Anything welding

Your DIY kits are SO damn tempting

 

What he said ^^^^ Relentless Fab makes one hell of a kit, I will give them that for sure! It was super easy, and I was able to figure out the parts and alignments pretty easily. I have a slight angle difference on the lower plate, but I don't think you can even tell. I accept that I am not perfect, but I am a perfectionist, so every flaw I have, I can see. What I do like is that while it is a kit, I can proudly say that I did it myself, and didn't buy one and bolt it on. Not saying anything is wrong with that, but there is just an added sense of pride.

 

Agreed there Bill! Still get to say you did it, and save some $$ at the same time, while leaving all the guess work and wasted material out from designing from scratch.

Also, how's that Thermal Arc treating you now? Good I hope!

 

Anybody use the Python alum mig guns? Pros/cons?

 

I. Freaking. LOVE IT!

 

Going to live vicariously through you guys for a little while.. Almost finished with the first trip - at least the weather turned around up here; fishing is food also.. Trip # 1 will pay for a hydro bender..

 

Going aluminum?
I've used them on a 350P before doing aluminum. Works awesome if you have the machine dialed and dont stick the tip.... if you stick the tip it nests the wire all the way back at the machine and you have to fish 25ft of wire through the gun and then re-feed after cleaning up the bird nest. Kind of a pain if you do that too much, but otherwise they're awesome.

 

Good to know on the birds nests, thanks.
We have some pretty big structural jobs that I could use a bit faster method and also working on a lightweight line of off road products. We do a lot of aluminum now with the aerospace stuff. We tig everything on dynasty's and synchrowave 351's but that's just too slow for the big stuff and too slow to fit into the narrow profit margin of off road fab.

 

Does anybody have a form they use for bidding jobs saved on their computer that they could upload?

 

So are you one of those crab fishermen?

The next question you know I'm gonna ask is...you know the guys on the tv show

I'm sure you get that a lot

 

What you think it will cost times 5

 

I bid materials and labor it takes time to know how fast you can do something. I have an excel spreadsheet for the quote or invoice.
I tend to stay away from custom truck jobs most truck guys never get the job done after the first email. They seem to want a product cheaper then someone else sells it for and it don't work that way. Custom work always cost more and i turn down jobs left and right. I don't work for nothing and your going to pay if you want custom work. One thing to remember when your bidding a job it always takes longer then you think. 90% of my custom work is non truck related and honestly those jobs pay way more then truck stuff. I prefer working with engineers and architects that have plans drawn up and ready to go. The guys that come to you with an idea and no plans is normally the jobs you won't make much on after all the time you spend designing and building.

 

Yeah I was referring to a spead sheet or some kind of template you fill out when ever you are bidding jobs. I'm bidding a job right now for the company I work for repairing a hangar door and they want a written quoteand I'm trying to find the best way to start writing these up

 

There are spreadsheet templates on the MS Office Website. Although they do not include hourly rates or cost of consumables/rent/equipment and so on.

 

Haha not quite; I work on a Pollock Catcher Boat.. Guess I screwed myself when I said the weather was good. It's blowing about 35 Easterly right now, watching the ice build up since I got up to the wheelhouse 20 mins ago..

Been a horrible winter up here. A big boat blew out all of their wheelhouse windows last month, and blew apart a 1/4" watertight door. Not fun.

The money's great, and it pays the bills.. Just a lot of time away.

 

well put, I love drawings but the engineer's OCD drives me nuts sometimes...its ok since over engineering cost more...

 

I have a standard spreadsheet I had to save it as a 97-2003 work book to attach it so things might of changed.

 

This sums up the reality of bids to the T, well put. Just had that issue happen with all pro sliders I just installed. Ended up taking twice as long as the forward mounts had to be removed and re-installed. Looks like All Pro might reimburse me for the extra work. We shall see.

That is what I used, quite a few in Excel and word format. I never include the consumables as a separate line item though. They are calculated into the hourly rate.

Pm me your email and I can send the template I sent out or you can just google proposal template/ BID template.

 

I use E2 Shop System for just about everything. I don't use it for quotes as much anymore because it is very detailed and time consuming. If you are new to quoting and estimating it is very helpful. I use it for all my routing/planning, purchasing, shop loading, certifications, pack lists, ar/ap and it syncs with quickbooks.
I pretty much just quote on the fly on most jobs. I see between 25-100 jobs a day that I have to quote. Mostly machined components and a small amount of weld/fab type.
I am responsible for keeping 70 people busy all the time so I have to bust out quotes and get jobs on the floor fast, they can eat through work in a hurry.
For material get yourself a base line for the ones you see most. For tubing, bar, flat stock make a cheat sheet for linear feet pricing.
For billets/plate get a "per pound" baseline and do the quick math when needed.
Ex: height x width x length. Multiply that by .101 for alum, .2836 for steel/stainless, .163 for titanium and so on.
Speeds things up rather than calling around getting material pricing, you don't get paid to quote, you get paid when you win the job!

 

Sorry. I meant to imply that the template you download from MS doesn't take any of that into consideration.

The hard part about estimating is establishing what the shop rate should be. It includes the costs for keeping the doors open and the lights on, consumables (gas, wire, cutting, grinding, ...), capital equipment (welders, plasma, cnc, bender, ...)--you might feel like there's no need for that because you already own the tools but if you don't, it's to pay for them or to cover the cost of upgrading in a few years. Plus whatever it costs to pay someone (salary + benefits), and some profit.