'Jobbing' shops

I have a small engineering shop that makes bespoke parts for anyone with money !! Having said that, I do lots of "favours" for locals. I am also very quiet at this time of year due to a customer going bust, and the new people taking over and setting up again is taking time. Only reason I didn't reply to your first request is that my location is North London. Bob

There are plenty small shops left,but,very few are sitting waiting on customers coming to the door.If they were they would be in trouble. As for "want it now".Here`s how we look at it.We`re running jobs for customers,along comes a new guy who wants his stuff now which would mean an existing job being pushed back.Will the new guy pay extra to get his job pushed through?Probably not.Will he pay you at all? Possibly not. Will he pay you the rate to stop a job,set up and do his one and reset the one you stopped.Probably not. Do I want guys wandering in with bits they need now,in a hurry,likely never to be seen again? Not really,I`d rather you went to the guy in his garden shed up the road. There is no money in doing odd bits in a hurry for people you don`t know.

I used to use two very good small shops in the area, they've both gone now (one retired, one seemed to just disappear a few months after moving premises). I know of a couple of others, but another seems to have gone recently. My needs were often for sterngear repairs while a boat was on the dry-dock, so a lot of extra expense if the job couldn't be done sooner rather than later. Both would do their best to help, but they had close ties with one or two customers and of course looking after them was much more important than my occasional jobs. That is what led me to establish my own shop, I've collected more kit than I *need* to service the dry-dock but it's surprising how often a lot of it gets used. As it's not a full-time job, I generally get more satisfaction from the workshop than from most of what I call the 'day job' of boat repairs. I do take in occasional outside jobs, but don't go looking for them.

Tim

Do you fancy turning me up (or fabricating) a grease cup from a Stauffer lubricator? It's 2.5'' diameter, material choice is yours, the most difficult bit (for me anyway!) would be the internal thread (looks around

20tpi)

Julian.

Do you have a drawing of the part required please. I would also need to be sure of the thread specs. Maybe you have a mating part that screws in, so the thread can be confirmed. Bob

>

I run a small jobbing shop and emergency breakdown service between Nottingham and Derby. Most of my work is one off's as I'm not geared for production work, only very short runs and I get shit bored if I have to make more than

5 of anything.

I manage to keep busy doing the shit jobs no one else wants.

Today I have overhauled a three spindle boring head with all new bearings, bushes and three new gears [ gears were on stock ] Seven DRO attachments for X3 milling machines. Milled, drilled and tapped some bits for Lester. Fitted a taperlock bush to a worn out plain pulley bore at 38mm dia. And finished off an X3 CNC conversion but that was nearly done anyway.

Tomorrow starts off refurbishing a stainless steel chuck, about 20" diameter out of one of Rolls Royces crack testing machines, probably a couple of days work as it's quite a simple chuck.

John S.

I could do you a drawing, but it would be very amateurish! I've got the female mating part too - maybe I could just box them both up and send them to you Parcel Force?

Julian.

Sorry, brain fart, female = male!

Julian.

Well I've just back from a round trip via Arc Euro and John S and I'm in a lot better position than I was this morning. Hopefully even the machined boxes were finished but I was too late to pick them up.

John's neck of the woods seems to be a lot better off than mine. Probably because every available barn and shed has been converted to holiday accommodation around here ;)

Mark - I know exactly what you are saying, and to some extent you are probably right, but the point of THIS thread was to see if there would be any interest in setting up a directory of 'experts'. I am wondering of a 'spare capacity' service might be appropriate? In my own case the one good sheet metal shop that is with easy reach is now busy on big contracts for then next few months :(

I even tried to fill the gap by picking up on of the 8" break presses from Ketan at Arc Euro - but he has stopped stocking them - and I'd bunged the cost to cover it on another job already :(

If anybody needs help with turnips, I'm your man. Put me down for badgers, too.

...and owls.

Hi,

A new "Internet Directory" has just been started,

If you would like to add any jobbing shops or suppliers then please feel free, we will be adding a google maps interface later in the month so you can find suppliers in your area.

Hopefully this site will grow and provide the services we all need.

Please email any suppliers that dont have websites to snipped-for-privacy@blastpipe.co.uk and i will sort it out.

Thanks

Alastair

May I just make one point? uk.rec.models.engineering is NOT a Forum(Thank God) it is a NEWSGROUP.

Richard

Err...who said otherwise?

REgards, Tony

You need to check your Blastpipe Tony! Henry

On the same not I am available to bore holes in any furry or feathered pest throughout Suffolk. Current "precision" diameters possible are .17", .22", .243", but you can always have a job lot of smaller randomly placed holes if you prefer :)

I thought an "Ex" was a has-been, and a "Spurt" was a drip under pressure . So who should we nominate...

Are you not .007" out on the first hole size? "Precision", Huh

Richard

No, it is .17HMR a rimfire round not the air rifle size.