250 pcs. 1-1/5 Dia. CRS 4 times a year

[contract_machining_inc]

You guys just need to learn how to work harder and stop crying so much. Do you really think the posts on here are for legitimate job quotes??? Alot are dreamers looking to broker a job, other shops assessing the competitions price structure and many more hidden reasons. If they cannot afford the cost of a phone call and rely solely on free email and free forums do you actually think they are serious. I have bid alot of these at or less than material cost well, guess what, we have not gotten any of the jobs!!! Hmmmmmmmmm

 

[Big Daddy]

I can’t believe people/ shops are so desperate that they’re willing to “PAY” to do a job. Bloody Ridiculous! Everybody quoting your profit away needs to have their heads examined!!!! Is this what you went into business for???
To become a community service??? lololol SNAP OUT OF IT!!!
Where is your dignity! Idiots.......

 

[willmfg]

Contract you hit the nail on the head.Anyone banking on this website or others for work will be very short lived.This guy talking about the "hobby" shops on here cracks me up because thats about the only people that can give these people the prices they want,no or low over head not actually needing to make any money.I quoted a few jobs on here like contract giving a really low price and same result nothing.When part time shops arent even competitive with this price how could a full time shop like me with machine pymts,workers comp bills,workers to pay and provide benefits to,utility bills,etc... even think of using this to grow there business.Now i come on just to see whats up and some times have a good laugh at prices.If this guy really has it figured out that way and has a shop of his own he would do the job himself,my guess is he is a broker.And by the way my $120,000 machine never runs for $40 an hour even if running lights out,thats ridiculous.My advise to all of you looking to grow your business dont waist any time quoting jobs on here,If you are going to give 5 hours of time away on programming set ups etc give it to a loyal local customer who you know and will actually give you more work down the road.By the way last time i checked 3 hours setup x 4 times a year is 12 hours.If your serious about this you should at least be willing to take delivery of the parts in one shipment. Please people stop dreaming and go out and grow your business with hard work,focus on local customers you can actually talk to and maybe we can get manufacturing back were it should be.

 

[Big Daddy]

Yepe I gotta agree with you! But I want to add one more thing,, the paid services aren’t any better. I watched shops cutting each other throat in this very fashion! But the only difference over there, “your also paying someone else to have your throat cut!!” Every bodies being duped into believing these are great solutions to find work!! In really as you know your just giving away the farm. I never thought I’d see the day when I could go out and “pan handle” and make more money vs. running my machine shop!

 

[contract_machining_inc]

mfg qoute??

I almost spent the money for the MFGquote.com site, extremely good thing the decision was made not to. Their EXTREMELY high pressure sales tactics was the first clue, if its that good you don't need to place a noose around the customers neck that will eventually hang them. The second clue is the parts that are up for rfqs, most of the prints look like high school drafting projects, hmmmmmm. If any one knows of a shop that is actually able to justify an $800 a month payment to mfgquote please call me. From my experiences on the internet the phone call usually means a 50% chance of getting the job, well worth the couple of hours spent trying to quote a complex part. Emailers are just a waist of time, sadly this forum is the perfect venue for this type of work but lacks exposure to QUALIFIED customers. I would like to see this forum charge a monthly fee so they could afford to advertise to qualified companies. A $100 a month membership fee is fair and will not break any one and if you score a big job a small percentage would go to the site, the honor system would work fine. My other thought would be to purchase the domain name and website from the current owners so we could take it to the next level with the help of others that see the potential for building this into a great site.

 

[Big Daddy]

They got into me for almost 3 grand.... I tried to cancel after the first 3 weeks they just kept tapping into my bank account.. I filed a complaint (edited for spelling) with the FTC who did zero to protect my money!! In the end; no work-3 thousand dollars lighter!!

 

[Big Daddy]

I think a free service such as this really makes the most since but there has to be some established ground rules! Like two completely different categories.. Such as placing work with the serious businesses and another for placing work with the week end warriors with a machine in their garage. And inside that type of set-up, (EDITED)
There needs to be further ground rules to protect the both sides of the fence. Most buyers already know what the net worth is of any job their vending for instance. Make them fill in some type of questionnaire where they file a bottom dollar value, kinda like realistic Fair market value,,, (IN THIS COUNTRY) for the items in the RFQ. If Bidding drops below that, the bidding automatically closes. To keep a service like this free, sell advertizing space around the website. This type of service could be a win-win for everybody. (edited)
Moderators would have to be more proactive and control the bidding more then likely.

