No response from machine shop

[930dreamer]

I went to a machine shop down the road from my shop. I wanted a stand built for a large 3 phase motor and a pony motor. They said someone would call me, well no ones called back. Is this normal, I didn't asked the cost or what their shop labor is. I asked if they wanted the job. I'm not going to beg them to take my money.

 

[mik641]

Ring THEM up

 

[LoneGunman]

If I couldn't do it myself I'd call a welder before a machine shop, I bet you could get someone on here to do it for you, save you a lot of money and maybe you'd be helping put a fellow GJ member who's out of work. Fabricating a stand for a few motors is beginner fabrication work in my opinion, no offense meant, you may not have the equipment.

 

[Zrexxer]

Too bad you're not closer to Austin, I'd weld up a stand for you, and I'd work for beer. LOTS of beer, mind you, but...

 

[Eds_tls]

I work with machine shops daily. If they don't call you back it usually means one of two things...

1) They're just poorly run and the employees don't care.

2) What your asking them to fab up is not really up their alley. They may be able to do it, but its not within their usual type of jobs.

When I do get blown off by machine shops, its usually becuase of reason #2. They may be capable of doing it, but its more trouble than its worth for them.

I agree with the post above. I would try a welder for what your looking for, rather than a machine shop. Any reputable place that does welding as the majority of their work, (like farm equipment repair), would easily make a stand for you and would probally love to get the business

 

[buildyourown]

That's pretty common. I've worked on both sides of the relationship. It means your job isn't worth their time. Don't take it personally. If you had a very amateur drawing or sketch, they assumed you would be a stickler on price and didn't want to waste the quoting time.

Find the right shop. Ask them point blank if it's something they want to do. Finding the right work for the right shop and vice versa is a puzzle. It took me years before I knew which shops would be competitive on a certain job so that I didn't waste everybody's time requesting quotes.

Edit - most real machine shops have no or limited welding capacity.

 

[IDASHO]

The only reason I could see a machine shop around here not returning a call is due to too much business.

They stay BUSY. Real busy.

The one I buy my steel from has just 3 fabricators and I bet they do 90+% of the custom fabrication and equipment repair work around here. Their shop is small too. But very well laid out.

Luckily I know one of them pretty well. When i go down to get steel, I basically pull it myself and check myself out. Funny to see the other guys standing there with silly looks on their faces, waiting for him to help them out. I just walk on past with my steel, no waiting.

 

[930dreamer]

When I asked what kind of work they specialized in, "whatever walks in the door" was the answer. I prefer to do everything myself, I have a small wire welder, but no way to cut tubing, other than a hacksaw. I have three seperate work platforms that can be raised with a forklift(surplus from Govt facility), I'd like to cut up. A plasma torch is in my future(maybe).

I agree with a welding shop on work!

Thank all

 

[Kevin54]

I went to a machine shop down the road from my shop. I wanted a stand built for a large 3 phase motor and a pony motor. They said someone would call me, well no ones called back. Is this normal, I didn't asked the cost or what their shop labor is. I asked if they wanted the job. I'm not going to beg them to take my money.

One thing to remember....nobody EVER calls back. It will be up to you to call them a couple of times.

 

[OccupantRJ]

People who need groceries call back. That might be who you want to deal with. In my professional and private work, people who do not call me back get marked off my list. It's interesting that suppliers who thought we were too small to deal with before the recession are now calling us to see if there is anything we might need. (groceries got low). I would find a backyard welder to do the work. I have a good friend who does that, and he is way cheaper because he has almost no overhead, and he is old enough to draw his Social Security. His big draw is that he welds aluminum for reasonable rates. The hobbiest guys flock to him.

 

[arkangel06]

Edit - most real machine shops have no or limited welding capacity.

Thats true We only have Tig and stick and Ive never seen the stick used once, everything we do is fabed with tig so it would be pretty hard to take on a job like this.

Find a Welding fabricating shop.

 

[bertristerf150hd]

it may be a hike but try mosleymachine.com, great machine shop to deal with and their sister company, barbed wire offroad that operates under the same roof, make fantastic dimple dies and cutters

 

[PurdueSD]

When I asked what kind of work they specialized in, "whatever walks in the door" was the answer. I prefer to do everything myself, I have a small wire welder, but no way to cut tubing, other than a hacksaw. I have three seperate work platforms that can be raised with a forklift(surplus from Govt facility), I'd like to cut up. A plasma torch is in my future(maybe).

