The new shop, machines, and a few construction pictures included

SND · Oct 20, 2019

So, in the end the mold project I was working on ended up working pretty good and was a good learning experience, end product looks nice. It was the first time I ran long programs without dry running above the part first as I usually do on my 1-10min programs, but 4+hr programs, no. Thankfully it all went well even if it took forever. It's hard when having to design the thing as you go(no drawings) and second guessing the whole way through.

Backlog is still low compared to usual but there's a few weeks on the books, pacing myself, enjoying time outside hunting and finished outdoor projects, got wood cut and split for next 3 years.

Tomorrow is our Federal Election up here, the results of that will decide a lot about what happens next for a lot of people and employers.

as9100d · Oct 20, 2019

It's been my experience that the programmers don't want to be on the floor. I have to push them to the floor to see issues they create.

SND · Oct 22, 2019

So the results are in and the dumpster fire of this Post Nationalist State formerly known as Canada isn't over, and honestly I don't even care anymore, as I write this my blood pressure didn't go up 1 psi, and pulse stayed idle.

Part of me would really like to move to the USA as its clear the free-world is boiling down to only a few US states and I've looked at a few options for a while but there's lots of hurdles so that's probably years away still, if I can ever afford it with the loss I'd have to take on my property and this will get a lot worse soon. Running a bit low on energy and time to start over too. At least I'm in a good position to survive the progressive commies up here for now, the other 90% of the population, not so much.

I foresee a lot more fishing, hunting, and sitting with my feet up having a beer saying "I told you so" in my near future.

CBlair · Oct 22, 2019

"I foresee a lot more fishing, hunting, and sitting with my feet up having a beer". That is good advise for everyone, be a lot less drama if folks would find the time for those things along with visiting on porches. A lot better than yelling at each other.

Have a great week, Charles.

SND · Dec 7, 2019

Well, after 3-4 slower than usual months things have picked up a bit, not gonna break any records but eh, luckier than most these days. Spending a bit of the slow time outside hunting was nice.

I was looking at a Canadian auction site last night, lots of places closing, some with fairly new machines, 5ax and such.
Canada lost 71,200 jobs in November, 27,500 of those in manufacturing(imagine if the US lost 275,000 manufacturing jobs in 1 month as you're about 10x our size...). Probably quite a few of those were companies who said enough is enough time to pull the pin after the results of Octobers election. Customer who I made the big project for a few posts above just sold to a good US company, which is probably for the best, it was an opportunity to finally retire nobody could pass up(super #1 guy who worked hard all his life). Right now I'll get through Dec/Jan with what's on the books and see how next year goes, might be time to get new projects moving, a couple other customers are getting out of it/retiring too, not large accounts but work was work.

We had a little snow storm last week, not as much as what some of you saw in the US, my area got about 10" but it was so wet and heavy that about 10-20% of spruce and pines broke in half or at least lost 8-25' off their head, most being about 60-80' tall, so that'll be a couple days to clean up at spring time. One 15' or so head hit the corner of the roof of the shop but I don't think it did any damage real damage.

macds · Dec 7, 2019

SND said:
Well, after 3-4 slower than usual months things have picked up a bit, not gonna break any records but eh, luckier than most these days. Spending a bit of the slow time outside hunting was nice.

I was looking at a Canadian auction site last night, lots of places closing, some with fairly new machines, 5ax and such.
Canada lost 71,200 jobs in November, 27,500 of those in manufacturing(imagine if the US lost 275,000 manufacturing jobs in 1 month as you're about 10x our size...). Probably quite a few of those were companies who said enough is enough time to pull the pin after the results of Octobers election. Customer who I made the big project for a few posts above just sold to a good US company, which is probably for the best, it was an opportunity to finally retire nobody could pass up(super #1 guy who worked hard all his life). Right now I'll get through Dec/Jan with what's on the books and see how next year goes, might be time to get new projects moving, a couple other customers are getting out of it/retiring too, not large accounts but work was work.

