Business Owners

[Ken Dennis]

Ugh!

Been filling out insurance papers for 2 hours.

Ugh!

That is all.

Seems like I am always filling out something, I didn't know that having your own business was so paper intensive, no wonder if you own a business, you need an office! "And a secretary"

Just finished filling out the sales tax form for the state, that was easy enough though!

[lewray]

Hey gang, My situation may be a little different. I began welding about 11 years ago and like most folks the motor sports and farming brought me to it. Ive taken courses and a couple crash courses too (thanks to some folks here) and had/have certs in D1.1 in GMAW using all process except dual shield. Spray being the hardest. I still consider myself new to tig even though I've been doing it steady for the few years now.

I do have a humble business "Sure Fusion"; however, I work full time for a really big corp (wont disclose) and the welding I do for them is covered by thier insurance and paid differently. Im an in house contractor. They are the big fish. The little fish are some 4x4 and auto shops also the folks from word of mouth doing anything from boat docks to aluminum bicycle frame repair.

As far as my business goes, Im still trying to find my nitch. Meaning I discovered I really didnt enjoy field work as much as I thought I would so I wont be spending anymore money in that area. The money was way better though. Like David and others, I like the repairs that come to me.

[Mandau]

sorry... this is an idea... http://weldingweb.com/album.php?albumid=91

If your in East Kalimantan area... well we should have a beer and talk shop ...

[Mad about Metal]

G'day.

I own and run HardBouy Welding and Fabrication, I am doing what rookie_steve was talking about, not earning much right now but I have only really just started, I have a basic MiG and ARC I don't do TiG yet but I have a certificate in all types of welding. I also do other things to do with light vehicles! Hope I have given enough info, if not I will give more, and by the way I have borrowed nothing so far money wise!!

[pilebuck]

Hi guys, still in the start up phase. I have formed my business with the state, got a tax number etc. Waiting on the insurance company before I submit paperwork for contractors license. My background couple of years as a diesel engine mechanic, went to school at night for two years at the community college for AAS welding. Then went to school full time for the better part of a year to do commercial diving/ underwater welding and burning. Dove full time four about four years and then made the transition to doing 90% bridge welding with the occasional emergency dive. Travel all over the country working mostly federal and state construction projects, worked my way up to welding forman for the last couple of years. Got my CWI last year. Ive always admired the guy's that had thier own business and have decided to ease into my own on a part-time basis. With this economy it will be nice to have an additional source of income. I own all my own equipment, three engine drives and 2 ln's, hand tools etc. Plan on doing all field welding at first, equipment repairs and structural. All word of mouth initially. My weakness is no aluminum experience or pressure vessels. Strenghts are good work ethic, common sense, and good organization and people skills. Certs 6g unlimited stick and wire, CWI, NDT level 2 trained. Dont plan on having any employee's. Currently getting a truck rigged up. No plans to quit my day job anytime soon, which I understand can make growing a business difficult, but I want to start off small, ease into it with minimal risk.

[A_DAB_will_do]

Pilebuck,

You and I are on a very similar business plan. I'm aimed mostly at repair work, but I don't turn away structural fab or small custom work. Hopefully you have more contacts for work than I did when I started. That's the single biggest handicap I have right now.

I started 2 years ago. Got a little ahead of myself buying gear, so I've been working days to pay for it all. 6 months ago things got really lean here in Ohio, and so I'm grateful to have a day job. I'm being real, real, careful about keeping my day job until things in the economy start to pickup. I don't see that happening for at least 2 years from now.

My plan is to have a solid 12 months of income in the back before I would consider making the leap to working fulltime for myself. I'll be debt free(except for my mortgage) in 12-14 months, just based on the income from my day job. Once I get there, it'll start saving all the extra money I can. Once I've got the startup money saved, i'll start watching the economy for signs of strong improvement.

Like you, I don't think I'll ever hire a full-time employee; not from where I can see things going today. But don't pass up work if you could bid a job by hiring unskilled temps through an agency. Might add this to your owner's list of 'things to do'...Establishing contact with a local employment office now will make figuring the pros and cons easier sometime in the future.

