What should I make?

[poadeleted21]

Posted this a while back http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/forum/showthread.php?t=58318&highlight=Liquidating

Basically, my dad died leaving me with a tool and die shop.

Fast forward to today.

Offer accepted on a property that has a large shop that I can put "stuff" in.

Going to keep a MIG welder, TIG welder, a vertical mill, a lathe, a large band saw, a drill press, a plasma cutter, acetylene torch etc.... and maybe some sheet metal stuff.

I've been looking at the motoart site http://www.motoart.com/ and I can do something like that, though I'm not very artsy and I have a way to gather scrap airplane parts.

I can run a good bead and know my way around mills and lathe's (though I'm nowhere near as skilled as my father was and I'm rusty) Most of my experience is in the steel and not aluminum area (though I do OK with an aluminium wire welder and can hold my own with a TIG welder)

Was thinkin' I could keep the airport in "owner supplied parts" for starters and maybe refurb an exhaust system or two... anything else I can make a buck off of in my free time?

 

[wickedsprint]

Find an old turbocharger and build a jet engine. Always wanted to do that.

 

[ebykowsky]

Start really easy with lamps, then work up to tables and chairs. Fish sculptures would sell well in your area:
http://www.artaircraft.com/public/

 

[RJM62]

If word gets around that you have good skills as a machinist, I think the work will find you. I made money on the side with just the Machine Shop skills I learned in my sophomore year of high school.

There's always someone who needs a chunk of metal turned into something, and there are fewer and fewer people who know how to do that.

-Rich

 

[poadeleted21]

Start really easy with lamps, then work up to tables and chairs. Fish sculptures would sell well in your area:
http://www.artaircraft.com/public/

'zactly what I was thinkin' the lamps look easy.

 

[poadeleted21]

If word gets around that you have good skills as a machinist, I think the work will find you. I made money on the side with just the Machine Shop skills I learned in my sophomore year of high school.

There's always someone who needs a chunk of metal turned into something, and there are fewer and fewer people who know how to do that.

-Rich

Not really lookin' for a job, but if someone was expecting me to do something, I'd do it. Really just lookin' for a hobby and an excuse to keep my dad's WWII era equipment spinning. I have zero desire to repair cracks in tractor trailers, but would love to mill out some Bonanza cowl flap handles. I worked along side my dad for over a decade, but I'm a little rusty. I wouldn't attempt to build a gun right now, but I have in the past. I'd rather build something and sell it on ebay than take orders and have a deadline.