Picked up repaired $$$$ cylinder

Picked up the stick cylinder for my backhoe today.
I'm quite surprised it wasn't gold plated! Here's
a breakdown of the costs to repair. It is a 4"
bore by 34" stroke Cat cylinder.

Machining 1 1/2 hours @ $152/hr.
Drilling out and tapping rod for larger bolt and
boring piston for larger bolt

Machining 1 1/2 hours @ $152/hr
Honing barrel

Straighten and polish rod $199.95

Seals and wear ring etc. $109.93

Labor 3 hours @ $142/hr

Shop supplies $22.00

Tax $60.69

Total $1274.57

And you think you pay a lot for repairs...OUCH!

Ouch is very fitting....did they estimate it for you ahead of time? It can really pay to shop around. I took in a tilt cyl. for a Fiat-Allis FR-12 to be re-sealed a few years ago. He called back to say the barrel (5 inch) was so pitted it needed to be replaced....I thought here goes. They made a new barrel with machining and transferring over attached hardware including re-sealing and painting the cylinder, I paid $440.00 full price. It was hard to believe it could be so reasonable.

First they said I needed a new rod and it would cost $1600. After asking on here, it was suggested to just use a bigger bolt in the existing rod. I asked the shop and they said they can do that and it would cost about $1100. In a perfect world I could drive around to all the hyd. shops getting prices but since I work I don't have that luxury. I did call another shop and they said the $1100 doesn't sound too out of line. The shop I took it to does good work and they'll stand behind it but holy cow it still seems like a lot of money.

Wow, I've got a lathe and a mill and do a little bit of machine work for customers, and I also do portable line boring with a Climax setup for my customers. The lathe and mill typically get used to make bushings, tools, etc to support my business more than anything else. With what I call 'see and do' machine shops now being replaced by C&C shops, it's nearly impossible to get anyone to do piece work nowdays, especially on short notice....but if you want 1000 pieces next week, it's no problem.

Anyway, while I'm not running a true machine shop, when I make something it still has to be within a tolerance and fit/work right, wether it's for myself or for a customer, so maybe I need to raise my rates some. I mean I charge $65 and hour for my labor, and $85 an hour when I'm doing portable line boring (and that's mainly because I have to be able to replace broken tool bits, and take the time to sharpen dull ones when I get back to the shop), and I thought I was charging a fair price and doing pretty good for myself.

BUT...If I could get away with charging $152 an hour I would be on cloude nine, and in hog heaven all at the same time. Heck at that rate it wouldn't take me long to be able to afford a new/old lathe to replace the ancient one I've got now....and somebody to run it for me so I could go on vacation more often....LOL

Seriously, if someone around here charged $152 an hour for machine work they wouldn't stay in business very long, unless they were doing something nuclear related, working in tollerances of .000001 or something like that. Just plain old redrill and tap a hole, and straighten a shaft would never fetch that price around here...unless it was on somehting like a 8 inch diameter plus, 20 foot long cylinder like the lift cylinder on a big crane. For something like you had that shop rate would simply never fly....

You've got to remember that he's within the Ft. McMurray sphere of tarsands money. They get away with it because there's a constant shortage of qualified labor in just about every sector. Constantly.... so if you want something done you line up to pay.
Where I'm at the local rates are much more in keeping with what you're charging if not a bit cheaper.

Rod

Good machinists are making $40+/hr here. Union even more. They scratched the cylinder and didn't even clean and paint it either. I wouldn't doubt that the Cat dealer would have charged a fair amount more. I'm sure I could have got it done cheaper somewhere else but I don't have time to go all over the place looking for a machine shop and a seal shop and a hyd. shop. It is nice that the stick doesn't creep anymore. I still think it should have been gold plated but what can you do.

Yah, $142/hr and they still charge extra for shop supplies. I'm surprised they don't charge extra for a copy of the invoice. LoL

I was wondering that too about the location. I'm guessing we got a good deal on having our MF34 loader cylinders rebuilt. 2 straightened and re-chromed and new rods for the smaller bucket cylinders plus new bushings in all, for just under double that.

The price seems high but you were snookered as soon as you gave the job to the shop,it is an expensive lesson,when anything shows to be wrong it should be attended to straight away no putting it off as parts that come loose will do more and more damage by the minute,the plus side is your machine is operating as it should now and that cylinder should give many years of service.
Good luck
AJ