All the gear and an idea

Oh the suspense!

Well, funny you should mention that… as it will include 0.25mm brass wire

I think it might be, as it seems pretty spun out already....boom, tish... I'm here all week 

will it involve an imaginary mazda?

he cant stop laughing from all the great humor 😒

Righty ho boys and girls, here we go. Boring post to start off with, but it will give an insight into why….

Going back a couple of years when I made myself redundant and walked away from a job, a lot of people thought I was a few sandwiches short of a picnic. Well that may be,and the wasps may be buzzing around my head as we speak, but in retrospect,it was probably the best thing I could have done. This was really driven home in March when said previous employer went bust. Work colleagues found then selves getting £700 payouts for 17 years of service….That could have been me 👎🏻
Ok,I didn’t get away unscathed. I had been machining parts for them,they did roll me over by accepting a batch of parts on Wednesday night and declaring themselves insolvent on the Friday,but I wasn’t out of a job, I had a future. Amazing how companies can engineer walking away scott free from over £1 million in debt, feck everyone over,get way with it and start up the next day under a different name.This pulled three other small companies down with it,but they did not open up again the next day. None of the creditors saw a penny but miraculously the liquidators managed to get their £75k fee plus expenses paid. May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your underpants and may your fingers turn to fishing hooks….. you dirty thieving scum 🤬

I’ve done ok on my own. Continuing to carve out a niche market for myself and slowly working out a good clientele,ranging from production line part manufacture to military vehicle restorers with loads of very varied markets in between. Some of you may know that I was doing a lot of nuclear stuff,subcontracting out my time elsewhere. Well, it was a challenge. I made alsorts of interesting stuff


Well, as of January I parted with that contractor as well. 95% of the time he was a great guy, but the other 5% of the time he was a total wombat. My mental health was more important so I walked away. My biggest regret being I walked away from the big Cnc mill and the turning center I had used since they were new. Originally the agreement was I would buy the one and him the other from my previous employer,but he renegaded on that,which really left a sour taste in my mouth.

February I moved into my little workshop full time,March said company rolled me over and I had committed to a bigger workshop April 1st .What they rolled me over for wasn’t really the issue,it was annoying but not deadly. What I held in stock for them was what would kill me, so I had to offload that lot to survive. I reluctantly took their new company on, supplied parts on credit, offloaded most of my stock. Then put their account on hold because already my terms and conditions weren’t being adhered to. They eventually got their account up to date,( because they needed stuff they knew I wouldn’t supply until they did),and once they had paid I told them to take a hike. That part of my life and the associated worry and stress is well and truly over.. That probably sums up why I have posted so little this year as it’s been a very challenging year. It hasn’t killed me,it’s made me stronger.

So very much new beginnings again,but in difficult circumstances. The plan had always been to go full time in my own workshop,but the timeline was another year to let me get properly set up. I had some of the equipment I needed but there was a big void where the 4 axis mill was gone. I cannot justify spending £40k on another second hand one,so this is going to be a thread about lateral thinking to get by with what you can afford,what you can do.This will also be the last slightly negative post in the thread. Its part of my life that’s over. Karma will sort the rest out,I need concentrate on what I can do,not dwell on things I cannot change. Normal service to resume, Mr Negativity over and out 😊

I have a firm belief in Karma....and a slight fear

Good to see you persevere. You've got amazing skills and your out of the box solutions baffle me most of the times. I'd love to have a better understanding of the workings of machining, but at least you often give us a wonderful look behind the scenes.