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Up Topic Chit-Chat & Non-Welding Discussion / Off-Topic Bar and Grill / New Shop
- - By MDG Custom Weld (***) Date 09-26-2008 13:15
Well, this year has been a good year for our small welding shop.  Really considering the current manufacturing economy in Michigan, it was a great year.  Having a "real" job as an engineer in the auto industry and a "hobby" job running my fab shop makes for some long days and busy weekends, but finally I can see light at the end of the tunnel.  I refuse to go into debt to finance my "hobby" shop, and that has held us back some from an expansion standpoint.  I don't plan on working for the man for too many more years before I go into fabing for good.  Once the little one's are in school and Momma can go back to work for insurance I should be golden.

We have outgrown our little shop and have cleared the site for our new shop.  It's not huge at just less than 2,000 sq/ft with 16' ceiling and (3) 14' bay doors.  Our current 1000 sq/ft shop will then become our paint room.  This will help us process work much better.  The way we are now is to fabricate, finish, prime, and paint all in the same building and before we can move on to the next job.  Finish, prime, and paint ties up the current shop for two days and really eats up our delivery time on the next job waiting.  Not to mention the clean up afterwards, no matter how well things are tarped off painting still coats the shop in dust.  Our new shop will allow me to keep the guys fabing while the paint shop is going, and no more paint dust on everything!  I think we will cut our standard deliveries by two weeks or more.

I'm not bragging about how much we make since this will totally tap the shop account funds, but I am very proud of my guys, my wife (she runs the books and chases parts around all day), and my business partner for the seven years of hard work and sacrifices we have all made to get to this point.  I am totally blessed to have such a supportive staff that has stuck it out with us and made this possible.  Thanks to all of you here too for the valuable information that has been passed on and the support of everyone willing to share their vast diverse experiences with total strangers.

If any of you have some fabricated work that is being outsourced I would sure be open to quoting it.  I need to fill this new shop up and keep the guys busy for the months and years to come.  8-10k fabrications are about our size limit for handling currently.

Thanks,
Mark
Parent - - By sbcmweb (****) Date 09-26-2008 14:36
Best of luck to you Mark!

This guy's the real deal. I did a little business with him & could tell when I met him that he's got it together. Very realistic & a man of integrity!

Give him a shot!!!!

See ya! Steve.
Parent - - By MDG Custom Weld (***) Date 09-26-2008 14:54
Thank Steve.  I can surly say the same about you!!

Did you sell that Big40 yet?

What about "my" mill?  You know I still want it, but as the other post said this shop has TAPPED me out!!
Parent - - By sbcmweb (****) Date 09-26-2008 15:11
No Problem. You're a descent guy & anyone that does business with you is going to say that too.

Your mill is safe & sound, doing it's job of holding down the floor in the storage shed. :-)

No, the big 40 is still keeping the concrete from flying away as well. :-)

Let me know on those load tests. How many machines do they have to actually test? S.W.
Parent - - By MDG Custom Weld (***) Date 09-26-2008 15:57
Steve,
3 in Howell, and up to 10 in Taylor.
I think the Howell job will be late October and the Taylor job in early November or early December.
I will surly keep you posted and try to give you a few weeks notice.

Jenn,
Thank you and good luck with your new gig too!
Parent - - By sbcmweb (****) Date 09-26-2008 16:02
Thanks for the help Mark. You got it here if you need it. S.W
Parent - - By MDG Custom Weld (***) Date 10-14-2008 11:12
We decided last week that one of the old silo's must go before we sink poles for the new shop.  This silo is 22' across and 60' tall.  So on Saturday we knocked the blocks out with a sledge until it fell like a tree.  I have seen this done before, but this is the fist one I have done myself.  Not too many people can say they dropped something like this :)  It really only took about 15 minutes.

A few pics of it standing, us swinging away, dust cloud when it hit the ground, and last is the rubble.
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Parent - - By jwright650 (*****) Date 10-14-2008 12:21
OK...post up the pics. I wanna see. I've seen a few on tube that didn't quite go as planned.
Parent - - By MDG Custom Weld (***) Date 10-14-2008 12:34
Sorry, I had to resize them..took a few minutes.
Unlike the slio's gone bad from utube, this one fell right where it was suposed to.

