Welding shop closes...

Not an ad-just fact. My brother in-law turned 65 last week and he has health issues so he is closing his welding shop. I am not sure where I will get my steel now for this is the last close place to buy it. I guess it is a sign of the times for I can think of a half a dozen black smith shops with-in 10 miles around here twenty years ago. Yesterday I took a trailer and a wagon down to him to sell stuff off of-he and his Dad were sorting stuff and getting ready for the sale. He owns the business and his Dad owns the building. An end of a era!!---Tee---Had to crop the top of the bill to fit the printer.

I wish them luck with their auction. You will have to go to it and buy enough steel to last you awhile. It's always sad when the only business of any kind closes, but something will turn up and if there is enough business for it, someone will open another welding shop in the near future.

Walk in to the counter type welding shops are just about gone around here. Still a few contract shops that work with big accounts and if you know the owner then maybe you get something welded for your 5 X 8 trailer that you move your lawn tractor on. No off the street traffic allowed. Liability insurance is terrible if you are welding something for the average John Q Smith customer and his son gets hurt because he thought his 10,000 pound trailer would carry 18,000 pounds. Or that the 2,000 pound rated loader would carry those 500 additional pounds.

Sad when a place like that shuts down. We lost a good starter shop a few years ago. Owner was 95 said it was time to retire. Only good shop around here now is 65 miles away.

I see the Farrah Fawcett wall clock made the sell bill.

(quoted from post at 07:05:22 08/30/17) Walk in to the counter type welding shops are just about gone around here. Still a few contract shops that work with big accounts and if you know the owner then maybe you get something welded for your 5 X 8 trailer that you move your lawn tractor on. No off the street traffic allowed. Liability insurance is terrible if you are welding something for the average John Q Smith customer and his son gets hurt because he thought his 10,000 pound trailer would carry 18,000 pounds. Or that the 2,000 pound rated loader would carry those 500 additional pounds.

Click to expand...

Sad, isn't it? The concept that one need not bear personal responsibility has sure screwed up everything. Including gas cans. Some of the stuff you can't do anymore is just unbelievable. I can see the day when you can't sell a butcher beef because the consumer can sue you if they let the meat go bad and get sick.

tee, i hope someone will fill in the vacuum in your area.
i'm lucky to have a welding shop 5 miles away, and another 14 miles away. both single owners and a couple employees. both shops will work on loader frames, choppers, smaller parts, etc, most anything that i break that will fit into the lot.

Guess I am lucky my dad still can do all my welding and fabing for me. I can get the stuff ready and when I am home from work its done!

Im not too far away from you. Im in Postville area. Were blessed to have a few good shops here yet and one just opened up.

As well it should.

How many people need a 3 phase 3 horsepower grinder ?

With everyone and their mother being at home welders these days, it's not surprising small shops are disappearing. It's simply cheaper to do most small/medium jobs yourself than pay a proper shop, plus you get satisfaction as well. As long as the market is there, somebody else will open up a shop, can't expect businesses to set up if they can't make money.

There is nothing like a picture of Farrah that was taken on a cold day!!---Tee

I or my son do most of our repairs but about 6 years ago I twisted the input shaft on the gearbox on my 20 ft. Artsway stalk chopper. My Dad in-law made me a new shaft in the shop. They could cut internal and external keyways. The machines looked like antiques to me but he was good at running them. We are going to miss going there. Brother in-law always said he was giving me a good deal, but I think he always charged me double because he suspected I was sleeping with his sister!!---Tee

Her real name was Farrah Fawcett Majors, but I"m dyslexic, so I thought it was Pair of Major Faucets.

When I was a kid our small town had at least two or three actual blacksmith shops...the sort where you could take your worn out plow shares and have them rebuilt and hard-faced(studite or something like that)...not to mention getting stuff welded.

We still have a large welding/fabricating shop where you can buy metal...but I doubt they would or could repair and hardface plowshares.

There are a lot of welders around with a large customer base because of all the oilfield activity. I can weld pretty decent...but I have one particular welder I like to do most of my shops welding. However he's often so busy in the oil-patch that I leave a key available for my welder so he can help himself to my repairs/welding work as he sees fit. This works out well as I have plasma-cutters a big torch and various welders for him to use as he sees fit...or he can back his truck up to the door and use has stuff..I don't care which.

