This won't mean much to anyone not familiar with the place, but I stopped my favorite fabrication shop today and was very depressed to hear they are closing. This place has been there since the 1950's, always owned and run by the same family. It's been my go-to for odds pieces of metal, braking, shearing, etc.
They've done 'whatever' people wanted fabricated, but most of their work has been in the oilfield and offshore areas. Once, one of the guys told me he visited an oilfield museum and realized he was looking at a drilling rig cabinet he had made years before!
It's a bout 4 large buildings....jam packed with all sorts of metal. When you'd walk across the floor, you' be walking on at least 3 or more inches of steel. Racks of steel, racks of aluminum, SS, pipes, etc. Plus the lay down yard in back was full of steel, too. Lots of old lathes, mills, laser tables, plus 5 CNC mills and a few CNC lathes.
3 main guys worked there, plus hired hands. For example, one of them was very good on programming CNC, and also at running the machines. And when they broke, he'd refit the controls or repair them. He could also repair circuit boards and understood the past 40 years of electronics evolution. These guys are all in their early 60's now....I first dealt with them about 27 years ago when I moved to Houston.
Why are they closing? After the thing this past November some considered an election, one by one their contracts dried up and two of their biggest customers closed up. They've been scraping by, but the owner finally had to face the facts - the land and metal was worth more than he could make staying open. One of the other guys told me he was especially upset ....he'd pretty much have to go on unemployment / social security when he had no desire - he just wanted to work every day. Plus, he loses his employer-paid health benefits and will have to go on Medicare.
I told them all not to worry...there would be exciting new jobs for them in the renewable energy sector!
They've done 'whatever' people wanted fabricated, but most of their work has been in the oilfield and offshore areas. Once, one of the guys told me he visited an oilfield museum and realized he was looking at a drilling rig cabinet he had made years before!
It's a bout 4 large buildings....jam packed with all sorts of metal. When you'd walk across the floor, you' be walking on at least 3 or more inches of steel. Racks of steel, racks of aluminum, SS, pipes, etc. Plus the lay down yard in back was full of steel, too. Lots of old lathes, mills, laser tables, plus 5 CNC mills and a few CNC lathes.
3 main guys worked there, plus hired hands. For example, one of them was very good on programming CNC, and also at running the machines. And when they broke, he'd refit the controls or repair them. He could also repair circuit boards and understood the past 40 years of electronics evolution. These guys are all in their early 60's now....I first dealt with them about 27 years ago when I moved to Houston.
Why are they closing? After the thing this past November some considered an election, one by one their contracts dried up and two of their biggest customers closed up. They've been scraping by, but the owner finally had to face the facts - the land and metal was worth more than he could make staying open. One of the other guys told me he was especially upset ....he'd pretty much have to go on unemployment / social security when he had no desire - he just wanted to work every day. Plus, he loses his employer-paid health benefits and will have to go on Medicare.
I told them all not to worry...there would be exciting new jobs for them in the renewable energy sector!