Own a few machines; wondering if a business partnership is best (I am w/o exp.)

[CITIZEN F16]

Where are you at? SoCal is a big place, you might find a bored retired guy to come over and mentor you
for little or no cost. Try to keep overhead as low as possible. As previously alluded to slim chance that someone with limited experience will make good money doing manual work. First thing you can only run one manual machine at a time. To make good money on manuals you need to be doing high end tool and die work, mold making, difficult repair work, or have a unique product line.

 

[Kingbob]

Really that's hobby level equipment for some one without experience. Just because some one gives you a guitar doesn't mean you should go on tour, especially if you don't even know how to play. Keep them for fun or sell them, those are your only realistic options.

 

[mhajicek]

Just because some one gives you a guitar doesn't mean you should go on tour

A perfect analogy.

 

[CITIZEN F16]

Really that's hobby level equipment for some one without experience. Just because some one gives you a guitar doesn't mean you should go on tour, especially if you don't even know how to play. Keep them for fun or sell them, those are your only realistic options.

Or pizza and beer money simple jobs.

 

[Kingbob]

Or pizza and beer money simple jobs.

Pizza and beer are my favorite hobbies

 

[Big B]

Where are you at? SoCal is a big place, you might find a bored retired guy to come over and mentor you
for little or no cost. Try to keep overhead as low as possible. As previously alluded to slim chance that someone with limited experience will make good money doing manual work. First thing you can only run one manual machine at a time. To make good money on manuals you need to be doing high end tool and die work, mold making, difficult repair work, or have a unique product line.

*Some people can only run one manual machine at a time. Others can run more than one at a time.

 

[CITIZEN F16]

*Some people can only run one manual machine at a time. Others can run more than one at a time.

You cannot run two manual machines at a time with any efficiency. No one counts cutting stock as running a machine when it comes to production work, only you. Go ahead and explain how you can efficiently run a mill and a drill press at the same time. You know where you claimed to make over $100 an hour for a whole month doing simple production work on manual machines.

 

[CITIZEN F16]

Pizza and beer are my favorite hobbies

I lived on that and diet soda for weeks at a time when starting out, even pizza for breakfast. I probably should have just signed up for scheduled deliveries of pizza. They would also deliver soda, but no beer. I don't have a sweet tooth, I could not even remember the last time I had a desert item or a doughnut, beer and pizza a different story.
I just ate a pizza and cracked open my first beer.

 

[Thunderjet]

*Some people can only run one manual machine at a time. Others can run more than one at a time.

tenchars

 

[Larry Dickman]

Where are you at? SoCal is a big place, you might find a bored alki to stagger over and mentor you and ramble on about how great it was before all the aerospace shops closed down.

there, fixed it

I'm not saying a partnership can't work, (Johnson and Johnson, Bausch and Lomb) but they are few and far between.

 

[RC Mech]

Perhaps make special trays to hold pharm stuff. Holders for things to set more safely on a table. Chemical lab structure bases, special wall racks and Holders for pharm tools. a pharms thing/tool/whatever to sell on eBay or on your website.

I see some pharm stuff that is light-duty like racks, so easy to tip over, There could be a market for heavy-duty items or design improvement for some odd need.

Perhaps a stainless steel or aluminum test tube rack that sells for $60 might be an item. (agree I haven't priced SS lately)


It is a pretty high price marketplace if you can discover or invent something useful.
Labconco 7487600 8-Place SS Rack for 600 mL Tubes from Cole-Parmer

The problem with that is the absurd listed prices are not what these products actually sell for. When you have an account with Parmer/PALL/ThermoFucker etc the prices shown to John Q Public are obviously there to mislead. Add to that no one in the pharma/biotech space will touch you unless you have two flavours of ISO certification, and it becomes a tough row to hoe.

 

[CITIZEN F16]

there, fixed it

I'm not saying a partnership can't work, (Johnson and Johnson, Bausch and Lomb) but they are few and far between.

Wasn't a lot of that death and destruction caused by Boeing? Autonetics, then North American Rockwell in Anaheim once employed over 30,000, then they merged with Douglas and more jobs were lost and facilities closed. I wonder how many SoCal jobs Boeing lost.

 

[michiganbuck]

The problem with that is the absurd listed prices are not what these products actually sell for. When you have an account with Parmer/PALL/ThermoFucker etc the prices shown to John Q Public are obviously there to mislead. Add to that no one in the pharma/biotech space will touch you unless you have two flavours of ISO certification, and it becomes a tough row to hoe.

I am not talking about normal catalog and budget stuff, but stuff a notch better or just different. I don't know beans about the pharm industry but likely the OP does know about that. And having a few products would be better than a novice toolmaker trying to run a job shop.
For grinding I know a number of devices that would sell quickly and could make a fellow a decent living by using manual or CMC machines.