 

[lstool]

WOW!!!!! all I asked for was some quotations and got a bunch of grown men whinning (well I am assuming grown men) is there not a different discussion forum for all the whiners like a Dear Abby for the struggling machinest, all I have to say is maybee manufacturing is not for some of you guys and sticking to machining as a hobby is all you should do. There is alot more skill involved to being proficiant at production machining than venturing into machining at a hobby level and hoping to be competitive with the people who know what they are doing and have many years of expierience. I hope you all got you box of tissues for Christmas, There is more Drama here than on an Oprah show!!! WOW!!

 

[Larry1]

Policy

I will refer you to the "HARASSMENT & FLAMING" on this forum. I for one would not want your business.

 

[contract_machining_inc]

who are you turning in?

 

[Larry1]

Policy

I was refering to istool comments.

 

[Big Daddy]

WOW!!!!! all I asked for was some quotations and got a bunch of grown men whinning (well I am assuming grown men) is there not a different discussion forum for all the whiners like a Dear Abby for the struggling machinest, all I have to say is maybee manufacturing is not for some of you guys and sticking to machining as a hobby is all you should do. There is alot more skill involved to being proficiant at production machining than venturing into machining at a hobby level and hoping to be competitive with the people who know what they are doing and have many years of expierience. I hope you all got you box of tissues for Christmas, There is more Drama here than on an Oprah show!!! WOW!!

Sorry for using this forum & this thread and climbing onto my soap box. But something really needed to be said. I watched for years machine shops taking a beating. My impression, we just aren’t getting the respect we deserve from “any” buyers! The grease mechanic down the street makes more money then the average machine shop these days with literally no overhead! Look around.. They’re all charging 70 dollars an hour!! What’s the average machine shop at?? 35 maybe 40 dollars an hour?? I think a little respect is do. That's all.
The two categories I referred to would be for the buyer’s protection as well if you think about… I wasn’t suggesting discriminating but there has to be separation if a system is to survive. Otherwise nobody in the communities will take it seriously. At least no top notch machine shop… So who would be losing at that point, the shops or the buyer stuck vending their work to garage shops?

 

[Larry1]

Big Daddy

I whole heartly agree with Big Daddy, machine shops are taken a beaten from their suppliers. Some are doing jobs at cost or less in hope of getting more work. Smaller shops are at fault also by given quotes that a large machine shop cannot do. I think there is enough work for both. The small shops should only take on jobs that they can get paid for there time and equipment. Large machine shops, have employee's and other expense.
The only thing I disagree on is to treat either as amatures. The small shops also has a place in this forum as well as the large ones. I just think too underbid someone is not good business practice. I have been doing machine work for over 40 years and do not like to be told I do not know what I am doing. Its true I do not have equipment like the large machine shops have, but I do produced machine work that I stand behind. Istool implied if his job can not be done for a cheap price than the people that have sent quotes at a high price must not know what they are doing and should stick to barn yard work. I suggest that he go to the sites that require a fee to belong. He should be able to get all the quotes around the world. Give a fair quote, large shops can not compete on small jobs, small shops can not compete againt large shops. They should work together by pass work to each other and not quoting wars.

 

[Big Daddy]

I’m not suggesting most garage shop's don’t have the talent, but most certainly don’t have the resources. It takes a tremendous amount of self confidence to throw your hat in the ring, I give em that. But there needs be a place for both to go. In two entirely different arena’s cause no two should ever cross.. It's just not good business,, well not for anybody except for the Buyer's...and it looks like,,,, "They Count On It!"

 

[Larry1]

Amen to that.

 

[Machining Concepts]

