How long?!

[VicParticipant @vic]

People sometimes ask me to make stuff, offering to pay for the job. I decline saying it takes too long to make a part to make it economical. Case in point, it took me a couple of hours to make this. Small detent with 4mm pin and a 12mm Brass body. The Aluminium knob has been sand blasted.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

That’s very nicely done, Vic … especially if it only took a couple of hours !

MichaelG.

[VicParticipant @vic]

Thank you Michael, it will do the job.

[Martin ConnellyParticipant @martinconnelly55370]

When I was at work people often asked if I could “just” make something that they could buy for a few pounds. I think they were unhappy when I pointed out it would take up all of my weekend off and at minimum wage it would cost a lot of money. I did things that interested me but not things that were likely to just be tedious and uneconomical compared to buying the off the shelf equivalent. I think if you get a reputation for always doing these seemingly little jobs then people will get very upset the first time you say no.

Martin C

[larry phelan 1Participant @larryphelan1]

Old Chinese saying “He who works for nothing, shall never be idle ”

Been there, did that, but never again. Such people put no value on your skill or time ,and are best avoided. My stock answer now is, I dont have the gear to do that anymore.

From time a genuine job comes along, which is a different matter, but the rest are just cheapskates, so, give them either a real price or the brushoff.

Some people seem to think that because you have a shop full of equipment, you should be willing to be at their call whenever it suits them. They never stop to think how much it cost to buy that equipment.

[Neil AParticipant @neila]

“Can you Just”. They are the words I hate to hear.

Usually the person asking has no idea what is involved in their request nor how long it will take to complete.

If it’s family, then you’re usually stuck, although my son always feels guilty about asking me to do things that he can’t.

Anyone else it’s a very quick no thank you. As others have said, it’s best to try and avoid such “little jobs”, they only lead to other “little jobs”.

Neil

[Andy StopfordParticipant @andystopford50521]

Ah yes, the perils of ‘Just’ Jobs…

I do sometimes regard these as loss leaders; if the person later employs me to do something more substantial then it can be worth it.

The funny thing is, people will be more impressed with something totally mindless, like putting together an IKEA chest of drawers, than e.g. designing and making a stainless steel roller assembly to replace the piece of broken plastic rubbish on their shower door.

[DiogenesParticipant @diogenes]

I’ll usually help people out, especially if they are ‘stuck’.

It’s hard-to-virtually-impossible for most ‘normal’ people to access any kind of affordable engineering these days..

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

“Can you just?” usually means that the would be customer thinks that the job will only take ten minutes, whereas you can see that four hours is going to be tight schedule.

The “slack screw” often means a stripped thread (Most probably an odd ball one!)which means a complete remake, probably with a need to bush the parent material.

Even worse, if someone has already had a bodge at it already, which will entail time repairing that, before actually starting the repair proper.

You’ve seen it, a Metric setscrew forced into a Whitworth tapping. “But it’s got a thread on it”

Tell them that the current laboiur rate at a manufacturer car dealership is something over £160 per hour!  (It is!)  Have they seen the price of a couple of nuts and bnolts at Halfords?

So at £25 per hour, you would be doing the job on the very cheap.

Howard

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Old Yorkshire saying:

If tha does owt for nowt, do it for thissen

 

[CirclipParticipant @circlip]

See all hear all and say nowt, eat all sup all  and pay nowt and if tha –  – – –

Mate came with inlet manifold for a Stag with a “Slightly stripped Thread”

Regards   Ian

[VicParticipant @vic]

I think that’s the bit holder finished. I now need to turn some bushes for the grinder and make some kind of table and feed mechanism. I’m making this up as I go along from lots of ideas I’ve seen inline.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Fine work – we await the next instalment with interest!

A former member of my society (before he moved far away from the area) never, to my knowledge, managed any model-engineering of his own because he was always working on his car, home or the family’s farm machinery.

I have occasionally done small tasks for others, most recently re-facing a steel bench-block for a friend whose hobbies include silver-smithing, and I have also made presents for friends but by my own choice. Otherwise I don’t encourage the “can you just…” requests.

One of the unsolicited presents, intended humorously, was a centre-finder / square for a friend who has a curious trait of cutting slices of cake into small cubes. With its scale engraved in Hands and eighths thereof (as one of her interests is horse-riding), it will act as both rectangular square and a centre-finder for cylindrical cakes, and one of my aluminium saucepans still has faint pencil-lines on its underside from testing the thing!

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