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....
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Today's Featured Article - Hydraulic Basics - Part 2 - by Curtis Von Fange. In the last entry to this series we gave a brief overview of hydraulic system theory, its basic components and how it works. Now lets take a look at some general maintenance tips that will keep our system operating to its fullest potential. The two biggest enemies to a hydraulic system are dirt and water. Dirt can score the insides of cylinders, spool valves and pumps. Wate
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