Production Machining

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kevin7500

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kevin
So anyway, I am not much of a "networker". However, due to the potential benefit I can't help myself but to give it a shot.

I work for a CNC machine shop that has serviced the tool & die industry for a long time. Generally speaking, we have pretty large equipment and work on the parts that most places don't want to. A couple years ago we picked up a sweet little Mori-Seiki to supplement the large machining. This has been a HUGE failure :mad2: and it sits idle most of the time.

My proposal to ownership is to find a simple part that someone needs a million of, but hates working on and can't make money producing. We will put that job on our mill (it is scary fast) and make widgets 24/7 for pennies per part.

The meat of the deal: if I am able to ink a one year contract (roughly $500k), I would be offered a bonus of approximately 15% to be applied to the purchase of a early '70s Cherokee 6/260. Clearly a reward worth significant risk! :yesnod:

Any and all assistance will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
 
Heck, that oughta be covered by six typical Beech parts!

Unfortunately, they never break.
 
One idea: Maybe lurk on some enthusiast boards for car buffs, and try to uncover some machined part(s) that they're all frustrated trying to find.

I went through this recently and wound up spending two days doing what could have been done in an hour -- had the part been available. (But it wasn't a machined part in this case.)

-Rich
 
RJM62 said:
One idea: Maybe lurk on some enthusiast boards for car buffs, and try to uncover some machined part(s) that they're all frustrated trying to find.

I went through this recently and wound up spending two days doing what could have been done in an hour -- had the part been available. (But it wasn't a machined part in this case.)

-Rich
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I agree, airplanes and millions usually never go together unless you are talking millions of dollars. But never really millions of machine parts.

You might even want to update your listing in the Thomas Register to be a parts house for manufacturers.
 
ScottM said:
I agree, airplanes and millions usually never go together unless you are talking millions of dollars. But never really millions of machine parts.
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.....it doesn't have to be millions. It could be 8,000 per year if they each take an hour to process.
 
ScottM said:
i thought Aeronca's were just all made with sinew and hide glue? :D:D

Seriously though isn't stuff for older airplanes mostly small run at best custom orders? I think he is looking for something that he can set up and run a large lot of.
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OK.. then I misunderstood -- thought he was looking to do small runs also.
 
jhausch said:
My personal opinion is that you are chasing business bound for China.
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Maybe he should contact China to see if they want to outsource some jobs to him. With cost of transportation on the rise, 'China' could outsource to the U.S. and save on shipping to their U.S. customers. :rofl:
 
I also work in a machine shop, but the machine I run is a Windows Server. That means I know very little about how they turn bars of stock into the little metal widgets we sell, but I mentioned this post to one of our engineers. Maybe our parts aren't complex enough, but his response was that if we have a job that can run in large quantities, he wouldn't run it on a CNC. He'll spend the time setting up a multi-spindle screw machine to make the parts, and finish them in secondary ops. One example is a part that is made from .400 cold rolled steel and weighs about 35g runs at 533 parts per hour. We go through about a million per year. We also make a similar part in stainless.

I have no idea if this means anything or not, or if we're missing out on something here. I just thought I'd mention it.
 
kevin7500 said:
So anyway, I am not much of a "networker". However, due to the potential benefit I can't help myself but to give it a shot.

I work for a CNC machine shop that has serviced the tool & die industry for a long time. Generally speaking, we have pretty large equipment and work on the parts that most places don't want to. A couple years ago we picked up a sweet little Mori-Seiki to supplement the large machining. This has been a HUGE failure :mad2: and it sits idle most of the time.

My proposal to ownership is to find a simple part that someone needs a million of, but hates working on and can't make money producing. We will put that job on our mill (it is scary fast) and make widgets 24/7 for pennies per part.

The meat of the deal: if I am able to ink a one year contract (roughly $500k), I would be offered a bonus of approximately 15% to be applied to the purchase of a early '70s Cherokee 6/260. Clearly a reward worth significant risk! :yesnod:

Any and all assistance will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Click to expand...

My gut feeling if you are wanting to approach the aircraft side of parts making the 'experimental' path is a possible avenue. Making certified stuff will kill you on getting that pesky FAA PMA marking in the items. If I were you I would think about a niche market that has alot of demand, like widgets for mountian bikes, hold down clips for solar panels, parts for small wind turbines, belt buckles for NASCAR fans, etc........ In an earlier life I was a machinist and I can appreciate the production side of machining.

Ben ( not HaasCNC) Haas
www.haaspowerair.com
 
Contact Loubetti on the red board about Cessna nosegear parts.:rofl:

(Devil made me do it.)
 
Steve Foley said:
He'll spend the time setting up a multi-spindle screw machine to make the parts, and finish them in secondary ops. One example is a part that is made from .400 cold rolled steel and weighs about 35g runs at 533 parts per hour. We go through about a million per year. We also make a similar part in stainless.
Click to expand...


As a reference product, consider the seat bracket in a commercial aircraft. Not tiny, not terribly complicated, not made of Inconel or Waspaloy. Cycle times in the 20-30 minute range. Quantities in the range of 10-15 thousand per year.

The problem with custom parts (anitques or experimentals) that only require a few to be produced is that there needs to be a skilled machinist involved. Even a part that appears simple may take many hours to produce a prototype whereas in a production environment it may only take 20-30 minutes.



Thanks for the suggestions
 
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