Before I dropped it, I calculated where it would land and painted a yellow x on the grass marking where the top would land.  It missed the mark by 4 feet.  Now I think, 60' tall falling to the ground and only missing the mark by 4 feet is quite a good success.

When I get back to the shop I'll get a picture of the mark and you can judge for yourself.  It might not get posted until late tonight.
Parent - - By jwright650 (*****) Date 10-14-2008 13:11
Thanks for the pics...the best plans can go wrong when fooling with those things. I'm glad yours fell where it was supposed to. You did excellent in my opinion by getting within 4' of your target...that's awsome. Like chopping down a huge tree....LOL, but the chips were cinderblock instead of wood.
Parent - - By MDG Custom Weld (***) Date 10-14-2008 13:41
As much as it might look like it, this was not a backwoods harebrain idea.  I did some research, talked to the guys that actually do this for a living, looked at hundreds of pictures of things gone right and things gone wrong, and even some local guys that had paid these guys to take silos down.  I would NOT recommend for anyone to just go and start knocking blocks out of a silo.  The two common misconceptions that I found when these go bad is 1, trying to push one over like a tree with some kind of heavy equipment.  The equipment only weakens the side you're pushing on and thus it falls that way.  2, cutting too many of the bands or stays from the outside.  This allows the blocks to be pushed out from the weight above and makes the fall very unstable.  Even the position of the loading chute relative to the desired fall is critical.
With the information I gathered I felt confident our silo was suitable for removal by knocking out the blocks.  I spent about 10 hours figuring things out and trying to ensure we were going to be safe and the other buildings would not be crushed.  After all that, it took less than 20 minutes to finish the job.  Now we have days of work cleaning it up.
Parent - - By jrw159 (*****) Date 10-14-2008 13:58
MDG,
  I can sure understand that. I have read, and heard of this technique before, and you are correct. There is more too it than just some backwoods hillbillys knocking out bricks and pushing it over. I totally respect the fact that this was a success, as there is so much that could go wrong with lack of knowledge and planning, just as depicted in the video John posted. My hat is off to you sir. :-)

I saw on, and I will try later to locate it, where they knocked out, essentialy every other brick on about the fourth row from the bottom, and then weaved a chain through the holes and pulled it through. thus causing it to collapse.

Anyways, come on with the pics. :-)

jrw159
Parent - - By MDG Custom Weld (***) Date 10-14-2008 14:23
John, scroll up, this pics are under my first post today.
We did consider the chain technique, but were concerned if the chain broke someone would have to go under the fall zone and re-connect.  That might have been a bad idea.

One of the guys with me wanted to video tape the whole thing, but I said no.  If things went bad, I did not want my wife and kids having a video of me or someone else getting hurt or worse.  It always seems if you have a video rolling during something like this it has a tendency of making one of those "caught on tape" shows...usually for the worse.
Parent - By jrw159 (*****) Date 10-14-2008 14:34
MDG,
  Yes sir. I wondered about the possibility of the chain breaking as well. And you are correct, haveing a video camera running often times ends up in one of those "Hey yall, watch this!!!" moments that ends in a bad way.

Anyways, glad it worked out well and safe, and be carefull during clean up. :-)

jrw159
Parent - - By jrw159 (*****) Date 10-14-2008 12:24
I second that request. :-) Come on with the pic's MDG You can't just tease us like that. LOL

jrw159
Parent - - By jwright650 (*****) Date 10-14-2008 12:34
One that didn't go as planned...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DDIxwg6SL4
Parent - By MDG Custom Weld (***) Date 10-14-2008 12:38
In the first Ontheground picture, I'm standing on the painted mark on the ground (I'm the one on the left).
Parent - By jrw159 (*****) Date 10-14-2008 13:26
John,
  I have seen this one several times. They say the only thing that saved him was the tree growing inside of it. Boy that sure could have been nasty.

jrw159
Parent - By jrw159 (*****) Date 10-14-2008 14:01
Nice Job!!! :-)

jrw159
Parent - By Jenn (***) Date 09-26-2008 15:21
Fun, new stuff on the horizon for you! And way more convenient.

Congrats on your next step!

Jenn
Up Topic Chit-Chat & Non-Welding Discussion / Off-Topic Bar and Grill / New Shop

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