POLL: SHOP OWNERS, How many employees, years in biz, etc

dkmc · Aug 1, 2007

Well along the sales lines, I'll start another thread or rather a POLL for the shop owners on here, just out of curiosity.

1. How many people work at your shop total
2. Years self employed
2A Type of shop (job shop or product)
3. If product, WHAT? Website address?
4. One general sentence as to 'quantity' of equipment and type.
5. One sentence on being in this biz, words of wisdom, smart remark, etc.

Thanks.

dkmc · Aug 1, 2007

Oh...yea.

1. One. me.

2. since 1982. Calculator says 25 years (I hate math)

2A. Job shop, always wanted to 'find' the ideal
product.

3. N/A

4. Standard manual, 3 Bridgeports, 10EE, Leblond dual drive. Hendy 14", HB chucker & mill, couple Gisholt #5 turrets. 24" Bullard, cold saws, band saws, ELB 10 x 20 grinder. Retrofitted cnc lathes, and older machining center, Lagun cnc mill. Willimin cnc bridge mill. Omniturn cnc gang tool lathe. Probably over a hunnert tons of usable and
'stored for future reference'

5. Tough business, not getting any easier.
Be tough to do anything else at this point, listening to some nitwit boss for example.

dk

SND · Aug 1, 2007

1: Only me, no plan to change that.

2: Started the business about 2.5years ago, happily self employed for 6 months.

2A: Job Shop I guess? and a bit of prototype work. Some of it is repeat work. Quantity is 1 to a few thousand parts. Often in the 500 to 1000 range. NO repair work, I hate repair work.

3: Wishing I had a product, gotta work on that.(is peanut butter in a tube taken?)

4: All manual equipment, 1 mill/drill, 1 14x40lathe, 1 Cyclematic 618EVS toolroom lathe(my new baby), all equipped with everything I can throw at them. Tig welder ( almost half of my business is tig welding) More will come when I have space and $$.

5: Feels like retirement, but I'm not bored.

Here's Question #6 for the other shop owners. Would you rather have stayed small, as a 1 or 2 man shop, than to have grown to a 5 or 10+ man shop? Is it worth it to be big, or did you end up making more $ and enjoying the work more when you were smaller and had no overhead?

tzoll · Aug 1, 2007

1 = 6 ( 4 dayshift 2 swing shift)

2 = 5

2a = Job Shop

3 = N/A

4 = Mills = Hass vf2 with 4th axis, Hass vf3ss with 4th axis, Okuma Cadet 4020, Okuma MCV4020, Bridgport 3 axis knee mill
Lathes = Okuma Cadet
Multitasking = Okuma Multus B300MW
Wire edm = Sodick A320

5 = Tons and Tons of long hours trying to please customers!

spock · Aug 1, 2007

1: Me about 80% of the, I bring in a kid from tech school when workload allows it.

2: On my own 3 years now

2A: Job shop, most sales is from mold componets

3: Yea, been thinking about that product thing some. Buddy has a shop up the road, tried that route for years without much luck, but seems to be doing OK now with 50cal. sniper rifles. It's pretty cool.

4: One old Mori SL-3H cnc lathe, 1 old BP CNC mill, 1 old Wells Index conv. mill, a 1 year old Sharp super mini cnc mill, nice OGP comparator, old Wells bandsaw, Hobart Mig welder, Do-all vertical saw

5: Advice? Well, if you are going to work at this then make some money whole you are at it. Dont work yourself to death for nothing, you could have stayed on the porch and done that, and saved yourself alot of trouble.

Ox · Aug 1, 2007

1) I generally werk alone. My 16 yr old puts in more and more time as we go. My wife does all paper werk and pick-up delivery, unless the trailer is involved.

2) Since 8/1/89 - so I guess I just hit 18 yrs today.

2A) Job shop. Production oriented. Mostly turning.

3) I have a product that I hope to be releasing this fall. It is simply copying some OEM parts - only making it outta diff materials to take the heat better. Folks were wanting them last yr - actually some have been crying for them for 5+ yrs now, but I was just too busy to pull off real werk to put on these last yr. Now I have added capacity for them.

4) (many) Acme multispindle screw machines, (4) Kingsbury type rotary transfer machines up to 14 stations, (2) Hardinge CNC lathes up to 65 mm and 8 axis, (2) Lodge and Shipley CNC lathes (retrofitted) to 40" swing and 100" centers, (2) Excello 408 - 48" x 48" HMC's w/rotaries, and of course - everyone has a VMC in a dark corner somewhere eh? (Mine has a 1/2 axis rotary on it too LOL!) Actually - I guess I have two VMC's - but one has an axis error so got pulled from the line for now...

I was told to make that 1 sentance eh? LOL!

Obviously I wasn't always the only one werking here...

5) ??? Feast or Famine... ??? But I think that was covered in the other thread eh?

