Ended up running a small shop, Mazak mill, Mazak lathe, Fadal 4020, Accuslide, and some other support equipment. The owner stayed on the bidding/contracting side and was at a different location. In 2005 my pay was cut $4 an hour, but now with bonuses, which I was susposed to be getting already. I saw one quarterly check for $900, with the other half coming at the end of the year, never saw that either. After a year I did get back $2.50 of my pay, but nothing more, never a bonus.
This owner was on a mission to lose money and make sure nobody ever got a bonus no matter what. I did outside work, that I bid and dealt with the customers, and also did our stuff that came from the owners side of the company, which was way way way way way way way way underbid. When I started making money he would swamp me with crap that we didn't have the equipment for.
Ex 1) I had lined up a nice job, 30 castings at $600 a piece. With fixturing and everything, and me babysitting and setting up other machines, 3 weeks tops, 1 shift. However the owner decided that I needed to run a rush job of piston rings(I don't know what they were, they looked like piston rings). He could have bought them off the shelf for $800 total, 4" diameter, .070 wall thickness, .030 thick with 7 grooves .015 deep, .030 wide, out of 321, it could have been made out of any 300 series stainless 303!!!!!!! but no, 321, not even 304, 3fricken21. They ran 10 hours a day for a fricken month, and I had to pass on the $18000 dollar job. So that machine for the month made $800, not $18000 plus a week. Not a job we had the equipment for, and he bought the worst material possible.
Ex 2) 2500 pieces, 304, susposed to be made out of tubing, 1.09 long, cross holes. The company is selling them at 75 cents each, so he goes out and buys the wrong sized tubing, then buys solid, so I need to put a 1" diameter hole into 304, 2500 pieces, and the shop is getting a grand total of $1250. I won't even tell you how much we lost on that one.
Ex 3) Sitting in a meeting, the owner is saying that I'm late on a bunch of jobs, "like what?" knowing I'm not late, he throws one at me. Due 2 months ago, I never saw it, so I ask where is the material, he hasn't ordered it yet(He loved ordering material, which he never actually did), but its my fault that it hasn't shipped yet. Brain dead aluminum part, perfect for a VMC and a turning center, 4hours tops. Needs an alodine(chromic conversion coating) we can do that and a solid film lube, which my friend up the street does, get the material here tomorrow and it will be out in 3 days, quick $1300. So 4 weeks later the material shows up, and its being sent out to another shop because it is the kind of work that we ACTUALLY HAVE the machines to do. 6 weeks later, the other shops lathe goes down and won't be up for 6 more weeks, and since it was so late the contract was cancelled. What a dumb ass.
Ex 4) Material shows up, simple part, square chunk of brass with an acme thread stuck through it. I didn't have a PO from the owner yet, but dug through the files to find the prints and quantities, and the owners nephew who was overseeing things in the warehouse/shop told me to go with it. Done in two days(actually a few hours, but I had to get the tap), 3 weeks after the job had already shipped to the gov (the material showed up after the due date), I got reamed because they already had a PO and quote to send it to another shop. I'm sooooo sorry for trying to make the company money and get jobs out on time.
Ex 5) Big quantity job for us, 1000s of pieces, Aluminum bronze thrust washer, 5" in diameter, some freaky slots and tight tolerances, made out of tubing. Material shows up 3 months after the job is due, the day the material shows up is when I find out I have to make the parts, I get told to drop everything and start on them. 5 weeks running 12-16 hours a day, 3 ops, eating up the lathe and one mill. I got *****ed out because I wasn't "scheduling" properly, now, if I can even speak english and understand the word "schedule" I can't "schedule" something I don't know about it, especially if it is going to take 5 weeks.
Ex 6) Big pin out of 17-4, 12.375"long, 11" of ±.001, 1.5" diameter. I have a PO for 3 of them, and a print(holy crap!!!!! I actually got a print!!!!) Knurled head, my PO is for a HUGE $60(there goes the bonus). The material that shows up(before the due date believe it or not) is TWO(<-- I have a PO for 3) pieces 2" diameter ONE INCH LONG!!! What does the owner tell me, "rub it, it will get longer" Months later I finally got his nephew to order me the material, he was frustrated also, and now also gone from that sh**hole. Another late job, my fault, of course.
I could keep going on and on and on, about the stupidness. When I quit, I didn't even work out my notice. When I went to get my tools, the owner showed up to yell at me. He said he never wanted to see me around again, that changed really quick, when in about 3 weeks he was calling my business partner wanting me to go over and help. I *****ed at him about the paycut, "You should work more overtime". A**HOLE.
Oh well, we did a heat treat job for them a few weeks back, and we got $200 of the $315 left in the bank. All tooling vendors have cut them off, they are 3 months behind on machine payments, they have parts sitting at another machine shop(they have their own fricken machine shop??????) that they can't get because they don't have the money to pay COD for the one JOB that will save the company(you can't pay 3 million in bills with a 3/4 million contract).
