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Fab shop closing...

GregSY

Diamond
Joined
Jan 1, 2005
Location
Houston
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!
 
Have any photos? 3inches of metal on the floors sounds interesting to say the least.

Yea I too wonder where all the green jobs are going to come from. I don't think all of us can work in Chinese solar panel factories.

Other scary thing is the Paris Accords. The accords tax the crap out of CO2 that goes into producing USA made products like steel, cement, aluminum etc... while allowing a "developing" country like China to emit as much CO2 as they wish.

One should expect the obvious to happen from that, more large heavy energy consuming industrial facilities to move to China. Net reduction in global CO2 emissions will likely be close to zero from that.

When Biden said the other day that the Chinese were going "to eat our lunch" what he failed to mention was that his energy policies are going to steal it out of our hands and feed it to them!

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Are you a Flat Earther too? That has as much validity as your delusion that the 2020 election wasn't valid.

Sucks for the closing company. But new ones will spring up. That particular "circle of business" has been going on for centuries. As long as there's competent people (who can think rationally and don't believe in delusions) there'll be places to be hired into.
 
Like most of your ideas, greatly flawed.

New ones will spring up? Why would they....there's no business for the ones already there. If a guy with 45 years of contacts and experience can't bring in business, is a 30 year old guy gonna do that? Nope.

This shop is a vanishing breed....a place where I could walk in to any corner of the place, with no safety restrictions, and talk directly to the owner. No matter how small a piece I needed, he was glad to help. He didn't feed me an bullshit about minimum charges. If I brought my own metal, he didn't fuss over it...he'd brake it any way I wanted and with great accuracy. He also had a staggering knowledge of steel types, applications, dimensions...all in his head. Do you really think new guys coming up are gonna know all that? No way. It's becoming a lost art.

Closed shops are already a dime a dozen. By 'closed' I mean shops where they won't take on outside work, or have $500 minimums and can't do anything without 12 people being involved and 6 invoices.

As for the erection of 2020, every adult alive knows it was a fraud. Always will be. Other countries are laughing at the US...but of course, the media here hides it all.
 
As for the erection of 2020, every adult alive knows it was a fraud. Always will be. Other countries are laughing at the US...but of course, the media here hides it all.

And here you go again. Perpetuation of the actual fraud, one that's had its last desperate whimpers thrown out of the Supreme Court as being without merit: https://apnews.com/article/joe-bide...upreme-court-5cc6aee8c328c7bb1d423244b979bcec

You fanatically believe a lie. That's no way to function. Delude yourself about one thing, why not go full-in? Give us your thoughts on the moon landings, flat earth, lizard people, etc. You must be Q, or in your case, q.

Someone goes into a shop and tells everyone they're a machinist, then proceeds to not be able to read a micrometer? That's you, when you try to pass your bullshite theories off as "facts".
 
I suspect most of us could list cool companies we once frequented, that went out of business when their owners got old, business changed, and they found they could more than comfortably retire selling off the real estate. Goes back to at least buggy whips. Dozens of great places around here have gone out of business, sold the real estate, had their owners retire. The orchards are gone - even Orchard Hardware is gone. In their place are high tech businesses. Tons of cool electronic surplus places? Gone.

Dozens more went out of business decades ago when I was in Cincinnati. Almost all the machine tool makers in the "machine tool capital of the world?" Gone. No more Aufdemkampe Hardware. Can't even recall the name of a once-favorite haunt - a huge surplus operation near downtown.

First time, though, I've heard it being bitterly blamed on someone's fantasy of a fraudulent election.
 
The Saudis and Russia picked the worse demand depletion in a hundred years as a fine time to hold a crude price war.
This was overlain on a production bubble in the US based on fast ramping extraction with associated volatility in the sector labor market.
It all ended up with one of the worse sector crashes in history fully during a pro petroleum administration.
There was plenty of damage to the sector- none of it had much to do with the election cycle.

Global crude prices have in the current administration totally regained the loses created during the last one.
Hell- prices have rallied 50% since the election.
I’d say pay attention to what is happening in the global market.

Prices BOTTOMED in March 2020- I like to say attribution in markets is a tough game.
I don’t think this thread is in the same room with what the key factors are which underlie crude pricing.
It’s a shame the business closed.
The election had nothing to do with it.

The Trump administration oversaw the largest level of bankruptcy and accrued debt in the oil patch in its history starting in 2016.

Want to call this politics- those are plain facts.
I’d look further than US politics to understand the crude sector.
 