We had a little snow storm last week, not as much as what some of you saw in the US, my area got about 10" but it was so wet and heavy that about 10-20% of spruce and pines broke in half or at least lost 8-25' off their head, most being about 60-80' tall, so that'll be a couple days to clean up at spring time. One 15' or so head hit the corner of the roof of the shop but I don't think it did any damage real damage.

At what point are we forced to become expats, and at what point will we be allowed to move freely into the US?

SND · Dec 8, 2019

It'll be interesting to see how the next few years ago, its good to keep a few options open and to work toward plan B, C, D, E...
It's a lot to consider and as we've seen, economies/optimism can change as quick as the next government, boom or bust in a day.
Out of curiosity though I've been looking on USA realtor/property websites a bit for land down there. Comparing state taxes, demographics/work opportunity, the scenery(I like lakes and trees, some areas looks pretty bare) and learning more about all the types of visas and business opportunities. I'm not sure yet if the value of a shop/business can count toward an investment if moved, on an E-2, didn't get to the fine print yet. Lets call it plan D for now.

ducesrwld · Dec 15, 2019

whats the word up there if/when this new usmca deal goes through for our neighbors to the north? with the election year in sight it seems like there is a lot more talk or hearing of things slowing a bit around here but that seems to be the norm every 4 years in this arena.

SND · Dec 16, 2019

ducesrwld said:
whats the word up there if/when this new usmca deal goes through for our neighbors to the north? with the election year in sight it seems like there is a lot more talk or hearing of things slowing a bit around here but that seems to be the norm every 4 years in this arena.

I think the US economy will be doing better than anyone else for a few more years to come, but elections certainly can change things fast.

My simple opinion on USMCA based on what I heard/read(We don't get to see much eh) is that the US was once again extremely generous with its neighbors, a lot more than I would have been. We'll see if some of the loopholes that were being abused do get closed, I hope so, but good luck getting mexico to hold their end of that deal.

Canada's team appears to have done the best they could to turn down pretty much everything the US offered that could have potentially lowered Canadians high cost of living a little on a few things and finally brought in some competition to our monopolies/oligarchy. They mostly went into the negotiations with social justice pandering bs as far as anyone around here could tell, they seemed to care more about Mexico's workers than our own.

SND · Feb 8, 2020

Well, I hope everyone's having a fun 2020 so far.

It's been a pretty decent start here, making some changes and took on some new goals to keep things moving forward. So its gonna be a very busy year one way or another. Finally started taking a bit more time for my own product designs and hoping to start actually producing some in a few weeks. I need to get the CNC's running more, I'd like easy high qty work but I don't hardly see that ever and would need to chase new customers and that's just something I don't entirely want to start all over again, are they gonna pay, etc, and can't really have that bs or extra stress get into the way of good paying work, so I kinda figured I better put the extra time into getting my own products rolling finally. If I can get enough of those ideas to make some $ each, it also gives me a bit more freedom in the future.

In other news. I had about 100 liters of old coolant left, and just finished evaporating that yesterday, did a few minor changes to my set up and it was taking out about 5-6 liters of water very 24 hrs. I added a little pump to easily transfer between the 2 tanks which only takes about 30 seconds once or twice a day and just let gravity and air do the rest. Ended up with 8 liters of thick oil by the end of it.

SND · Mar 9, 2020

So a couple weeks ago I mentioned having a really bad 2008 vibe...

I started the year with my best quarter ever and still got some work booked, but with over 90% of my eggs in oil/gas and all Canadian companies taking a 60-98% stock hit the last couple weeks. I expect many projects will be canceled/delayed around the world if there isn't a pretty darn quick rebound and its not looking good, not to mention all the other problems we're having with protesters and horrible government that encourages them and does everything to push investment away and block projects ($150B in canceled oil projects last 2 years, + other mineral mines and more to come).