My theory on using a professional welder to do most of my shops welding jobs is that a very good welder can do my customers welding repairs much more efficiently/better and quicker for less money than if I(a mechanic who is able to weld and fabricate to a degree) can do it. Customer saves dollars and we all get a top-quality repair....

This must be the shop just south of the old creamery site. Sorry to hear it is closing. I was born in Hazleton and lived there until about 12 years old. Grandparents lived on Suffocool Street and me and my folks in the north end of town across from Lewis Woods until we moved in 71. Both cemeteries are full of relatives. Like most small towns it was just getting by back then and seems nothing has changed much since. When I pass thru I see whoever has Grandpa's old place has an IH sign hanging on the shed, so still some tough ones left.

Similar story here. Local machine/welding shop is for sale due to the owner fighting cancer. Don't know if he's old enough to retire, though. Sad to loose good businesses.

I'm not surprised. Theres only two shops in my town, I own one, the other is for sale.

To be honest, theres just not the money around to keep them going on small jobs and things for homeowners, etc. Many things arent made to be fixed anymore, or worth fixing.

Plus, theres the many thousands of dollars I spend on insurance every year, which raise our hourly rates further. Almost all of my shop time is spent with a small handful of serious commercial customers (construction/heavy equipment, mostly) who want things done right and arent afraid to spend some money for it. They dont waste my time.

On the other hand, there are the homeowners and whatnot who arent going to pay $90/hr + materials for mobile work on their 5x8 trailer. And why would they? They can just go buy another junk one new for $500. Or, they want me to open up my shop on the weekend and weld on their new muffler for $20 taking 2 hours of my saturday by the time everything is setup, done, and cleaned up. Or the farmers who, around me, either have no money for repairs or dont want to spend money on their equipment, or they DO have money so they bought their own welder and fixed it themselves, until the new part arrives in a week. I got so tired of wasting my time quoting people for small BS jobs only for them not to materialize, or folks wanting the most jankity, hacked, sketchy **** done so they can build/fix whatever on a budget that I wasnt willing to mess with.

People arent willing to pay worthwhile amounts of money to fix things when they can buy a new whatchamacallit made in asia dirt cheap.

So, I took my sign down from the road, setup a $250 minimum/$450 mobile, and honestly it was one of the best things I've ever done for myself. If ever my current customers and ventures arent filling the time chart, I'll go seek out new ones and choose them myself.

I feel a little bad when some nice old lady calls and wants to know how much it is for me to drive across town and weld the hinge on her fence and I say theres not much I can do for her, and its tempting to hold up everything going on and cut out some steel doughnuts out of scrap plate for some guy for some pocket cash, but this is just the way that it is.

Two friends of mine who also run their own shops are in basically the same position. One guy only has like 5-6 customers, the other does mostly production work for 1 company with a little bit of odds and ends on the side. Theres only two machine shops in my area, one does almost all prototype work for a few companies he knows, the other does automotive stuff and the business doesnt look like its doing very well unfortunately...

Back when I was still at the tech center they had a machine shop that made prototype parts. For a coke or cup of coffee I could get any work done I needed. I do alot of welding but let dad do most of it just to keep him busy. He makes me alot of gates and feeders in stainless steel.

Lost the only welding shop in this area last year when the owner past away from cancer. One of my neighbors is a retired welder who would do the repairs for me but I feel bad about imposing on him. Instead I bought a stick welder, and with him as instructor I'm learning to weld. Doesn't look pretty but I'm getting stuff done.

I agree with Lanse. I specialize in custom ornamental iron work because it pays well. Don't think I could survive on just basic repairs. Most things like rotary cutters, mower decks, trailers, etc can be replaced for the cost of repairs.

There is a large colony of Amish west of the town the shop is located in, they use to be some of his best customers but the Bishops decided it was not a sin anymore to weld with electricity so now there is a large Amish shop in the colony.---Tee

If he has some money set aside and can get a few hundred thousand out of the auction he can throw in the towel and live a nice modest life... With taxes and the trills of expenses sale off invest the money then sleeping in late don't look so bad...