LONG VERSION:

Here is the difference between us and typical machine shops.  You need to understand that for small (especially one-off) jobs a large part of the time is setting up the machine to create your part.  This is manpower intensive and since most machine shops have large overheads to pay for equipment and facilities the costs are quite high.  In fact, the cost to machine a single item because of the time it takes to set up the machine can be close to the same as to produce 10 of those items.   Machine shops have trouble making a profit unless there are large quantities of an item produced so they can spread the setup time over a large number.  For CNC (computer controlled) machines there is additional time to create the computer program necessary so it too adds to the cost and makes machining a single item even more costly.  Making many items on a CNC machine is cost effective because once the setup has been designed and the computer program created the machine simply repeats the job as many times as needed to fulfill the quantity. 

Our shop is a small, single person machine shop that has minimal overhead since there are no employees and I own the facilities and the equipment.  I am a retired Mechanical Engineer that like to stay busy in retirement so built this small machining job-shop business.  I enjoy helping customers with unique projects and do not take on large volume production.  The range of metal fabrication and machining is huge and can go from small precision CNC machining work to fabrication custom metal bases for large signs, tables, benches, etc.  There are obviously jobs I will not consider mostly due to not having the necessary equipment or that are too much of a safety risk but those are few in number.  Because I do not have a current Professional Engineering (PE) License I will not fabricate items that require PE certification however, if you have something that has a certification, I will consider fabricating it to the specifications required.  Often, I have been asked to fabricate a custom drive shaft for a vehicle.  Because this requires critical balancing and I don’t have the necessary equipment to do that I will not accept this type of work even though the process of fabrication the shaft without the precision balancing is not difficult.  All this to try and demonstrate that I am open and happy to discuss your machine shop needs and, in most cases, can provide you the capability you need.

I have fabricated a large number of custom items, unfortunately I didn’t foresee the creation of this website so did not take the time to photograph the items I have made.  Hereto I will surely do a better job capturing my fabrications and will continue to update this website with those results. 

Now to the info you are looking for to get some idea of the cost.  Cost is $35/hour (includes setup and machining time) plus material cost and shipping and any special tooling required.  We will provide cost estimate before doing any work.  Turn around is often as quick as 10 days after receiving the item or 20 days if we need to procure raw material that is not in stock.  More complicated items that need CAD/CAM work may take longer and because I am a retired one-man shop will occasionally decide to take a vacation!  Obviously, I will be entirely honest when giving you a time estimate