A few views from the trenches

[spike60]

On leaves from the AF, I would lend a hand in my old man's small engine shop. I always wondered how he stayed in business as noone was willing to pay a reasonable rate for the work done. Just the tear down and cleanup of a 1 lunger to replace a carb took time. Time that could not be billed at a reasonable rate.

Our local shop closed a few years ago. I was buddied up with the owner and as he was closing he showed me one reason. Reached in a drawer and pulled out a stack about 4" thick of bills he had been stiffed on.

Harry K

Best way to avoid that is not to extend credit in the first place. You don't go to the grocery store and say "hey , can I pay you in a couple of weeks?" Why do it at the saw shop? Not to mention the extra work involved with sending out and keeping track of monthly statements. In todays world, every one should own at least one credit card. There is no reason for a shop owner to play banker.

Husky has a pretty good retail finance program with GE. Whenever someone asks for credit, I just hand him an ap. If they give me a funny look, then I figure that validates me not giving him the credit on my own.

I've got another source I use for sub-prime. You would just not believe the rotten credit history of some people. Charge offs, repo's, late fees. Had a dude last week trying to buy a commercial mower and his credit score was 502.

 

[hornett22]

i agree with previous posts by mechanics.

i got burned too many times.thought maybe it was michigan so i moved back down south,nope,same BS.now that i'm in CT i just work at home on the side.i could have all the work i wanted but i take what i want.i have already had to fix several dealers mistakes at a much lower rate than they charged to screw it up.

i should take the wheels off my box because i don't see it leaving my garage anytime soon.

remember owners and service managers,a good service dept is the backbone of your business.if your gonna be a cheap bastard,your only hurting yourself in the long run.

amazing what a good mechanic has to supply at a job (knowledge,wisdom,tools) and how little folks are willing to pay us. what goes around comes around.

 

[upandcommer]

Here is one for ya. A buddies wife works at wal mart they got a go cart back on the 90 return policy. Took this "locked up" go cart to the local shop for appraisal he told them new engine totally tied up. Cart sits for the rest of the summer after refund was issued. Well end of season and cleanup time cart goes to the dumpster. Buddie and I unload from dumpster load in pickup take to his barn remove chain fire up engine soak chain in oil (rusted tight) reinstall wallah free go cart.

 

[computeruser]

Best way to avoid that is not to extend credit in the first place. You don't go to the grocery store and say "hey , can I pay you in a couple of weeks?" Why do it at the saw shop? Not to mention the extra work involved with sending out and keeping track of monthly statements. In todays world, every one should own at least one credit card. There is no reason for a shop owner to play banker.

Husky has a pretty good retail finance program with GE. Whenever someone asks for credit, I just hand him an ap. If they give me a funny look, then I figure that validates me not giving him the credit on my own.

I've got another source I use for sub-prime. You would just not believe the rotten credit history of some people. Charge offs, repo's, late fees. Had a dude last week trying to buy a commercial mower and his credit score was 502.

Great post!

Part of having a business or a business plan involves identifying and securing the necessary funding before you jump into it. If you can't do it, then maybe the business model isn't so darned great in the first place. Everyone in business has cashflow issues from time to time, and that is what a business line of credit or a credit card is for. And again, if the bank won't give you a line of credit to cover periodic cashflow issues, then it may be time to reevaluate the wisdom of continuing to operate your business...

 

[rahtreelimbs]

For anyone who doesn't know I do treework part time and fully maintain all our saws. I do some of my own work but 90% of my work is for a real good friend. My buddy/boss has an 020T that he bought from me. The saw was new in '94 but had low hrs. on it. Some normal items needed replaced: dried up fuel line, tank vent etc. This saw had an air leak. I didn't want to work on it so I turned it over to a former Stihl tech that I know. He comes back 2 weeks later and tells me that the saw is junk............bad crank bearings and what I thought was an air (he said) was the flywheel air gap fluctuating............now this saw was handed back to me in a box all apart. I ordered a seal kit and a set of crank bearings, got it together and still had a little trouble. I bought a Mity Vac and tested the case.........no air leaks. Turns out that the carb need tightened just a little more..............I didn't want to fracture the plastic it bolts to.


Moral..............little old me ( not a saw tech) fixed it (with a little help from Lakeside53) fixed it...............the tech was wrong!!!

 

[NovaMan]

I will never understand the job market, a good machinist is getting harder and harder to find because they moved on to something else and the newer generation isn't going to school to learn the trade, so we are a dying breed. And yet the employers are still offering wages according to statistics from the 70s-80s.

Like you guys have said, most owners haven't a clue what it takes to fix a saw or hold a cylinder bore to 0.0001" they all just think of us as knuckle dragging wrench monkeys.