Hopefully, and this will sound cruel, but hopefully, by the time the economic turnaround hits, a lot of my competition will have gone under, or retired, and there will be a niche for a small operator with all the gear to establish a stable small business....

Hi guys, still in the start up phase. I have formed my business with the state, got a tax number etc. Waiting on the insurance company before I submit paperwork for contractors license. My background couple of years as a diesel engine mechanic, went to school at night for two years at the community college for AAS welding. Then went to school full time for the better part of a year to do commercial diving/ underwater welding and burning. Dove full time four about four years and then made the transition to doing 90% bridge welding with the occasional emergency dive. Travel all over the country working mostly federal and state construction projects, worked my way up to welding forman for the last couple of years. Got my CWI last year. Ive always admired the guy's that had thier own business and have decided to ease into my own on a part-time basis. With this economy it will be nice to have an additional source of income. I own all my own equipment, three engine drives and 2 ln's, hand tools etc. Plan on doing all field welding at first, equipment repairs and structural. All word of mouth initially. My weakness is no aluminum experience or pressure vessels. Strenghts are good work ethic, common sense, and good organization and people skills. Certs 6g unlimited stick and wire, CWI, NDT level 2 trained. Dont plan on having any employee's. Currently getting a truck rigged up. No plans to quit my day job anytime soon, which I understand can make growing a business difficult, but I want to start off small, ease into it with minimal risk.

[runserjohn]

I really enjoy reading all your threads on this subject since I have been looking into starting my own welding shop. I have been in the welding field for 10 years and already have some equipment to get started. I would like if any of you had any ideas of how to get the word out, and how to start out and get some work coming in.

[ibanezed4yrs]

any of you guys deal with IDC contracts, means sheets and multipliers?... although i don't own a company, it's set up as if we (boss dudes) did.. estimating our own jobs and stuff (i haven't gotten too deep into yet, but getting there)... that stuff is crazy complicated...

[pilebuck]

[QUOTE=A_DAB_will_do;375953]Pilebuck,

You and I are on a very similar business plan.
--Yeah A-dab, I checked out your web page, I like it, I'll have to get one of those too eventually Not that I'm in any danger of losing my day job, but I like the idea of having many small sources of income (customers) vs. getting one check from a company. Have you checked with your local cities/ ports about getting on their small works rosters? A freinds dad who was a self employed diesel field mechanic for years just retired and I have been picking his brain. He said he never advertised ( other than t-shirts) because that kept the b.s. down, nobody ever tried to give him the shaft because everyone was basically a friend of a friend. Doesnt mean I wont ever advertise, but I thought it was an interesting point.

[A_DAB_will_do]

I've done one job for the city of Dayton, but they reached out to me. I've been looking at making some contacts at Wright-Patt AFB. For small jobs(<$2500) the Federal Government will pay be credit card; so less hassle and waiting to get paid. But that place is a maze; and I haven't really started searching for the actual people who might need work done. It's on my endless list of things to do...

[quote=pilebuck;376258]

Pilebuck,

You and I are on a very similar business plan.
--Yeah A-dab, I checked out your web page, I like it, I'll have to get one of those too eventually Not that I'm in any danger of losing my day job, but I like the idea of having many small sources of income (customers) vs. getting one check from a company. Have you checked with your local cities/ ports about getting on their small works rosters? A freinds dad who was a self employed diesel field mechanic for years just retired and I have been picking his brain. He said he never advertised ( other than t-shirts) because that kept the b.s. down, nobody ever tried to give him the shaft because everyone was basically a friend of a friend. Doesnt mean I wont ever advertise, but I thought it was an interesting point.

[app-ironworksllc]

Woo f-in' Hoo!

I just got done doing a few financial reports.

Sales to date, this year compared to last year. (1/1/09 - 7/5/09 vs 1/1/10 - 7/5/10)
Sales increase 382.5%

I reckon that'll do.