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Anvil · Aug 1, 2007

1. 3.5. Wife does the books.

2. Since 1998.

2A. Manufacture our own product(s).

3. Bicycle fabrication/manufacturing tooling. anvilbikes.com

4. CNC: 2 Tree 325s, one with a live 4th. A LeBlond Makino FNC74 with a live 4th. Clausing Metosa 14x40 lathe. Older stuff, but I've never had a machine payment monkey on my back either. Still shopping for small'ish VMC and got rid of two older 3-axis knee mills. One of the Trees will be on the market as soon as I find the VMC I want to replace it with.

Manual: Knee mills, a Deckel FP3, couple horizontal mills, Ramo 17x40 lathe, Scotchman 350 semi-auto cold saw, welding equipment (Syncrowave 350) and all the other support tools, etc. to go with having your own shop.

5. Self-employment ain't for pussies. Also, work on a "cash" economy, i.e., "if you can't pay for it up front, you can't afford it." My only real advice is to never take on more debt than you can pay off in a couple of months. Sometimes the only thing that has helped me sleep at night was knowing that if my business flushed away, it wouldn't take me, my family, and our assets with it.

Steve@Reliance · Aug 1, 2007

1. 3

2. 6 years

3. Job shop, some products (oval track chassis parts) I currently have 1 order for 10,000 pc. but we rarely get orders that big

4. Mazak QT-10, Hurco VM-1, Bridgeport EZ Trak,
10x40 lathe, 10x50 First vertical mill, Do-All vertical saw, horizontial saw, 6x12 grinder, Cincinnati #2 cutter grinder, Cincinnati 2EA centerless Syncrowave 351 tig CP-200 mig Hossfeld #2 w/hyd.(well tooled)

5. This has been a frustrating year. Adding 1 machine and 1 staff has been a bumpy road.

Tim in D · Aug 1, 2007

1 Just me. Had two at one time and the occasional part timer but waaaay tooo much trouble.

2 Fulltime since 1985

2a and 3 Prototyping, scientific apparatus and developing a medical device.

4 EDM, Harrison and EE lathes, DEckel FP1, Haas Mini, Jet Mill

5 If you don't have the cash, you can't afford it. (whatever it is) You can't please everybody all the time. There IS such a thing as a bad customer. Clean your plate and keep your d#$ck in your pants

Tim

Guest · Aug 1, 2007

1. Just me, once had 4 employees, now I like just depending on myself

2. 8 years

3. Dual Alternator mounting kits, with some job shop
work.

4. One each CNC Mill and CNC Lathe, 3 manual lathes,
5 manual mills, one surface grinder, have dedicated
manual machines for my own product.

5. I am 46 wish I had started my shop sooner, but
was too busy chasing skirts, drinking, watching and betting on sports.

Pat Murray · Aug 1, 2007

1. Just me most of the time, 3 boys sometimes, Wife takes care of the important stuff & she owns the company... & sometimes says (NO) at the right time!
2. A little over two years in biz, still trying to recoup life savings...
2a. Definitely a job shop, but dabble with up to about 200 pieces... I'd do more if they are interesting... Still experimenting with products...
3. N/A
4. 3 Lathes LeBlond 18 x 54 Tool & Diemaker, American Pacemaker 18 X 102, Select (Kwangchow) 18 x 48 gap bed, 2 series 1 Bridgeports, small KO Lee Surface/Tool grinder. Lots of supporting equipment i.e. welding machine, air compressor, Fork lift etc...

5. Courage is being willing to risk everything just for one opportunity to succeed. Some individuals risk small and gain small.

Pay cash whenever you can, otherwise keep your cash in your own pocket...

Pat

WILLEO6709 · Aug 1, 2007

1. 11 currently in summer season, but volumes are increasing so it'll likely stick there or raise up.
2. It started about 13 years ago in a 24 x 30 garage with a bridgeport and a lathe
2a. we'll work on anything that will fit in the door and few things that don't. The general rule: anything that makes money and as little as possible that does not.
3. we do stamping dies, OEM parts, a few components in the defense industry, some of it is our product. www.superiorarms.com
4. 12k sq. feet clear full, 1 cnc lathe, 1 ancient ( new to us) cnc swiss lathe, 5 HMC's running, 2 more rebuildable, 1 HBM, 4 VMC's, 3 surface grinders, 2 od grinders, 1 jig grinder, 3 bridgeports, 2 engine lathes, 1 wire edm, 1 dcc cmm, a press stamping line, a couple standalone presses, a roll stamp or 2, several multiple head drills, radial drill, KT #3 horizontal, KT #3 vertical, 2 brown and sharp 0's, a special purpose deep hole drill, optical comparator, there's more but I don't wanna type any more.
5. I was never great with catch lines, but " anything that makes money and as little as possible that don't" comes to mind.