I agree with a welding shop on work!

Thank all

Dude, if youve got a welder and minimal skill- save the money you would spend at the machine shop and buy yourself a chop saw. You will find hundreds of uses for your new found hobby!

 

[Ray-CA]

Try taking your drawing/plans to your local high school metal shop. Talk with the shop teacher, offer to pay for materials and ask if he has a student that has the needed skills to build it for you. I used to do that with some wood projects before I had the tool(s) I needed.

Ray

 

[Steve V.]

I have a small wire welder, but no way to cut tubing, other than a hacksaw.

For the money a machine shop would charge you you could probably go here...

Harbor Freight

And buy one of these...

Bandsaw


And then weld it with your welder.

Steve

 

[TheCarbideRat]

You said you would do something and then don't do it?

SCREW you.

 

[jonesg]

Dude, if youve got a welder and minimal skill- save the money you would spend at the machine shop and buy yourself a chop saw. You will find hundreds of uses for your new found hobby!

Ditto, its not exactly precision machine work fabbin a few welds from angle to make a stand. I just got an arc machine, its not as simple as I thought but its not rocket science either.

 

[jamesemery728]

For the money a machine shop would charge you you could probably go here...

Harbor Freight

And buy one of these...

Bandsaw


And then weld it with your welder.

Steve

+1 on this and it's on sale now for $190 and with a 20% coupon even less.

 

[jonesg]

When I asked what kind of work they specialized in, "whatever walks in the door" was the answer. I prefer to do everything myself, I have a small wire welder, but no way to cut tubing, other than a hacksaw. I have three seperate work platforms that can be raised with a forklift(surplus from Govt facility), I'd like to cut up. A plasma torch is in my future(maybe).

I agree with a welding shop on work!

Thank all

Ahh, the simple way is buy a holesaw with a bi-metal blade for metal , the tube needs to be fishmouthed or notched so the fit-up is tight enough to weld. Hold tube in a pipe vice if possible.
Bought the holesaw at ace hardware, less than $20.
I cobbled my own together when I built a T-Top for my boat, first time migging anything besides practice beads. I used elec conduit.
Heres a slideshow, might give you some ideas.
http://s261.photobucket.com/albums/ii67/jonesg_photos/T-Top/?albumview=slideshow

 

[jonesg]

+1 on this and it's on sale now for $190 and with a 20% coupon even less.

Yeh but tubing needs to be notched for welding, straight cuts aren't suitable.

 

[64merc]

Try taking your drawing/plans to your local high school metal shop. Talk with the shop teacher, offer to pay for materials and ask if he has a student that has the needed skills to build it for you. I used to do that with some wood projects before I had the tool(s) I needed.

Ray

Yeah, I like this idea. Those students would be pretty pumped to work on a real project I'm sure, and the labor would be free.

 

[Steve V.]

You said you would do something and then don't do it?

SCREW you.

Am I the only one wondering where this came from?



Steve

 

[jonesg]

I took that as ;

"You (the machine shop) said you would do something (call me back) but didn't, so screw you (the machine shop)".

My local machine shop has done little projects for me but it takes time, I don't think I'd bother asking them to fab something up from scratch.

 

[Steve V.]

I took that as ;
"You (the machine shop) said you would do something (call me back) but didn't, so screw you (the machine shop)".

That makes sense.

Steve

 

[TheCarbideRat]

I was not precise was I? -sorry.

Yes, I meant 'you' as in the machine shop.

 

[Stick Figure]

Yeh but tubing needs to be notched for welding, straight cuts aren't suitable.

Just check out winmiter..... http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/winmiter.html It allows you to print out a wrap around pattern to cut the tubing at the right contour. You input the two tubing sizes and the angle and it does the rest. Not as nice as a tubing notcher, but get the job done when you don't have a notcher handy.

 

[welderwink]

do you need to fab it out of round tubing? why not use square tubing, that way you dont have to worry about a fish mouthing it or even some angle could work.