1st Gen Lunchtable Thread - General Discussion

@Kwikvette when non engineers attempt to engineer shit, they'll leave their tolerances high for "fudge room" then when an unsuspecting tech tries to build from pictures you get shit like this

Thats how out of square it still is after massively ovaling the holes .. I apparently fucked up and made my bracket holes square without checking if the frame pieces were square first



And then theres this monstrosity i have to cobble together yet still. Have i mentioned how I'm not a fan of custom exhaust work?

 

I see how big those holes are...and still ain't enough to 'get you there?'

That sucks.

 

I'd say it sucks the fattest dick on the dirtiest donkey in the barnyard.

It's so bad imma have to drill whole new front holes in the frame cause the bracket doesn't work at all now

 

So you're assembling it, but you're also making some assembly parts from scratch?

 

Yea about 60% of the brackets I'm having to make from scratch, and probably 90% of that 60 we don't have drawings for so I've gotta go off pictures lol

This piece of equipment is a damn shit show but because our competitors are a year out or longer people are buying from us.

 

I am wondering who their target customer is. I would have thought they might have intended someone like me. But they certainly missed that mark.

 

Man, and brackets/hangers and whatnot that just ties it all in...that's crazy. You could leave a plate on a CNC table and just cut from it as needed if your boss simply bought one.

 

Influencers

Overlanders (although they typically drive 3rd Gens)

Or someone with a 1st Gen, some cash in their pocket, and a group of 3rd Genner friends being a bad influence cause said friend doesn't run a Beaver shovel or Goal Zero 6000w power station for all their accessories

 

Absolutely fucking crazy. I've tried telling him that and he tells me he doesn't want us fabricating, just assembling.... yet each build, we're having to fabricate at least 1 thing.

That's why when we move east I'm getting a small business loan and starting a machine shop. I can undercut the cost of wrongly made Chinese parts and still make enough money to pay loan payments just with what Wolverine orders

 

Just sucks you guys aren't within the next town or something.

It's how I ended up making parts for a shop; he's clearing some cars out this week and expects a few custom jobs next week.

Told him about my press brake and he's stoked.

 

Yea that does suck, would be cool to be with 20min of kwikfab technologies


That's awesome you're getting side work like that! Hope it pays well and you don't get overwhelmed, worst thing I've learned is monetizing a hobby then overworking yourself and growing to resent the hobby

 

Thanks!

Naw he's organized as hell; he'll tell me the workload he has coming in and what he'll need.

He's normally weeks ahead when he tells me with the shortest deadline having been 1 1/2 weeks (to get a truck to some event, customer request).

Other than that I'll cut an order of parts, and won't need to do that for another week or two.

 

I'm sure I asked this but...there's more money to be had cause parts are being made in-house right?

As in, owner is capitalizing on the fact that you guys can turn stuff around and deliver whereas other companies can't?

 

I really wanna import one of these some day. Apparently they’re the trucks that inspired Toyota to ditch leaf springs on their Land Cruiser wagons back in the 80s. The diffs and axles are also famously strong; about as much as a D60/14 bolt from what I’ve seen.

 

There's more money to be had because he is not having parts made in house. Currently he doesn't want us making ANY parts in house, we only have to make something due to his poor organizational skills and the fact that he's had probably 8 different unqualified people over the years make him drawings.

Owner capitalizing on sales are these biggest reasons we have such a "cult following" in the industry 1) Bill is smooth as fuck, I don't want to call him silver tongued cause that implies seedy behavior, but the man can sell the product. 2) because our equipment is simpler than our competition, it's generally less expensive and more rebuildable 3) were a small "American made" company and our blue collar clients really appreciate talking to Bill for sales and me for technical support, it gives em warm fuzzies when they call in and the guy who built the equipment they're using is either the one to answer or just a 100ft walk from the guy who answers

 

Just lease or buy a new Corolla

 

And I really wanna import one of these

1970 Subaru R-2

 

Strong early Fiat 500 vibe.

 

Nah, I wouldn’t buy a Corolla made after 1997 when they got rid of the 7A-FE.