Yet Another Small Machine Shop is Closing........

[fastfredracing]

They guy I am using now, just mentioned to me this morning, that they are no longer building racing engines, they are simply done with the big projects
The younger son is more or less taking over and they are concentrating more on doing valve jobs, milling heads, resizing rods , cutting /balancing cranks and general machine work geared more towards the kinds of things that local repair shops would be needing .
My last guy threw in the towel once get got a year behind on his rent . He was in the same building for 40 years. At one time , he had 4 full time guys, and two delivery vehicles on the road daily
The last job he did for me was sad. I picked up at 5:30. I sat and had a few cocktails with him and ended up shooting the breeze till late into the evening . Once he had a nice buzz on, he was tearing up a little at the thought of loosing his biz . He said that he had not done a cylinder head for any Dealerships in years, and that used to be his bread and butter . Racing engine work was drying up , and the only things keeping him floating was retail customer work and restoration stuff .
He sold a lifetime of equipment for 25 k , and walked away. I saw him stocking shelves at Costco last winter .

[asphaltgambler]

WOW^^^^^^^^^^^^ that really makes me sad^^^^

In 1983 I started working for a small auto repair shop in Fairfax, Va that was owned by 2 brothers that owned and managed a very successful machine shop 4 doors down. One brother had another shop in Maryland both under the name "Kenson Machine Shop". They did everything you could imagine, including race engines of every type, performance street engines, basic, etc.

They had built or did extensive machine work on racing engines that ended up on the cover of Hot Rod and Car Craft as well as dozens of other rags back then. There was no one better, than those guys, brilliant engineering minds as well as the 4 machinists that worked for them.

Through those guys and their customers, I received a Master's Degree in engine performance building, machining, finding free hp and torque through blue-printing, rod and stroke ratio's, on and on.

Their head machinist left later ('88 or so) to start his own machine shop out of his home garage. Then as things progress, the daily bread and butter work began drying up as times were changing. As more specialized engine builders came about, so then their complete builds dry up. In the mid 1990's they closed the machine shop in Maryland, not enough business to keep that afloat anymore. I think the last thing they did for me was in the late 90's, removed some material off of the base of a couple Sportster cylinders to achieve "0" deck. I heard they ultimately closed by 2005 or so, I believe both owners were of retirement age by that time. Sad, really as it's hard to watch a successful business, good people just wither away...………..

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by cgarr

Nice little southbend!

Hopefully I picking one up just like that later today or tomorrow. It's raining lightly today.

You know what else is just about extinct? Cabinet shops. Anything older guys could do is no longer of much use.

[herr_oberst]

An acquaintance of mine made a pile painting cars, and decided to go drag racing. After a few years of buying very expensive motors, he decided to put together his own race-engine shop.
His race shop business took off to the point where he's sold his painting business to concentrate full time on building drag race motors and he cannot possibly keep up with demand.

The biggest problem he has is getting help. He needs machinists. He needs engine builders. No one wants to do the work, and he has to keep bringing back the old guys that want to retire to do the work.

I know for a fact he would take anyone on, young or old, who would show interest and motivation, (and as I'm writing this I think hey, maybe I should pull up stakes and go sweep floors for him and get a paycheck while hanging around cool people that like the sound of a big block through open headers.)

[GH85Carrera]

When my El Camino was approaching 300,000 miles I started looking at the cost of rebuilding the engine. It was 305, and every singe person I talked to about it, ALL of them said don't bother to rebuild a 305. No one at all thought rebuilding a 305 was worth the effort unless I was building a 100 point concours show car. So I just bought a brand new GM crate engine 350 for $1,700 delivered to my door. 2 year-24,000 mile warranty. Swap over the intake and exhaust, and the ancillaries like the water pump and alternator, done over the Thanksgiving weekend in my garage. Crate engine make engine work had to justify.

I just wish I could find a factory fresh 911 3.2 engine for 1,700 bucks direct from Porsche.

[3rd_gear_Ted]

I have a "J" head Bridgeport Mill like the one in the picture @ my Lazy H ranch. It has DRO scales too.
I also acquired a 10" double EE Monarch lathe with old fashioned Thyratron tubes in the motor drive. Since I don't like getting dosed X-Rays, I retrofitted the DC spindle drive with an AC PWM drive.
Looking to get an EDM machine for broken stuff removal.

[908/930]

3rd gear ted, it is possible to build a small EDM, would be good enough for burning out bolts. Really need to be careful with EDM's they do a good job of burning down a shop also voltage hazard, I have been zapped once or twice.