[ItsAdam1]

Hi I am Adam & here is my story,
I got started into welding was from watching Jesse James and monster garage on TV. The stuff he was building was too kool and I figured I could do the same. So I bought my first welding machine Hobart Handler 135, ( I still have that machine, hell I was using it today), anyhow right about the time I bought the machine one of the barber chairs from one of my father many barber shops broke. So instead of taking it to get fixed, I fixed, added reinforcements and fixed the cheap POS welds that where on there to begin with, and from there I new I could melt metal like the rest of you guys. I did my best to learn as much as I could on my own, (books, videos & magazines) As the years passed on and threw many welding projects, and as my tool stash grew (so I thought) I started my way into building cars in my home garage. A few 94-96 impala's some C-10 trucks and some custom parts, I decided in Aug of 09 to open my ow hot rod shop. And since then its been a blast. When I opened I started with one bay and about 1000 square feet, Jan 10' I got the bay next door to me and added a lift, then in April 10' I took over 2 more bays and now have been doing a bunch of custom motorcycles and cars. I am not much of a painter or a body man but that why I have three other employees that handle that and I do all the fabrication wither its full custom air ride custom motorcycle gas tank or a new custom roll pan, I am the one who dose it. But growing that fast has been kinda ruff on everything but we are getting a handle on it once more and I hope the future is good for us and you guys can be seeing my work in magazines.

[welder_one]

hi. Stan with SIC Fabrications here... got my start in the military welding. worked at the largest sign shop in the US as their senior welder, got my fill for aluminum. they went through cut backs and i stepped out on my own. mostly heavy metals, but really enjoy ornamental. I also teach welding. if you want to learn how and are in the central arkansas area, send me the PM

[user 9328330]

Hi, my name is Joe and I own a mobile welding business called Applied Fabrications LLC near Harrisonburg, VA. I grew up around fabrication - my uncle Rusty was my hero because of everything he could make from our farm's scrap pile with an old Forney AC stick welder. I graduated from VA Tech in Ag Econ and became an auto mechanic at a Dodge dealership for a few years. After that I was a heavy equipment operator and finally a mobile rock crusher operator before entering the fab field. If you run a rock crusher, you HAVE to know how to weld. Or else pay someone else to do it!

I found I liked working on crushers as much as running them, which is what got me hired in the same company's steel division. Crushing pays well, and I was single and saving money at the time, so a couple of years later I quit and went out on my own with my own well-worn truck and welder, doing mostly repair work but also steps and handrailing. Right about then the economy tanked. Things weren't looking good when I got a phone call from a large fab company I'd been doing some subcontracting for, and the owner wanted me to run his fab shop. Talk about a life saver! So over the next 2 years I rode out the economy with them, and got more exposure to the industrial/commercial field and mechanical contracting.

During this time, if Applied Fabrications got a job I'd just load up the TB on a trailer because I'd sold my welding truck, and do it after company hours. I never marketed my business once to my employer's customers, and still do not call on my old employer's customers. If they call me, that's another story.

Anyway, I've been back out on my own since June of '10, and things are going much better this time around. I picked up a '99 F-550 with a dump bed on it and made it into a welding truck. It will do for now, and the modifications to that truck have actually sold me some work. After all, I'm the only person I know of running a dump truck as a welding vehicle, and in half an hour I can unpin and remove everything in it and be on the way to haul a load of stone.

Here are some random things I've learned. Maybe they will help someone just getting started in this business. Keep in mind I'm not a contract welder (usually), I'm a repair welder. Some days I'll be on several different jobsites.

1. It's all about the customers. I don't care how good of a welder you are, if you can't deal with customers in a friendly and intelligent way, they will look elsewhere. Some guys are lucky enough that there is no "elsewhere," they're the only show in town. It's not that way around here - lots of people throw a welder in the back of their truck and call themselves a welder. Heck, that's how most of us started! Customer relations often sort out the successful from the unsuccessful.

2. The customer isn't always right, not in this business. You can still be friendly while you're telling someone their idea will get someone killed.

3. Money isn't everything. If you think a job is unsafe, and you can't make it safe, walk away. Maybe Mr. A+ Welder from ABC Welding Company DID say he could do the job, and maybe you WILL lose the job to him if you don't give in and do it. Maybe you'll even lose the customer to this new hotshot, when Mr. A+ Welder lucks out and doesn't get himself or anyone else killed while performing the unperformable! But the day will come when you'll read about him in the newspapers, and not in a good way. You will take another drink of Mt Dew and then move on to the funny pages. You knew it would happen.

