Anything welding

The shop is in Mexico, they can get the tube but its more expensive because they have to pay shipping and export fee's. I can easily go pic it up and pass it through the border with out exporting it.

 

I live in Mexico right across the border and in Calexico.

 

Probably because mexico can make it for pennies on the dollar.

 

Wish he charged pennies lol, he's one of the best in baja.

 

A few pics of my welds.
100% self taught, not bragging- after looking at some of the posts on here I realize I still need some practice.

 

Not bad! It takes a lot of time to get real good, but you are off to a good start.

 

Some of the shops on the in Mexicali, TJ, Otay and Tecate border area do some amazing work. These guys live and breathe Baja

 

Shouldn't they be able to get the proper tube then? Lol

 

Quick question for you guys, I'm going to be building some armor for my truck and was wondering what a good brand for a tube bender would be. I'm not good with the fabrication lingo, so by "tube" I mean like the metal tubes they make sliders out of and what not. Sorry if I sound like a dumbass..... lol

 

For sure we live in baja!

Yeah they can, but I can too My uncle has a stainless steel shop in riverside so he can get me the tube for a better price.

 

Important lesson learned:

Cash is king. Don't barter for jobs.

 

I recently got shafted on a job where I let the guy do payments. He paid half when I gave him the goods and was supposed to bring the other $750 after thanksgiving. Now I have bills to pay and haven't heard anything and I can't get ahold of him. Another good lesson to learn...

 

never loan out anything you cant afford to loose. Once something leave my hands i never expect it back. but that being said, go take it off his truck, or wait till after the holidays for payment maybe hes stretched thin

 

It was actually a CAD project for a guy in Nevada. I did 50 hours of solidworks stuff for the guy since he was incapable. We agreed he would pay half and I would send him the files, then he would pay up two weeks later (last week). The bad part is it was a verbal agreement so I don't really have anything that says he owes me more money. I put his project in front of other paying projects thinking he would pay up and I would have some extra money coming in so I already spent $1000 on new equipment. I have no choice but to wait and pray I guess.

 

I've had good luck (knock on wood) with slow, or no pays. If I figure I'm already upside down on a project, i just write it off. With that said I have had a few wonderful suprises a full year later. customers have called me up and said they felt bad letting them go with little or no pay. They come back and usually give me double what I was asking to begin with.

I do have to wait, but it is usually worth it and it is like found money when you get that very nice suprise.

 

I got lucky, sort of.. I took the job with good intentions, but as the demands got more and more extravagant, and I realized that I really didn't need what was being offered in trade - I turned the job down.

It really tore me up, didn't want to be a dick.. But quite frankly my time isn't free, and I'm not going to drive an hour away to do test fit ups.

 

Just about done with a park bench.. Holy crap! 260 feet of 1/2" round stock!

Pretty sweet, I used weld 90's for the base/support structure (schedule 40, 2.5"), my finished/welded dimension is a 16th shy of my planned dimension. And I did all of my fit-up individually with a torpedo level and a framing square..

Taking 20 minutes to true up the blade on my band saw helped immensely!

I'll post some pictures once I finish my beer. I'm beat!

 

Man!, does that ring true. I got wild customer recently that just kept adding and adding to the job. Plus the cat was a talker and wanted to be in my shop. I told him he had to leave and I wasn't taking the job.

Sometimes you have to "fire" the customer.

Listen to your sixth sense. If you get a "vibe" about a customer, cut him loose. The things we do, there will always be work. Move on.

 

Barter only works when both parties are satisfied. Doesn't seem dickish at all.

 

The good thing is I don't have any tangibles from it that I need to pay for. Lost time is pretty much all I got. I get to write off the new equipment so that helps a little later on. I guess I need to be a little more cautious in the future when doing things like this.