Do large machines make sense today?

[mach ramsey mn]

Not many of the parts I work on are heavier than 1500 lbs. Lifting 50 taper toolholders keeps me out of the gym.

I don't think the service I provide is just manual machining. The service is really coming up with a reasonable solution to remedy a customer's problem. Often times the problem is time=money. When the hydraulic cylinder is $15k from Cat and 3 months out and I can fix it in 3 days for $6500 guess what they do?

And I think getting the work is mostly about clear, quick communication with my customers and turning jobs around quickly.

I do a lot of manual repair work jobs for people I have a lot of history with and when they call me with a problem I have often explained that if I take my attention from what I'm working on and focus it on your problem I need to make $XXXX to make up for getting behind on my primary work. Often times that equates to making several hundred an hour to fix their stuff, but it still pencils out for them.

The more I really think about this, I believe the lack of shops doing repair machine work is not about a lack of machinists. It's about a lack of people that can stare down a customers broken part or a shitty sketch on a paper plate and come up with a real, workable solution in a short timeframe.

Yesterday I made a threaded insert with a .030" orifice for a farmer. He came from quite a ways away as he couldn't find anyone who could cut threads or drill a .030" hole. That's crazy. Anyone with any lathe could have made it.

The realization is that 99.9% of the shops out there are some form of ISO certified or AS certified and I have been an engineer or manager at shops like this and that 20 minute job takes $2000 dollars of paperwork to remain compliant.
When jobs like this would come in my door and i would explain to people the deal and often the response was they they had heard this before. If the job was in my garage shop capability I would slip them my number and have them call after 6 and would work something out. every one wants to or needs to or gets forced into some kind of certification to keep the "good" work flowing in the door and this keeps the farmer, maintenance department, the plumber, etc. from getting their work done because the capable shops have been forced out of that market by having to become certified.

 

[Doug]

Machine Tool Retrofit - MPE Machine Tool

www.mpemachinetool.com

This place is local, and I hear that they specialize in rebuilding later model (square removable ways) HBM's, and applying CNC controls to them.

 

[Freedommachine]

Here's a rush HBM job I did Sunday. Enlarging a steering knuckle for a semi. The steering box broke in a wreck and the replacement from a newer truck used a larger tie rod. This was a $575 job. If it could wait 2 weeks it would be a $100 job. The small end of that reamer is 7/8".

What happens when it breaks and the truck takes out a school bus full of children before plowing through a nursing home!?!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Those ball joint reamers are super handy. I bought one to ream out D30 knuckles for 1 ton Chevy rod ends when I built the cross-over steering set up on my jeep.

I only had a drill press at the time, your little HBM is the perfect machine for the job.

 

[Garwood]

What happens when it breaks and the truck takes out a school bus full of children before plowing through a nursing home!?!

What do you think caused the steering box to break in the first place? LOL!

It was a loaded Pete dumptruck and an Excursion pulled right out in front of it at 60 MPH. Cut the excursion in half, killed the occupants. Ripped the front axle out from under the Pete and messed up most stuff that hung below the front part of the frame rails. The amazing part was the dumptruck had a chrome front bumper made from T1 and that bumper didn't look like it even cared. Probably saved the driver's life and ended the lives of the idiots in the excursion.

Somebody's got to fix this shit right?

Ever bought a used car like a Honda or Toyota with a bunch of miles on it? You start looking underneath and find how utterly DESTROYED the entire car actually is, the things been wrecked repeatedly and hammered back into a car shaped object as cheaply as possibly. Like the unibody structure is just flat metal with a bunch of holes from frame pullers. I don't do that stuff, but it happens all the time!

I did a 1000HP engine build and R&R on a 2001 Cummins Dodge 3500 DRW about 13 years ago. The truck was a one owner hotshot rig with 300K on it. I lifted the cab to do the replacement and I found the driver's side frame rail right under the driver's feet was held together by about 3/4" of weld that hadn't broke yet. This truck was legal for 40K lbs and it regularly went over that when scales weren't involved. I stitched that frame back together and that truck is still out there working for the same guy last I heard.

Have I told you about the 100+ ton 600HP Yarders I make parts for that lift and haul in 10K+ lbs of logs at 60 MPH over the guys working below?

Years ago a friend of mine traded some work for the government for a huge lot of military Helicopters. That one deal made him a millionaire multiple times over. Just having them gave him some kind of credibility and he starting rebuilding parts for them. You'd shit if you saw the tarp he rebuilds and reskins working helicopters under. Great guy, and he's got some mad skills, but not once in his life has he ever had liability insurance.

Another friend has been the sole source for a product used by the CIA, FBI and IRS since 1973. tech I can't talk about, but not guns. In 50 years in business he's never had insurance either. A few years ago he wasn't able to deliver a $250k order to the IRS. He kinda overpromised and couldn't get an aspect he said would work to work the way it was supposed to. In the end he still got paid in full even though the product didn't work 100% and he got a big thanks for being a loyal vendor to the US government for so long.

So I guess from what I've seen there's a strategy that seems to work where you can just be the guy that does stuff nobody else can do and do your best and don't be a dick and you'll probably do OK in the long run.

Atleast that's the way I hope it works lol.