4. Some markets are hard to break into, and welding is one of them. After all, these companies were breaking their stuff and needing new stuff built long before you were in the business, so they already have someone they call. Knowing the right people makes it a lot easier. A lot of my work comes from a machine shop that doesn't have a mobile unit or care to make mobile calls. I'm the one they refer customers to, every time. And those customers continue to call me for onsite work.

5. Take care of the people who take care of you. That same machine shop gets business that I send their way, too. Occasionally I'll even send some work that I could have done. I'm pretty sure they've done the same.

6. Charge a fair rate. Did you work for free before you went on your own? Well, don't start now! Some customers, especially residential ones, think you're getting rich off of them at your rate. Those people would still think the same thing if you were only charging them $20 an hour. I think a lot people go out of business trying to please a few scrooges. Make your rate something that allows you to meet expenses and pay yourself fairly.

7. The day isn't over when you're on your way home. Running a business isn't for someone who wants a 9-5 day, or a 7-5 (minimum!) day for those of us already in the construction industry. Customers will call you while you're trying to eat supper. Plans you make to go out with friends may have to be broken. The paperwork is never-ending. An accounting program like Quickbooks is a great help.

8. Fabricating and welding are not the same thing. The actual welding part of what I do may take 90 percent of the time, or it may take 5 percent. There have been full days where I've never started my machine. Try to learn the math related to what you do, keep formulas you use all the time in your head or in a notebook. If you're in high school and reading this, try to really learn geometry and trigonometry - they will help you later.

9. Choose your help carefully. Related to Number 8. There are plenty of guys who can weld. In my area, there are not so many who can weld AND fab. After I see some beads run, I pull out a tape measure, give the guy an ink pen so he can be precise with the tip, and ask him to point out where 27-13/16" is on the tape. 90 percent either cannot do it or have to start at 27" and count 13 little marks. A large shop can afford to hire a person in this phase of learning. Generally, you cannot. We were all there at one time, but you can't be sentimental if it puts your family's income on the line. I prefer to work on my own and hire part-time help if it's ever needed.

10. Buy the right safety gear. My grandfather was a welder, and he died from lung cancer when I was younger. He never smoked, so who knows what got him? Most of the family thinks it was welding fumes. No one in my area wears a respirator while welding, so it wasn't until I joined this forum that I realized they were out there! Mine should arrive tomorrow. I don't mind being burned from time to time, but I want to see my grandkids graduate one day.

I could go on, but it's way past time to be heading out to the shop. Today I'm cutting and splitting wood for the woodstove in the shop. Not all days bring in the money!

[app-ironworksllc]

Arrrgghh!
(Rant on!)

Well it finally happened.

I have been hosed by a customer.

On 8-17-'10 I entered a verbal contract with a "contractor" (No GC license, small job kind of guy, in NC this is legal btw, depending on what type of work, and what dollar amount.) to build and install 2 chimney caps for 2 of his customers' homes for a tad over $500.00 each.

Here they are:http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=44618

The contractor prepaid 100% for one and I let him slide on the other, with the agreement that payment was due on completion.

I wasn't worried at the time since I had done work for him a few times, and had no trouble before, not to mention he has an outstanding reputation locally.

In fact the prepayment was his idea as I was ready do do business with just a handshake since my cash outlay for material and labor were small on this job. Boy I sure am glad he did prepay for that one.

I finished the work (both) on 9-21-'10 and have been getting the run around since then.

I have called repeatedly, as in nearly once a week, since the beginning of October. Out of around a dozen calls he has only answered twice, and never returned any calls.

The 1st time he answered (10-29-'10) I got the run around about "the home owner hasn't been back in town..." (it's a second home in a ski resort sub-division) and the HO has not paid the contractor yet. At that time he expected the HO to be there within a week, and that I'd get mine as soon as he got his. Yeah right, and the check's in the mail, and I promise I won't...(well you know what I mean)

So, I started looking into my legal options a couple of weeks ago. I just have to say I love doing business in NC.