From your link:

"For Trump and his allies were running their own campaign to spoil the election. The President spent months insisting that mail ballots were a Democratic plot and the election would be “rigged.” His henchmen at the state level sought to block their use, while his lawyers brought dozens of spurious suits to make it more difficult to vote–an intensification of the GOP’s legacy of suppressive tactics. Before the election, Trump plotted to block a legitimate vote count. And he spent the months following Nov. 3 trying to steal the election he’d lost–with lawsuits and conspiracy theories, pressure on state and local officials, and finally summoning his army of supporters to the Jan. 6 rally that ended in deadly violence at the Capitol."

Good going, bud. Do you have any toes left, after the repeated shooting of your own feet?
 
I'm sorry, I tried my best to use a thread title that is meaningful. I didn't mean to offer a place for drunkards, transsexuals, and women-with-peepees to lick their gorins over the intense dissonance they feel for having supported the worst President ever, even worse than Obammy.

I have little time to convince morons that they're morons....in fact none. It's a perfect fit for the old saying - never get in the mud and fight with a pig....you'll both get dirty, only he enjoys it.

You girls go cuddle up and enjoy your dreams of Beijing Biden taking it in the rear by China. Let us men worry about machining.
 
As for the erection of 2020, every adult alive knows it was a fraud. Always will be. Other countries are laughing at the US...but of course, the media here hides it all.

Oh you are a moron I get it now


Businesses close all the time

Oilfield work, seems to me the pandemic and the price of crude had something to do with it
 
I'm sorry, I tried my best to use a thread title that is meaningful. I didn't mean to offer a place for drunkards, transsexuals, and women-with-peepees to lick their gorins over the intense dissonance they feel for having supported the worst President ever, even worse than Obammy.

I have little time to convince morons that they're morons....in fact none. It's a perfect fit for the old saying - never get in the mud and fight with a pig....you'll both get dirty, only he enjoys it.

You girls go cuddle up and enjoy your dreams of Beijing Biden taking it in the rear by China. Let us men worry about machining.



Your ignorance is out of control

Election fraud that you cannot prove

A traitor calling his followers to attack the Congress

a traitor who wanted to swap spit with Dear Leader, and it is Biden who is the pushover

foolishness
 
That shop closing had nothing to do with the election.

The pipeline workers can bitch about Biden killing their jobs but there is no reason after 70 years that a month of Biden would take down a business. People will blame anything that they think will hold the blame.
 
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.

Maybe they're closing because they don't have electricity?
 
The Saudis and Russia picked the worse demand depletion in a hundred years as a fine time to hold a crude price war.
This was overlain on a production bubble in the US based on fast ramping extraction with associated volatility in the sector labor market.
It all ended up with one of the worse sector crashes in history fully during a pro petroleum administration.
There was plenty of damage to the sector- none of it had much to do with the election cycle.

Global crude prices have in the current administration totally regained the loses created during the last one.
Hell- prices have rallied 50% since the election.
I’d say pay attention to what is happening in the global market.

Prices BOTTOMED in March 2020- I like to say attribution in markets is a tough game.
I don’t think this thread is in the same room with what the key factors are which underlie crude pricing.
It’s a shame the business closed.
The election had nothing to do with it.

The Trump administration oversaw the largest level of bankruptcy and accrued debt in the oil patch in its history starting in 2016.

Want to call this politics- those are plain facts.
I’d look further than US politics to understand the crude sector.

“ The Trump administration oversaw the largest level of bankruptcy and accrued debt in the oil patch in its history starting in 2016.”

You refer to the Reuters article.

From that; “ Thirty-six producers with $51 billion in debt filed for bankruptcy protection in the first eight months of the year, according to the law firm Haynes and Boone. The coronavirus pandemic crushed fuel demand and left debt-laden producers without access to credit.

The number of companies filing still lags 2016, when 70 companies filed for bankruptcy. However, those firms were generally smaller and left a total of $56 billion in debt.

Oil and gas producer bankruptcies on track for most since 2016:”.


Seems like it is a supply demand thing. The way increases just in gasoline indicate a psychic change in the industry. The writing is on the wall. The winners will have their profits.

A relative was a wildcatter in the olden days it is a tumultuous business. He told us that companies were lost being used as stakes in poker games. Tough business.

Since demand is down then supply should reflect that somewhat. Add in the no contract spot prices levied in the Texas energy disaster where many generators charged their customers high prices. They passed the spot cost on. The State will not likely let that stand. We will see.

Seems possible since that shop did oil related work including offshore stuff that with the tightening and attitude the new administration has that it is clear to many where that trend of the business is going. They have been through boom bust boom for some time already and they likely do not feel like seeing another one through because it is not worth it.

Hard lessons will be learned forcing intermittent green energy. A real breakthrough in technology must occur. Whoever comes up with it will get paid and it will be costly.
 
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To be perfectly clear- I was making the point that while this damage occurred during the Trump administration, it is not a valid point that his policies caused it.
Just as this single business failure Greg has cited might not be accurately attributed to the new election cycle.
 








 
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