Exactly. Plus, there is a lot of costs to USA manufacturing, that do not exist in China, so the material and the product is often cheaper if made overseas. For a big enough buyer, even a penny per part difference is significant enough.
That's a pretty broad brush yer wieldin' there Cy ... up here in Stone County it's word-of-mouth that'll either make ya or break ya - some of these folks don't even know there *IS* an internet . Well , not really , but this ain't like any metropolitan area , we'uns is jus' a buncha hillbillies . Seriously , around here it's all about personal recommendations , a fella from "off" isn't going to make much if he doesn't get integrated into the local good-ol-boy network . I've been fortunate enough to make a few people happy , and the work is slowly starting to increase as word gets out that that guy out in Sunnyland has a shop and knows how to use it .
Yeah, regulations can double the cost of setting up a company and double or quintuple prices of product, but if the product or service is wanted, it will still grow. I'm forced to spend a couple grand a year for $500k liability insurance, $10k bond, $400 license fee, and a few hundred in continuing education. That immediately bumped up my fees considerably, from day 1 on, trying to recoup my initial outlay. To do plumbing or electrical work, I'd have to apply for additional contractor licenses (almost impossible to get journeyman's experience in) for both those types of work, so it ruled those out immediately, too. Lead and asbestos abatement are yet another 2 licenses. It is becoming ridiculous. I'm still trying to find out what regulations are for signmaking and installation. I'll likely need another license for a boom truck if I go that route. ChaCHING!
Kudos to Magpul for doing that, but it's a costly reaction to overregulation.
It's funny to see so many weapons mfgrs in New York, of all places. I'll bet full-color Bloomberg targets would be a hot seller there. Why settle for simple silhouette target paper, right?
It is really hard to make money as a new job shop. There are TONS of them in the US alone, all looking for somebody that needs parts made. If you have contacts at a bunch of OEMs, they know you, how good you are, and send stuff they think you might be competitive with to bid on. If you are new, it is REAL hard to break into that "old boy's network".
A far better way is to design something yourself that has some kind of market, and then sell the items on eBay, Amazon or at the local flea market.
If you are in Wichita, it is kind of the capital of aerospace manufacturing, although there is a lot of that in Washington state, St. Louis, and I think South Carolina, too. Detroit is the hub of US automaking.
So, if there are any shops or manufacturers in their area, they should try to see some people there that contract out manufacturing. Make sure the manufacturers know you are flexible, can not only machine but assemble things and measure parts. When the mfg gets in a bind, they could get a call. Some companies try to run so lean that when one of their suppliers runs late, goes out of business, has a machine breakdown, etc. the mfg gets in a terrible bind, and can be very generous to get some help getting their production line back up.
Jon
It didn't sound like the new shop was setup in the middle of nowhere, but I could be wrong on that. Even if it was, there's got to be what, tens of dollars floating around the local economy to keep a new place in business?
Even here in a big city I was looking for a local printer to handle a simple job. It's apparently too hard for them to come up with pricing, even if you want in the shop.
Guess what- the job is probably going to an out of state internet printer, since they can provide a quote and the best pricing in the least amount of time.
Suck for the slow to adapter, backwards businessess who thing it's still the olden days.
As I said , it all depends on the market . BTW , I print my own cards . And flyers , etc .
Tawm, I forgot the best way to start out. Ask every shop in town what people are asking them to make, but that the shops DON'T make and/or won't make. You'll find a lot of tough stuff which sells for dirt cheap and isn't worth making, but you'll also get wind of the top dollar stuff nobody has time or inclination to make. That can be a real winner. My buddy Terry is doing that in LoCal. He started in electromechanical repair but has steadily increased his work in automating small businesses. He's buying and rebuilding scrap, having them buy new and let him modify it for their business, etc. And he's designing and building his own stuff on a small scale. He doesn't have a machine shop, but can do a lot on an old Shopsmith. Go figure!
Agreed.
Good points, all.
Funny, you know. It used to be that every little town had a shop like that and it always seemed like they were busy. Now I'm getting the idea, at least from this site, that nobody fixes things any more and "machine shops" are all computer controlled :-)
DONE!
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