In NC verbal contracts are, in fact, legal and binding. I have 120 days from the last day that any labor or materials were furnished to file notice of lein.

You can ask my wife how this has been bothering me, I hate being forced to be a prick, but what am I supposed to do? Thank you sir may I have another! Nope, aint gonna happen!

So over the TG holiday weekend as I outwardly enjoyed my family time, I inwardly have been letting this bug the s*** out of me. I finally decided enough was enough.

I called a local attorney this morning and laid out the situation.

She gave me some free advise, I didn't expect that, basically to go to the magistrates office and see what they said. Then she even called back with some more advise because she didn't want to steer me wrong, and realized that the magistrate really can't tell me much except the actual specific points of law, which she had already generalized.

So she briefly explained my options, and gave me a budget number of what she'd expect it to cost for her legal fees should we proceed. (A really good price, too.)

So armed with a little legal knowledge I figured I'd call the contractor one more time to give him one more chance. He actually answered this time.

Any guesses as to how that went?

Yup, more excuses.

Let me add that I had been wondering if there were any concerns with quality, and there have been no complaints so far. At this point I feel like I gave him many opportunities to voice any concerns, and was prepared to remedy any that arose. But I also knew that I had done a bang up job and that there really isn't any problem with either unit.

So I hit him the bombshell. "You've got one week from today to pay up, or I'll have to make this a legal matter."

Any guesses how that went?

Guy went ballistic.

"Blah, blah, blah...well you've just lost all my business and there's hundreds of guys waiting to fill your shoes...blah"

I (Of course) replied (Calmly, too. I'm feeling a little proud of myself over that) that I'm not concerned with losing his business, since I don't feel a need to pursue any business that I can't get paid for.

And regarding the "hundreds of guys waiting to fill my shoes" I said, "That's quite alright they can have his business, since I feel no need to do any work I can't get paid for." Besides there's only about half a dozen folks in my county that can do what I do, maybe 2 dozen in the greater area if you include Asheville and Buncombe county.

I went on to add that had he at least kept in contact and returned my calls I'd have probably been more lenient, but since it's obvious I'm being avoided I've run out of patience with him.

So we'll see.

I called the attorney back, briefed her on the last phone conversation and said I will give him till Tuesday of next week to cough it up, then come Wednesday morning, if there's no money, her and I will proceed with a notice of intent to lein, as well as a deadline to make good, and see what happens after that.

I really don't expect him to pay, but surely he's not that dumb. Does he think that I can't make it without his business? All of 4 jobs in the last 2 years, and this is one of the largest. (Puhlease!)

And should he feel the need to badmouth me and my shop, well all of the jobs I've done in that resort are for him, so no big loss there. And, of course, if any rumor of such got back to me I'd feel pretty free to share the details from my side of the situation.

I feel pretty sure it will go worse for him, since the homeowner is going to be brought into the mix. I'm guessing that the HO probably has already paid him. If that's true it certainly can't go well when the HO finds out he's being faced with legal action for something he already "paid for".

Arrgh! I'm still p-o'd. Red in the face and hands trembling kind of mad!

(Rant off)

Thanks for letting me vent here. I reckon we'll see what happens next week. Who's got the popcorn?

[Josey Wales]

APP-Iron...my life is one big paperwork marathon. I know your pain. Some of the compliance agencies we are mandated to join at OUR expense are PICS, ISNetworld, CCR (CCR is free to join). CCR registration is mandatory even though we are not a Prime Contractor for the US Govt. We only third party sub, but registration is mandatory. Some years back we had MSA's (Master Service Agreements) with Shell, Tesoro, and Chevron. It takes an eternity to complete each MSA. I thought, finally, that working for big oil would be a Godsend. Man, was I wrong. Oil companies are the cheapest, most deceiptful, low life SOB's you'd ever work for. Eventually, I let the MSA's expire. Why? Because the MSA does not guarantee you any work whatsoever. They are required so you can be on the bid list. So now you are carrying 5 million in excess liability year after year, with no work from the oil companies. I remember telling one subcontract administrator in San Antonio that I am not taking profits from my other jobs and pouring them down the empty hole of Tesoro. I also told him that if he wants us to maintain our MSA with them, they would have to provide the stand alone work to justify the costs. He replied "I don't know what to tell you", over & over like a broken record. To top things off, occasionally they would hand us 5th grade sketches for field work. We would auto cad them into 3-D masterpieces and submit them with a ROM (rough order of magnitude) cost. What would they do? Give our Fn' drawings to our competitors. So we would see stuff we designed having been built and installed per our drawings.

