Itemized Cost of A Garage Lathe Shop

[Winsten]

I have a tiny part of a cone crusher as my backyard fire pit... It weighs 5000 pounds. One of the drive pulleys from the same crusher is my driveway marker. It's about 5ft tall and has atleast a dozen 1"+ wide V-belt grooves.

Yeah those sheaves (shivs?) for the belts are crazy. I can’t believe that’s how a lot of the machinery still transmits, but I guess metal to metal connections would make a mess on failure. I really like all that type of equipment. Some of it is so simply built, just crazy big. I remember leaning up against a crushers motor housing not realizing that’s what it was, then seeing the rating on the nameplate: 6000HP

Regardless of how cool I think that stuff is, I’m hoping to get work other than the quarries, but I think I’ve gotta keep my options open at first.

Other than overflow work, manufacturers near me, and the quarries, are there any other places typically needing parts? I was going to look into heavy equipment rental places...

 

[ncjeeper]

One of the few advantages to being in my area, many service stations sell kerosene at self service pumps for $4-$4.50 a gallon.

Just got 5 gallons for 15 bucks this week at our local convenience store.

 

[Winsten]

Update,

Got new hard jaws, loaded an OD tool (WNMG432 with medium positive geometry), and chucked up on some scrap that came in the machine’s chip tray. Machine cut through .060”/side at .013” IPR, no issues (other than being a little stringy-material looks like 4140HT), no taper over the 4” near chuck, good finish. This was on a 1” diameter piece. These were the settings I figured the machine could run with its horsepower nerfed to 5 due to the phase converter. I’ll experiment to see how much I can push it. At these settings I won’t be setting any records, but I should be able to get started with some income on the side.

Picked up a drill press and a pedestal grinder as well.

 

[tdmidget]

Why ?
Is this the "harry Homeshop garage shop" good time hour show ?

Please post over at Projects and Articles on Our Forum! | The Hobby-Machinist

How much does Nelson pay you to shill for him?

 

[EPAIII]

Oh yea? Have you been to McDonald's lately? Or the grocery, for that matter? And we have a new, fancy, breakfast only place near here where $65 would not cover breakfast for three.

Enjoy your new lathe. And count yourself lucky to have nice friends. I had some friends who helped me a lot with getting my stuff out of my trailer shop and into my garage.

$65 breakfast????? That's a lot of egg macmufffins.

 

[EmGo]

$65 breakfast????? That's a lot of egg macmufffins.

Oh yea? Have you been to McDonald's lately? Or the grocery, for that matter?

I have. (Sorry, I don't like pickles for breakfast) .... sausage mcmuffin with a potato thing (shu tiao, it's like hash browns) and a coffee (I switch for coke, with ice) is ¥ 18, same as it was three years ago. The egg one is same price but I swear they use powdered eggs or something, tastes bad. I think four years ago it went up from ¥ 16. That's roughly $3.00

Most everything else is similar, about the same prices as a couple years ago. So, someone explain to me why the US has gone bonkers ? I cannot see any rational reason for it, except possibly that the golden eggs laid by mr bernanke several years ago have come home to roost ?

 

[bigjon61]

I have. (Sorry, I don't like pickles for breakfast) .... sausage mcmuffin with a potato thing (shu tiao, it's like hash browns) and a coffee (I switch for coke, with ice) is ¥ 18, same as it was three years ago. The egg one is same price but I swear they use powdered eggs or something, tastes bad. I think four years ago it went up from ¥ 16. That's roughly $3.00

Most everything else is similar, about the same prices as a couple years ago. So, someone explain to me why the US has gone bonkers ? I cannot see any rational reason for it, except possibly that the golden eggs laid by mr bernanke several years ago have come home to roost ?

Local burger chain, used to be able to get out of there for $9.59, double cheeseburger fries and a drink. Now the same meal is $12.05. Local brewery brews are up 40%. Funny, the farmer who supplies the grain for his beers came in and had the news broken to him that beer prices were going up. He shook his head and said, "Well that's funny, all the corn I dropped off last week was the same price."

 

[Ox]

Corn beer?


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[kenton]

Corn beer?


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

You might be surprised.
Before they found the low oil corn for their American Lager you would get a hint of Fritos sometimes.

Our Beers – Riggs Beer Company

www.riggsbeer.com

 

[Bill D]

I still have a little jet fuel I bought years ago to replace kerosene. Less smell. I went Sunday afternoon to local small airport with a big funnel for my jerry can.
Did the OP buy a 8 point socket for the drain plug yet?
Bill D

 

[Houdini]

30 years ago I bought a 10 yr old VMC for ??? $25G it seems like? (maybe 28G?)
That was a 2.5 axis control, really slow toy changer, open bed config that never needed the coolant "changed" IYKWIM.
No RIGID tap.
400IPM rapids.
etc etc,...
Those were 1993 dollars.

You can easilly pick up a 10 yr old machine that has all those other features today for 25G of today's $, and have 2wiced the machine!
My math says that if you git 2wiced the machine for half the money (last 30 yrs inflation?) then that is like only paying 25% for the same.

You can search e-bay for screamin' deals when you are slow.

I doubt that you could find a clapped out Bridgeport with DRO that you had to give $5K for in 2020 currency, let alone 1990 currency.

A decent engine lathe still fetched real money in 1990, but by 2000 folks were starting to use CNC for tooling as well, and the price of engine lathes has come down too.


No - trust me - it's a WHOLE lot cheaper to git into the trade now than before.
... and with that - the competition is more and more...


You guys can go the hot dog cart route, but if I had to doo it over, I would find the highest entry level business to git into, other than farming - as that wasn't too profitable in 1985. Or maybe just stick it out in farming?

If there is a demand for the work and a high cost of entry, then the rewards should be higher, even if it is not until you sell at retirement.



* Also note that _ that 1983 VMC was WAY more reliable than anything built since too!


added:

I have seen used toys at the dealers that had come out of Harley Davidson, and one interesting thing that HD does is they put a plaque on every machine with the purchase price on it. Ass_u_ming - so that the opperator understands what they have a-hold of and understand the ramifications of damaging it?
The $ of a 1970's manual machine tool would blow you away!



EDIT 2:

I just did an inflation calc from 1993, and that $28K from 1993 would buy you a >$50K machine now.
Can you git a new stripper Haas 30" machine for that?
The Haas site won't let me doo anything w/o accepting their cookies, and while I doo occassionally like a cookie or two, I don't need them to send me any.


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

We sold four 30" Milltronics machines, 30tool chngrs, year 2000+ $8k each.
3 Bridgeports, We gave them away, show up with a trailer, its your.
I bought 30yr old Nakamura lathe last year $8k, better machine than a lot of $150-200k rigs new now.
Times a changen

edit: fuq I got duped into posting on a 3 year old thread cause of

 

[jccaclimber]

We bumped a 3 year old thread to talk about the price of breakfast?

 

[EmGo]

We bumped a 3 year old thread to talk about the price of breakfast?

What else was it good for ?