I think it'd be fun to be a machinist. I've used a small lathe a couple times and enjoyed it, I'm very picky, and I like working with metal and engines. I know how hard it is to find a good machinist, and I figure if it were easy, everyone would be a good machinist.
But these days the average American only owns a car for 5 years or so, and most cars probably get junked before they need machine work (like a valve job, for example). Heck, it's so much work just to get TO the head(s) with all the wiring and plumbing all over engines nowadays... Machining is probably going to become a niche trade utilized mostly by car nuts like me who would rather build or rebuild their own engines than order a new one in a crate. And that means machine work is only going to get more expensive, and then pretty soon average car guys can't afford it any more. And then gasoline will be $10/gal if it's still even commonly available, and life will just generally suck! *sigh*

 

[RaisedByWolves]

I think it'd be fun to be a machinist. I've used a small lathe a couple times and enjoyed it, I'm very picky, and I like working with metal and engines. I know how hard it is to find a good machinist, and I figure if it were easy, everyone would be a good machinist.

Picture this:



You serve a 4yr apprentice ship to get a vague understanding of what you need to know. Then you spend 20yrs honing your skills till you know them backwards and forwards.


Your boss retires after 45years of working in the shop and coming up through the ranks, only to be replaced by a new boss who just fell out of collage and thinks he knows everything, and that the world revolves around him.



So you work for this clown for a while and have to constantly fight him on what should be done in "X" or "Y" situation. Feeling offended and stupid he reacts by lableing you a Hardhead, Trouble maker, Lazy etc, and his higher ups BELEVE HIM, Because hes a collage grad and their collage grads so they must all be right!



So finally you say ????IT and start doing things the wrong way just to appease them, and after 4-5mo of this......TA DA!!! Nothing works anymore!! (Dont you DARE say I told you so!)



And guess whos fault that is? You got it, so now you get to FIX all their mistakes and when thats all done, they pat themselves on the back for running the factory so well and solving al the problems they created........




Still want to work as a Machinist?:bang:



.

 

[beelsr]

And guess whos fault that is? You got it, so now you get to FIX all their mistakes and when thats all done, they pat themselves on the back for running the factory so well and solving al the problems they created........

Still want to work as a Machinist?:bang:

.

Hey, no talking shop here. You're fired! :greenchainsaw:

Ha! This isn't unique to your environment. Dilbert was created by a telcomm guy. Trust me. I've consulted with hundreds of companies and they're all the same...

Nice story though - had to hit that rep button....

 

[Goat]

Raised, hit it dead on.

Just to add, try working with engineers that haven't a clue on how parts are made. Supplying you with designs that are cartoons not blueprints and when you fix all of their blunders, they get all the credit.

I've worked with very few that appreciated what we do and actually asked questions. The last one I remember was a young pup straight out of Northeastern Uni...he almost always came down to the shop floor and showed us what he was doing before releasing a print. He'd actually ask is this possible what do you guys think about making this as simple to make. He stuck out because you don't find this in college grads now a days.

"Behind every great engineer is a hard working machinist shaking his fist"

Like I said, to anyone that hasn't tried it, we look like a bunch of apes.

@Novaman
Machinists don't just do engine blocks, that's just a really small group.

 

[DGG]

The free market concept is a very harsh and demanding task master. However, the free market usually shakes out the less productive in the long run, leaving the most productive folks and companies in a job/business.
Some folks like to try to fight the free market, only to end up pretty frustrated.

 

[RaisedByWolves]

Beelsr, I do not feel alone, trust me!



Goat, Ive met that type too, unfortunatly the place I work pays the Toolmakers more than they pay the Engineers! The good ones dont stick around long......



We just had an Injun-ear Save the company 22K over 4yrs by switching screw suppliers.


The only problem was the new screws werent quite the same diameter (self tapping into a preformed hole) as the ones we have used for 15yrs and two days production (5200+ units) was ruined (approx $41K in retail dollars) due to his Savings.



Unfortunatly, this idiot still has a job......:yoyo:

 

[beelsr]

Beelsr, I do not feel alone, trust me!



Goat, Ive met that type too, unfortunatly the place I work pays the Toolmakers more than they pay the Engineers! The good ones dont stick around long......



We just had an Injun-ear Save the company 22K over 4yrs by switching screw suppliers.


The only problem was the new screws werent quite the same diameter (self tapping into a preformed hole) as the ones we have used for 15yrs and two days production (5200+ units) was ruined (approx $41K in retail dollars) due to his Savings.



Unfortunatly, this idiot still has a job......:yoyo:

You know those deals where if you save the company x$ per year, you get a check for 10% of that. I've always wished that the same companies _CHARGE_ people when they make a dumbazz decision.....

 

[Fish]

Yes, if an hourly worker makes a mistake, it goes into their file, in case
they need ammo to fire them later. If one of the salaried sales people make a $40,000 mistake, they use terms like "learning curve" on their way to lunch on the company credit card.
If one of the guys in the trenches comes up with a good idea, it is adopted
by one of the salaried guys.
Free market has nothing to do with it.