Needless to say... we don't work for the oil companies anymore. Not to long ago, we got a call to see if we were interested in going back to work for one of them... no way. I know they would use us for a number shop.

[Oldiron2]

APP-Iron...my life is one big paperwork marathon. I know your pain. Some of the compliance agencies we are mandated to join at OUR expense are PICS, ISNetworld, CCR (CCR is free to join). CCR registration is mandatory even though we are not a Prime Contractor for the US Govt. We only third party sub, but registration is mandatory. Some years back we had MSA's (Master Service Agreements) with Shell, Tesoro, and Chevron. It takes an eternity to complete each MSA. I thought, finally, that working for big oil would be a Godsend. Man, was I wrong. Oil companies are the cheapest, most deceiptful, low life SOB's you'd ever work for. Eventually, I let the MSA's expire. Why? Because the MSA does not guarantee you any work whatsoever. They are required so you can be on the bid list. So now you are carrying 5 million in excess liability year after year, with no work from the oil companies. I remember telling one subcontract administrator in San Antonio that I am not taking profits from my other jobs and pouring them down the empty hole of Tesoro. I also told him that if he wants us to maintain our MSA with them, they would have to provide the stand alone work to justify the costs. He replied "I don't know what to tell you", over & over like a broken record. To top things off, occasionally they would hand us 5th grade sketches for field work. We would auto cad them into 3-D masterpieces and submit them with a ROM (rough order of magnitude) cost. What would they do? Give our Fn' drawings to our competitors. So we would see stuff we designed having been built and installed per our drawings.

Needless to say... we don't work for the oil companies anymore. Not to long ago, we got a call to see if we were interested in going back to work for one of them... no way. I know they would use us for a number shop.

As I understand it, all you need do to legally prevent this is add a copyright notice to the drawings to protect it. Place a few small periods here and there around the drawing where they won't be noticed but can still be seen if the drawing is copied and modified; this helps to show the modification is based on your protected work. Might be worth reading more about this subject to learn all the details, if you get into a similar situation again.
You might even have had recourse without the notice being on the drawing. You did the work, they used it, and you have a reasonable expectation of being paid for it even if they only used part of what they asked for initially.

[Josey Wales]

We cover ourselves in that way now. When requested for a drawing, I let customers know in writing that all drawings are proprietary.

[Xtreme Fabrication]

I will tell my story when I get a chance to write it all down. Its a long story.

But I saw this quote and laughed

I picked up a '99 F-550 with a dump bed on it and made it into a welding truck. It will do for now, and the modifications to that truck have actually sold me some work. After all, I'm the only person I know of running a dump truck as a welding vehicle, and in half an hour I can unpin and remove everything in it and be on the way to haul a load of stone.
!

Your not the only one. I have a 99 F-350 extend cab xlt 4x4 7.3 live hydraulics, 9' western plow, swenson spreader, 9' dump truck. Its been know to carry a welder around in the back of it more than once when the welding rig was in the shop. Put the commander in the back, strapped in a bottle cart, bolted down a job box and went back to work Btw the tailgate when flipped down makes a nice welding bench.

The truck has a Maryland State Highway contracted support plow truck sticker on the side of it. So when its snowing the welding rig stays in the shop and the dump plows MD rt 32. Got to make $$$ when its snowing since I can't weld on bridges for MD SHA.

I am also not the only welder around here who runs a dump truck. Ronnie's welding has two international dumps that also are MD SHA contracted support plow trucks. He plows MD rt 94. You get a lot of looks from people when you see a dump truck with Ronnie's welding or Xtreme Fabrication on the side of it.