Another online quoting site

Hey guys,

I don't want to get back into this discussion, because I believe I began this whole mess. I do agree that job shops as a whole are becoming increasingly frustrated with the whole online quoting agenda. I too have been with MFGQUOTE.COM and never saw the return that I put into it. Holding onto loyal customers and trying to grow with them is the key, as had been said previously. The online quoting process is a tempting one, because it's convienent. You have access to hundreds of jobs. You need to weed out the price shoppers, and find the one's that reward jobs. Hopefully after that they will come back to you because you do good work. Establishing good relations is key to success. A "good" customer understands this and in the long run tends to push work to the supplier who they have a good relationship with, sometimes regardless of price. Sometimes however they have a bottom line they need to meet and their current supplier just can't meet it. In situations like that, I have in the past gone with a break even quote because I know they will be sending additional work my way. Sort of an honor system I suppose. My 2 cents. I did however want to know if anyone on here has any experience with Source Authority? They differ in that they take a one time payment of $750.00 and then 5% of the reward price. That's a little more managable. Just wondering if anyone has any info on this site? I hope this site does continue to grow. What vendors need to do in the future is not post what their lowest quote was, or that they are looking for LOW quotes. That is what starts this whole thing. They can state a TARGET price, but don't post the lowest bid. They also need to be fair in their expectations of price. We're trying to rebuild the American manufacturing machine. It starts in the smallest of shops and continues to the largest of manufacturing facilities. Keep it honest and keep it American!

 

[deltaenterprizes]

We are in a race to the bottom where everyone loses. The goal should be best quality,not best price.The garbage that comes from China shows what you get when price is the only factor

 

[contract_machining_inc]

The China/India thing is unbeatable for now sadly enough. Without going into a great deal of economics China will eventually implode (not explode) because of the government forcing a naturally occurring function to their favor. If our government bought all of our machines or gave us a very large grant to cover operating cost we still could not compete with them. They have been trying for a long time to get our work at $5- $7 per hour of machine time, the factory in China shows several rows of new cnc screw machines, haas and fadal machines in their photo graph. Well, you know that does not even cover repairs when the machine matures at 4 years of age, so it is very oblivious their government is doing more than what the people are hearing about on the "street". BOTTOM LINE: WORK HARDER AND SMARTER CAUSE YOU AIN'T BEATING THEM. If you still have machines with 400 ipm rapids and employees that have union shop attitudes make the changes.

 

[Big Daddy]

Hey guys,

I don't want to get back into this discussion, because I believe I began this whole mess. I do agree that job shops as a whole are becoming increasingly frustrated with the whole online quoting agenda. I too have been with MFGQUOTE.COM and never saw the return that I put into it. Holding onto loyal customers and trying to grow with them is the key, as had been said previously. The online quoting process is a tempting one, because it's convienent. You have access to hundreds of jobs. You need to weed out the price shoppers, and find the one's that reward jobs. Hopefully after that they will come back to you because you do good work. Establishing good relations is key to success. A "good" customer understands this and in the long run tends to push work to the supplier who they have a good relationship with, sometimes regardless of price. Sometimes however they have a bottom line they need to meet and their current supplier just can't meet it. In situations like that, I have in the past gone with a break even quote because I know they will be sending additional work my way. Sort of an honor system I suppose. My 2 cents. I did however want to know if anyone on here has any experience with Source Authority? They differ in that they take a one time payment of $750.00 and then 5% of the reward price. That's a little more managable. Just wondering if anyone has any info on this site? I hope this site does continue to grow. What vendors need to do in the future is not post what their lowest quote was, or that they are looking for LOW quotes. That is what starts this whole thing. They can state a TARGET price, but don't post the lowest bid. They also need to be fair in their expectations of price. We're trying to rebuild the American manufacturing machine. It starts in the smallest of shops and continues to the largest of manufacturing facilities. Keep it honest and keep it American!

Back in 2001/02 when my 7++ million dollar a year work load evaporated do to almost all my customers going out of business my staff & I started researching every online service there was. Some showed promise but in the end all fell short of providing us any real long term customers or work. Every one of them seemed to have a fatal flaw of one type or another. Some offered regional support of 100 miles radius from your business but there wasn’t any real buyers in their system for instance for your area so now you’re stuck paying for something that never bears any fruit. Just more money wasted… Or every work lead we did get ended up only being short lived. Because the buyers agenda is to save money for his/her employer, they throw all new RFQ’s back into the mix online again where there outsourced out for peanuts on the dollar. But a while back I stumbled onto this website.. I would love to see something materialize here. It could turn into a stop & shop or Bs site for the machinist. http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/index.php
But then again and I can’t stress this enough, I really think RFQwork.com is on to something. Maybe with some tweaks it could turn into a real service for the Machinist in this country…

To the other stuff.. Fixing the ill's that plague manufacturing in this country is easy.. Simply raise Tariffs back the way they were and screw the Benedict Arnolds that left the country at the border! And all foreign countries as well!! That’s what their doing to us!!

 

[Arty3000]

so, was anybody awarded this job?