For example the Oakland quick sine gauge. someone could run a hundred of them and possibly sell 50 a year. Perhaps make 1000 or a few 1000 a year off one item.

 

[Bobw]

You cannot run two manual machines at a time with any efficiency.

P O W E R F E E D.

I can see it, right part, right situation..

Ever get a "machining job", and you only use the belt sander? Or a hand held drill,
or the drill press.

I have one "machining job" that comes around every so often, and do you know how I
"Machine" it? I'd wait for an answer, but you'll never get it..

NAIL CLIPPERS!!!!! Its a modify job, obviously, and the PRINT, has a BIG NAME on it..

I'd ask y'all to guess where the original part is supposed to be sourced from, but we
don't have all day.. The PRINT, that comes from the GOVERNMENT with a BIG NAME manufacturer
on it specs out a JC Penny part #.

You can make good money with stupid equipment, I've made over $200 an hour with NAIL CLIPPERS!!!!!!
F'N!!!!! Nail Clippers.. And the CNC's were running making money, or at least not losing much.

It was a sewing pin.. I think it was about .040 in diameter. It needed to be shortened. I had no
idea what it was made of, so I just threw a # on it.. And it turns out it was chrome plated copper or brass.
Nice and soft and easy to cut.. Part of a repair kit on an electric motor, it was the little pin that
held the brushes back while they slid the shaft back in.

I can see where you can bag a ton of money using old school manual machines. I've done it. That job will
not last forever, and odds are its not coming back once a week, but I think we all have a story or two,
about bagging fat money doing stupid shit in a machine shop.. F'n Nail Clippers!!!!!!

 

[mhajicek]

I had a "machining" job a couple months go I did with a Sawzall and an angle grinder. Got another one coming.

 

[john.k]

Having inshop machining facility can save continuous mental strain trying to get work done by others......Better to take two hours to do a one hour job than send it out,five phone calls and two visits later , the jobs done wrong,and has to be reworked.

 

[CITIZEN F16]

P O W E R F E E D.

I can see it, right part, right situation..

No argument, but not a common occurrence, and note I said efficiently. Even using a power feed, when you go to flip a part or load another one the other manual machine you were running stops.

 

[Big B]

P O W E R F E E D.

I can see it, right part, right situation..

Ever get a "machining job", and you only use the belt sander? Or a hand held drill,
or the drill press.

I have one "machining job" that comes around every so often, and do you know how I
"Machine" it? I'd wait for an answer, but you'll never get it..

NAIL CLIPPERS!!!!! Its a modify job, obviously, and the PRINT, has a BIG NAME on it..

I'd ask y'all to guess where the original part is supposed to be sourced from, but we
don't have all day.. The PRINT, that comes from the GOVERNMENT with a BIG NAME manufacturer
on it specs out a JC Penny part #.

You can make good money with stupid equipment, I've made over $200 an hour with NAIL CLIPPERS!!!!!!
F'N!!!!! Nail Clippers.. And the CNC's were running making money, or at least not losing much.

It was a sewing pin.. I think it was about .040 in diameter. It needed to be shortened. I had no
idea what it was made of, so I just threw a # on it.. And it turns out it was chrome plated copper or brass.
Nice and soft and easy to cut.. Part of a repair kit on an electric motor, it was the little pin that
held the brushes back while they slid the shaft back in.

I can see where you can bag a ton of money using old school manual machines. I've done it. That job will
not last forever, and odds are its not coming back once a week, but I think we all have a story or two,
about bagging fat money doing stupid shit in a machine shop.. F'n Nail Clippers!!!!!!

Saw cutting stock, Milling machine on power feed cutting stock to size and me drilling and tapping holes on a drill press. Part of the time I was spotting holes on the mill so I "only" had two machines running at a time.

If you're only running one machine at a time it takes just as long to run a saw for an hour as it does to run a mill for an hour. Run them both at the same time and you probably get 1.9 times the efficiency. Everyone doesn't run barfeed machines.

 

[Big B]

My oldest Customer - originally made trailers and agricultural attachments (forks/buckets etc).
The old works director- used to tell people how when they started, he would weld a bucket (opposite runs) simultaneously with a Mig gun in each hand.
When the UK had the BSE issue, they had a BIG contract for buckets, and to up production, he told the welders that's what they should start doing....he'd never give a demo though, and never had cross eyes....

That sounds like a great way to get terrible quality welds.

 

[standardparts]

"Wondering about the best way to start a shop in Southern California; I am new to the business."

If I owned a shop in the area would be inclined to invest an hour a so over lunch and chit-chat a bit about what either side might have to offer...'ya never know what many come out of simply taking a call and having a discussion.....

"When Steve Jobs cold-called Hewlett-Packard's co-founder to request some spare electronic parts, he got what he asked for — and a job."

How Steve Jobs cold-called his way to an internship at Hewlett-Packard