Come to think of it, I think zapster also owns a dump truck.

[cklanish]

I have a small welding/fabrication/offroad products installation shop. I do mostly tube bending for bumpers sliders and racks I havent done any cages yet and also weld on that side and I install suspensions and other offroad bolt ons I started to get serious about it back in march of last year when I was always asked to help do this or that or if i can build this or that for friends and friends of friends due to I have all the cool tools if you want to call it that I just pretty much right now put what ever profit back in to more tools Im a full time college student majoring in computer science I went to a 2 year trade school for welding and fabrication and also worked in the automotive field for about 8 years untill i got a dui and put a end to that.Its really hard to get people to pay around here everyone expects you to do it as a favor.I recently created a website and decided on a name and saying pitch also made up business cards and started advertising.

[drami69]

Hows it going my names dan and work part time as a equipment operator at the dump but got my welding ticket when i was 19, i use to weld for the dump but ended up making more money as a operator go figure.I started my own mobile welding biz about a year ago i do this on the side registered and insured all the way its slowly picking up in the mean time i have a good union job for steady income but would like one day be my own boss.I have alot of expirenence in epuipment welding also heavy duty compactors and all types of industrial machines i actually enjoy the challenge of new repairs and fabrication projects, i have a small shop at my house that i can fabricate stuff for customers.Im fairly knowlageable in this field but tend to be a lurker on this site, hopefully i can give some advice or answer someones question in the future.I tend to like the older machines rather than new technology although theres some pretty sweet stuff on the market right now ill wait till my old timers gas out on me then maybe invest in some new toys theres my report.

[tapwelder]

Might be helpful to some folk.

Home Improvement license might be required for some... for folk doing side work. pay attention to counties requiring it and minimal amount of job bid.

http://tn.gov/commerce/boards/contra...rovement.shtml

Opt of workers comp for sole proprietors.

http://tnsos.org/Press/story.php?item=245

[SidecarFlip]

A shameless plug for me.

My website has a better description about who I am and what I do.

www.flipmeisters.com

...and yes, I do very well.

[user 9328330]

I will tell my story when I get a chance to write it all down. Its a long story.

But I saw this quote and laughed



Your not the only one. I have a 99 F-350 extend cab xlt 4x4 7.3 live hydraulics, 9' western plow, swenson spreader, 9' dump truck. Its been know to carry a welder around in the back of it more than once when the welding rig was in the shop. Put the commander in the back, strapped in a bottle cart, bolted down a job box and went back to work Btw the tailgate when flipped down makes a nice welding bench.

Just came back to this forum and saw the above. The tailgate on mine is OK for setting stuff on, but it's so beat up there isn't a flat surface on it for fab work. I've thought of building a taller tailgate out of some heavy steel with legs instead of chains for outboard support, but....naaahhhh....I'll just keep using it as is until I can make a new bed.

[montgoc3]

Hey guys, figured I'd introduce myself in this thread. I'm Craig, and am from the Lansing, MI area. I'm 22 years old, have a bachelors degree from Ferris State University in Automotive Management and I'm also a graduate of the Lincoln Electric welding school down in Cleveland, OH. Currently I hold four welding certifications, and am waiting on a fifth (pipe). Recently, (within the past year) I have registered a business with the state of Michigan (Motorsports and Leisure, LLC). Now that I am out of school, and am able to commit all my time to the business I'm starting to get the ball rolling. The goal for the next couple years is to provide mobile welding for the surrounding area, and eventually break into the automotive high performance market and build tube chassis/high performance parts.

Large peices of equipment I currently have include:
Lincoln Precision Tig 275
Lincoln Weldpack 175
Lincoln Ranger 8
Tombstone AC 225
As well as necessary hand tools and a steel cutting miter saw.
Next piece of equipment will probably be a nice Oxy/Acy torch.

From some of you guys who have BTDT, words of advice? What was your most successful way of advertising, as that is going to be my first big hurdle? Any suggestions welcome, thanks!


Craig Montgomery
MotorsportsandLeisure.com