I've talked with people who've gone into business for themselves and it sorta terrifies me. I don't think that I've ready for that leap. I like helping people fix things too. I repaired the washing machine for someone in my wife's lab. One of her kids socks found it's way into the pump and it was jammed up. Simple fix, but you had to guess where to look and not assume it was going to be something like a bad circuit board, etc. I didn't want to take money. I was just happy to get the thing going again.
This isn't the first time for me . Before I got into cabinet shop work I ran a home repair/flooring install business . Got tired of the hustle , worked for somebody else the last 18 or so years . But people just aren't all that interedted in hiring a man my age , and so here I am , back in business again . Got a few more skills now too , last go-round I didn't have all the metalworking machinery . Recently , I've been fabbing and installing lock boxes on AC condenser cages . Couple of bucks for material , and I'm getting 45 bucks each for them . Works out to just under $30/hour average ...
I met someone up here in the Milwaukee area who started a small business fabbing oil coolers for English motorcycles. He sold me his HF 3-in-1 shear-brake-roller when he got something better to work with.
My "not entirely a joke" moonlighting tagline is: Electronics, Databases, Woodworking, Earthmoving I have done (and will do) the first two for money. I keep playing with the third one but have been leery of turning a hobby I like into a job I might not, and the last I only do for me (backhoe, yes - giant truck to haul giant trailer to haul backhoe, and license to drive said giant truck, and desire to get mired in other people's noisome underground messes, no. I'm also a good pick and shovel man, but nobody's going to pay my rates for pick and shovel work, most likely - though it has certainly come in handy on parts of my own jobs where the backhoe is not the right tool for the job.)
As for moonlighting more directly in what I spend all day doing - not interested, already tired of it. If I was more seriously trying to work the first two I might remove the last two, but I'm not, and there is a deliberate intent to point out broadness of scope. So far nobody's called wanting an earthmoving job - they look for the folks who advertise that in the paper and yellow pages.
...but, that's moonlighting. I can afford to miss a bunch, because it is not my day job.
The woodworking "not quite a business" is itself also not confined to woodworking, and I've borrowed a moniker from one of my 1860's lathes that describes it better: "Maker"
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