Having 100 machines means nothing if you don’t know how to use them to the fullest of their capabilities.
A low skilled guy with many machines is going to be stomped by a highly skilled guy with very few.
You posted a thread where a customer came in and you accepted a job removing a broken stud of bolt from a cast iron manifold. That is a very basic job the only complicated part being knowing how to fixture the part at the right angle. The act of physically drilling out the stud is the east part.
The part that doesn’t work is you accepted the job then came on here asking how to do it. That’s not how you get into business.
Would you hire an electrician to do some wiring if they had to go online to find out which wire was the earth wire?
It’s more respectable to just admit you don’t know how to do something and not accept that job. Or accept it but disclose your inexperience to the customer.
Knowing what the quality expectations are are very important.
Fake it until you make it doesn’t really work in the trades.
I disagree some here.
I've been the inexperienced guy with a few decent CNC's and kicked ass over other shops with lesser machines but way more experience on jobs. "On the job training" you could say.
I also do not think that knowing how to do absolutely everything is that critical.
What I do think is absolutely critical is communication and confidence with your customers. I can be confidently inexperienced doing a job for one of my customers. I do it all the time. I communicate what I know- Just like OX stated- I can apply what I do know to the problem at hand. It will probably work, and in tricky situations I will even have a contingency plan, like farming it out to a shop that specializes in whatever it is, before work begins.
It's important that you can communicate this stuff while keeping your customers faith in your ability to deliver. You don't tell them too much, but you let them know when they bring you a job that is going to be a little touch and go.
The trick when your starting out and don't know anything is not to tell your customer too much that they lose trust, but also not fuck up the job.
