtures/Manual-Index-Fixtures/HV-4N-Manual-Collet-Fixture-with-Plain-Spindle-and/c/hv-4n-manual-collet-fixture-with-plain-spindle-and-3679 Could this be right? Who here doesn't have a couple of those?
  3. D

    Sexual harassment in the workplace

    Any business owner who would be involved in this in today's world has to be totally out of touch. This could easily cost an owner their business. The Me Too movement had barely gotten a foothold when this thread started. It's been over a year since oldwrench was on the forum, I wonder if he...
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    Is work going down because we are in a recession?

    Politics unfortunately will be playing major roles in states in the near future. Idaho may be a classic example. There was a time Idaho seemed a good place to relocate your business to. Not looking so good now. Need medical care in Idaho? Good luck with that. Raise a family in the wide...
  5. D

    Insurance for CNC in home shop. (searched and found a lot of outdated information)

    In case nobody has mentioned insurance brokers, try one. They know who insures what, etc. I recall the same frustrating search when I wanted insurance on my first CNC. I paid cash for the machine, but I wanted to have it covered since it cost more than our house. The agent told me it was an...
  6. D

    Potential buyer not interested in customer base...

    My favorite customer's business was based on his loyal customer list. The business was a gold mine based on the customers. His machinery wasn't worth a whole lot, maybe $20K at auction.. His employees were a big part of the shop value. There were mostly a model making shop. I did most of...
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    Spam

    I didn't notice until now this thread had been added to. What I found puzzling was being banned with no warning and no idea what I was being accused of. Having been a member for 20 some years with a high number of posting it seems to me it should have obvious that all of a sudden I would not...
  8. D

    Strategy to Transfer Ownership of Machine Shop

    Yeah, and if you're 80 years old what do you suppose that insurance policy costs.
  9. D

    Strategy to Transfer Ownership of Machine Shop

    John is right about the expense of filing trust tax returns. Ours costs around $1,200 a year. And Turbo Tax can not do the 30 some page trust tax return. In fact, it takes some searching to find an accountant who knows how to do trust tax returns. My wife and I have a charitable trust...
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    Family business strategy

    I wanted my son to take over the successful business I started many years ago. I was going to give it to him free of charge and it could have provided him with a good living. He worked for me about 5 years, best employee I ever had, but he wasn't interested. He went into construction, first...
  11. D

    Minimizing shop overhead as a business strategy?

    Maybe yes, maybe no. My first CNC lathe paid off quickly. My first CNC mill had a much slower payoff. But, there was an indirect payoff on the mill, having that capability brought work in that I would not have seen without it. And that new work because of having the mill also used the lathe...
  12. D

    Buying a shop?

    To own and operate a small business you have to be a jack of all trades. And one of the most important trades is salesmanship. By his own admission the OP doesn't have it. Salesmanship takes a gift of gab along with a touch of BS thrown in. Without it I don't see the OP being successful.
  13. D

    City permit woes

    A friend moved his machine shop to a farm on unincorporated area 50 miles north of Seattle. He fronted on a river as did operating farms on both sides of him. The state pollution people determined the toxic-to-fisheries farm runoff was going into the river. So the farmers had to shut down...
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    Customer puts work on hold

    Sometimes you just muddle through these kind of situations as best you can. One sure solution is not to take money up front. Check out the customer through current local references. If you need the money for materials, etc then maybe you shouldn't be doing the work. Having funds on hand is...
  15. D

    Import machines from USA to Canada, things to consider?

    I had a piece of tooling a guy in Ontario wanted to buy. I told the guy I would not crate it so he said have a crating company do it. It was similar to a Hardinge cross slide in size. Crating company wanted $300. I asked why so much? Because it had to be made of certified insect free wood...
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    Small shop startup. / FIRST TIME POSTING :)

    When I started out I had a Colchester lathe and a mill along with various support equipment, DP, etc. Never worked as a machinist, only self taught on my own equipment. I had my best luck going where the work was, that was smallish machine shops who had nuisance jobs they didn't want to do...
  17. D

    City permit woes

    There was a time when Idaho was thought of as a good place to move to. One of my customers retired there. Building permit for a new house was something like 50 bucks (20 some years ago) . Inspector came to inspect the plastic piping under the house. He said it wasn't right and grabbed some...
  18. D

    Inventor wants to help us on his jobs in shop+sign NDA

    I had considered a Tesla as our next car. It's nice to see I'm not the only one who has taken a Tesla off their wish list in electric cars. The idea of supporting someone with views like Musk's doesn't appeal to a lot of us.
  19. D

    Companies managing shop's time

    In a roundabout way I had a customer try to manage my time. We'd become friends over the years of our working together so I used him as a reference to snag a new customer. He gave me a bad reference. Our relationship was good enough I was comfortable asking why the bad reference. He said he...
  20. D

    Payment terms changed.....to 120 days??

    I believe young folks are way more into credit debt than older folks. We use credit cards almost exclusively, even with outfits who add a 3% fee, and we pay as soon as we receive the bill. The banks call us "deadbeats". Our B of A rewards cards can pay up to 5% rewards depending on purchase...

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