SchneiderMachine · Aug 1, 2007

1. Me

2. 18 yrs now, 10 yrs p-time, full time in 99'
2A. Job shop, short run production and prototyping
3. I have some things I make, never get rich off'em
4. 11 in. Rockwell Lathe, Kondia manual mill with readout, 2 VMC's (Milltronics) 2 Cnc lathes (1 Emco Compac6P and a 1 Takisawa TC-1) 1 Boyar-Shultz 612 surface grinder, Deltronic optical comparator (broke

)Drill press, grinders, arbor press, yada, yada CadCam system, modeling software and the sort.
5. You want me to rush this rush or rush the rush I'm rushing now?

Dave

Waynno · Aug 1, 2007

1) 1 now (At one time 2 shifts 4 people)

2) since 1989

2a) Mostly turning http://nosala.com/index.html

3) Gun for hire....., Aerospace, Film, Automotive

4) 4 Mori Seiki CNC lathes, 1 Fadal VMC40, assortment of conventional equipment

5) Same as some have stated, getting work, getting tough..Got tired of overhead,
sold my house in LA California and bought a place in the desert with a house, small shop
and a couple of acres two years ago. Now can breath a bit easier, but could always use
some backlog.

Wayne

motorworks · Aug 1, 2007

1) Just one me
2) 18 years, 11 years a full time machine shop
2A) mostly job, but I make a few products for a local mfg.
3) n/a
4) 3 manual lathes 15 x 50, 20 x 40, 20 x 60
1 cnc lathe (I built) 10 x 33.
2 manual mills
1 cnc mill (redone Boss Turbo)
50t press,mig,tig, bandsaw, CAD/CAM etc
5) In Canada, pack up and go to Alberta

Comatose · Aug 1, 2007

Well, we're not really a machine shop per se, but we have machines...

1. 6 plus one unpaid intern
2. 3
2a. product
3. Power electronics. www.dimensionengineering.com
4. Machining: one CNC knee mill, lathe, saws, presses. Electronics: Stencil printer, Pick/Place, oven, whole lotta soldering stuff
5. Being high growth has its ups and downs...

Rick Kight · Aug 2, 2007

1) 15

2) Started in garage 25 years ago

2a) Job shop

3) Custom tooling and automation

4) 6 CNC machining centers, 1 CNC bar machine, manual mills and lathes welding equipt. injection molding machine, radial arm drill.....

5) If it weren’t for employees and customers, being in business for yourself would be OK. No really, treat your employees and customers fairly, be upfront and honest and do what you say you will do this will gain their trust which I have found out that is what customers are really looking for. At least in the specialty machine bu

rosie · Aug 2, 2007

1. 1(Me, the kid is almost here, instead of a rattle it's getting a mic.)
2. 2 years
2A Job shop, looking for my widgets
3. Rosenthalmachine.com (under construction)
4. 1 vmc, 1 turning center, small bed lathe, gorton mill, tool grinding eq., small surface grinder, optical comparitor.
5. Currently I don't think I qualify to give wisdom yet with only 12 years experience, maybe later.

Rosie

jprobst · Aug 2, 2007

1. 11 laborers, 1 office manager, and me

2.3 years

2a. job shop and production shop for aluminum extruders,also custom sand rail parts

3.www.mmprecision.net and www.proprecision.com

4.2007 haas vf-2, 6 manual mills, 4 soco aluminum fully auto saws, 5'x10' plasmacutter,3 brake-press,5 punchpress,2 tig welders, 1 aluminum mig welding,1 hardinge lathe,1 femco durga lathe,1 logan lathe, 1 enshu cnc,2 ctd miter saws,1 multi-spindle drilling system, 1 manual steel bender.

5.I love it and hate it, but not yet qualified enough for words of wisdom except to make sure your parts are correct.

Big John T · Aug 2, 2007

1 I'm a partner and there are two of us.

2 Since 9th of Sept 2002 going on 5 years.

3 Factory Automation. A bit of explanation we design and build automation equipment for factories that assemble things into bigger things. Each machine is unique and we make most parts that are not part of screw feeders or feeder bowls.

4 A manual mill, lathe and a CNC Series 1 BP oh yes the fab equipment, Mig, Tig, Stick, Plasma, Box Brake...

5 When we first started out we did a lot of other things to keep a little income coming in like construction work, installing 100+ year old iron bridge over a creek, burying a horse and a lot of fishing. We don't have time to do any of that any more...

If you do good work all the time the word will get out one day...

John

POLL: SHOP OWNERS, How many employees, years in biz, etc

Diamond

Diamond

Diamond

Aluminum

Stainless

Diamond

Cast Iron

Hot Rolled

Hot Rolled

Guest

Guest

Aluminum

Diamond

Stainless

Aluminum

Cast Iron

Titanium

Aluminum

Hot Rolled

Cast Iron

Aluminum

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