You hit the nail on the head on material sizes being available. Steel & Aluminum plenty of sizes, but still check. When it come to stainless it's all over the place. Sometimes I have to quote out to 3 different distributor's and one might have it in stock. I do 303,304 & 316 There's such a big range between what's available in each grade, especially flat bar. Round is pretty much standard in all three.
I had a customer insist that I use a 6" x 6" x 1/4" 1018 steel angle to make one of their parts. I told them it doesn't exist. I was assured that it was in the book and I'm stupid for not being able to get it. I said fine if you can get me that material I'll give you a 50% stupid discount..... They paid full price.
I’ve been burnt by 2 job that I knew were going to be trouble learn what to say no to trying and failing will damage a relationship more than just saying no
Have a problem of companies using my written quotes to "blackmail" they're current machine shop for lower pricing with no intention of ordering our services. So bad in our area that we now charge a fee for written quotes that are absorbed when we get the contract.
couple things to add to your list. Inspection equipment - Do you actually own the correct inspection tools to measure the part? Inspection process - We had a job recently that was titanium with .0631 to .0634 bores in them. We used a comparator to get an exact measurement vs the customer decided to use gauge pins that ate up half of our already slim tolerance. to go along with my inspection additions, adding in some expense for doing a complete inspection report vs just standard inspection as some jobs can eat up hours at the CMM generating reports.
Good list of things when quoting. My lesson was seating with a customer and helping him with the design and then the customer walked away not returning to award the job. So, the lesson take away for me was not to give your expertise away. This ties with your comment on "customers don't know what they want." The next time I did quoting I developed the idea of never entertaining anyone that comes to your shop with a napkin idea. Deal with customers that have their budget figure it out, have designs that make sense, have deadlines, working print, etc. That is my two cents, Ian. Thank you for your videos.
you should google TZM. literally zero info online about it yet we took in a job running it. its basically like trying to machine a carbide insert... it was really fun having pocketing that we had to run a 1/8" endmill thru with 3 redundant tools cause it was rubbing the cutting edges off of them so fast, it was the only way to get thru a part. fun stuff...
The elements of nature are a bitch, Dont think new shops cant flood (Titan). Electricty cant disapear from your shop or that fire and infestation never happens. What is your backup plan - Force majeure. For small shops being pally with your neighbours isnt always counter intuitive. Competitors one day can be a god send the next.
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You hit the nail on the head on material sizes being available. Steel & Aluminum plenty of sizes, but still check. When it come to stainless it's all over the place. Sometimes I have to quote out to 3 different distributor's and one might have it in stock. I do 303,304 & 316 There's such a big range between what's available in each grade, especially flat bar. Round is pretty much standard in all three.
I had a customer insist that I use a 6" x 6" x 1/4" 1018 steel angle to make one of their parts. I told them it doesn't exist. I was assured that it was in the book and I'm stupid for not being able to get it. I said fine if you can get me that material I'll give you a 50% stupid discount..... They paid full price.
I’ve been burnt by 2 job that I knew were going to be trouble learn what to say no to trying and failing will damage a relationship more than just saying no
Have a problem of companies using my written quotes to "blackmail" they're current machine shop for lower pricing with no intention of ordering our services. So bad in our area that we now charge a fee for written quotes that are absorbed when we get the contract.
Special thread gages or special protrusion gages have burned me in the past. Always check with QC first hah.
Were on a 13 week lead time for custom thread gauges for a part right now, it's insane.
couple things to add to your list. Inspection equipment - Do you actually own the correct inspection tools to measure the part? Inspection process - We had a job recently that was titanium with .0631 to .0634 bores in them. We used a comparator to get an exact measurement vs the customer decided to use gauge pins that ate up half of our already slim tolerance. to go along with my inspection additions, adding in some expense for doing a complete inspection report vs just standard inspection as some jobs can eat up hours at the CMM generating reports.
Good list of things when quoting.
My lesson was seating with a customer and helping him with the design and then the customer walked away not returning to award the job. So, the lesson take away for me was not to give your expertise away. This ties with your comment on "customers don't know what they want."
The next time I did quoting I developed the idea of never entertaining anyone that comes to your shop with a napkin idea.
Deal with customers that have their budget figure it out, have designs that make sense, have deadlines, working print, etc.
That is my two cents, Ian.
Thank you for your videos.
as an engineer, Product Design for Manufacture and assembly has saved me from a lot of the pitfalls when it comes to designing for maching
Thanks for sharing this.
300M super titanium alloy…or inconel 718 age matured nitrogen dipped…Any jobs asking for these materials avoid
Inconel is fine, you just need the expensive inserts and like 120 surface speed
you should google TZM. literally zero info online about it yet we took in a job running it. its basically like trying to machine a carbide insert... it was really fun having pocketing that we had to run a 1/8" endmill thru with 3 redundant tools cause it was rubbing the cutting edges off of them so fast, it was the only way to get thru a part. fun stuff...
The elements of nature are a bitch, Dont think new shops cant flood (Titan). Electricty cant disapear from your shop or that fire and infestation never happens. What is your backup plan - Force majeure. For small shops being pally with your neighbours isnt always counter intuitive. Competitors one day can be a god send the next.
We had a titanium fire
Everything was good until he used the air line, then poof