Really glad I was trying to prepare for this for a little while, I can survive it way better than 2008-2009 but not all will be as lucky if this holds up.
Best of luck to everyone.

bryan_machine · Mar 9, 2020

Quick, everybody get into solar and wind before the world figures out they won't be adequate for decades..... /sarcasm

This sort of debacle (COVID-19) had to happen eventually, and there's no way real world governments of any stripe will ever ALL manage it perfectly (even if say Taiwan did very well) - and a lot of built up vulnerabilities are being made manifest. (Having every blessed thing have supply chain dependency on one admittedly large country in east asia isn't a great idea? Who knew?)

After the dying is over (please, let that part be over soon), there will be some consequences. Some of them might be good for local manufacturing (big pharma being forced to reduce its dependency chain) - but that might take years...

SND · Mar 9, 2020

I certainly hope it'll be a wake up call that we can't have 1 country be the single source for so many things we depend on, but I have doubts that anyone will do much about it, maybe some will stock a bit more of a few items in case JIT doesn't JIT.
The virus is only 1 part of the current oil problem though. We'll see how long Russia and the Saudis can keep this up.

I did stock up on some inserts and such, enough to get through the year in case there is a shortage or that prices go up much, though they already seemed to have gone up a bit.
If things do slow down I'll use the time to focus on my products, that all got put aside again the last few weeks.

SND · Mar 20, 2020

Had to take a drive into town yesterday, park is about half shut down and more coming, 90% of the traffic on the highway/roads is gone.
I got some extra supplies, can hide in here for months if needed, lake is almost thawed out so will fish a bit soon.
I finally started playing on the stock market a bit which I long thought I'd never do, now I'm slowly working my way up to evil vulture capitalist...

I really hope you guys will all get through this.

bryan_machine · Mar 20, 2020

Remember that without vultures, the world would be covered in corpses..... The same applies in capitalism....

Ox · Mar 20, 2020

Our buzzards showed up aboot a week ago, but likely will be a few more weeks before hitting the Gaspe' region?

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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

SND · Jan 8, 2021

Happy New Year everyone and Welcome to the " Build Back Better " initiative, looks like its official now...

2021 is off to a decent start work wise, I guess we'll all see how long that holds. If it magically somehow does hold I'll have to find a way to increase production some more, which starts by having to bring more power in here, and a bit more space wouldn't be bad either but might just end up putting a machine back in the old attached shop I moved out of a few years ago if it comes to that, the car can go back to sleeping outside. Until then, just putting in the extra hours 7 days a week and preparing for what comes next and survive. Planning a bigger garden this year and a spot to raise some chickens and such and still looking for 100+acres somewhere middle nowhere ideally.

david n · Jan 8, 2021

SND said:
and still looking for 100+acres somewhere middle nowhere ideally.

The middle of nowhere would still be too close to the neighbors for me...............................

Ox · Jan 8, 2021

... until you are looking for help and UPS.....

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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

SND · Jan 9, 2021

I'm extremely lucky to have really awesome friends/neighbors here, but it definitely wasn't always like that before at other places I lived.
I looked a bit for land in the US and investor visas and maybe doing the 6month on each side of the wall thing someday, but that's mostly all off the table now for obvious enough reasons, we'll see how the next few years go. Mostly looking for 100+acres to fish/hunt and maybe gtfo when the time comes.

In other news, a few months ago the 1st guy I worked for in this line of work passed away. He had sold his shop about maybe 4 years ago and apparently started a battle with cancer not much after, really too bad and wasn't all that old. He helped me quite a lot when I was starting out and his shop did exactly the type of work I like so it was a great place to learn, was given a key first day on the job and could use the equipment anytime, I used to drive there on weekend and work a few hours and then practice welding for a while, even lent me his engine hoist to take my first lathe apart on the sidewalk so I could bring it in my basement. It's too bad he didn't get to enjoy retirement longer after all the work and stress he put in to build a great shop. It kinda reminds me that its time I find a way to not have to spend 7 days a week in the shop forever. We'll see...

Anyway, I'm late for work...

The new shop, machines, and a few construction pictures included

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Hot Rolled

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Aluminum

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