Anything welding

You have to take into account that different businesses require different things to turn a profit. An auto repair shop such as my own requires totally different things than a metal fabrication shop like BAMF for example. Drive through any town or city. Now count how many metal fabrication shops there are. Now count how many auto repair shops. There is a HUGE competition for auto repair because it has a higher demand (at least from my research) than metal fabrication such as BAMF. (Hope you don't mind that I am using you as comparison) A lot also depends on what you have to bring to the table. I have 20+ years of tools and specialty equipment that I already had. If I was opening a shop from scratch I would need a MINIMUM of $50k just to open the doors. As things expand, you have to spend more money. I spent nothing on my first small, one-car shop. But when I relocated I had a LOT of things to change. I had to let all my customers know of the new location, I had to worry about relocating internet, phone, etc., and I had to look at paying rent. All of that sucks into your profit. I outgrew my first shop in 4 months. That is a GOOD thing to see.

What is different from my situation, and others, is that I live in a small town. Here the median income is WELL below the poverty level. We do have affluent people here, yes, but they are not the majority. So I opened my shop in an area that is not "consumer friendly" in a manner of speaking. I moved here for family reasons, so no, I have no plans to move. I did not open my shop in another town for 2 reasons: 1, I didn't want to have to drive 45 minutes to my shop every day and 2, I like the small town atmosphere. People in this town still wave and say hi to people they don't know. See below for more details.

This is where I differ in many aspects, and why I am in year 3 before I can see a profit. I have also dumped money into tools and equipment for some expansion. However here I will never see gross sales in the $200k year range. This town is just not capable of that kind of sales. First year gross sales was $46k. Second year was $54k. I expect to see 3rd year sales reach $70k due to I have become an "established" business in town with a good reputation among the locals.

One thing that is needed in a new business in larger communities is exposure. People have to know that you are out there. In an average SMALL community you can expect to see 70% of your sales from repeat customers, 20% from advertizing, and 10% from "window shopping" (Meaning people who find you because they drove by your shop and had an existing concern that they figured they would take care of) I spent almost no money at all in advertizing. All of my advertizing was people talking to other people about me. Word of mouth is the BEST form. Develop a good reputation and your business will sell itself. For example, last year at this time I had around 4 or 5 cars in the shop at a time, and was getting most all repairs out the same day. THIS year, I am sitting with 18 cars in the shop, and an average of a 5 day backlog. But still, as money comes in, money has to go out. Equipment needs repairs and maintenance, tools need replacing or upgrading to better ones....All of this costs money. For example my air compressor went down the other month. I had to replace the pump. Not exactly cheap. Now of course I don't spend $20k on single items yet, but eventually I will have a few more larger investments to make. I will be taking about $15k of the income this year for example to install a couple more lifts, and get more equipment. Plus if business continues to climb, I will have to hire another employee. And THAT is something that some people don't see the cost of. Just to give you an idea, a single employee that you hire for say $15 per hour will actually cost you on average about $25 hour. Why? Because it is more than just paying a person their wage. you have unemployment compensation, workman's comp, employment tax, increase in shop insurance costs, training costs, uniforms, etc. It is NOT cheap to hire an employee. So if you figure in the cost of one tech at $25 per hour, I will have an estimated expense of $65k for that employee in a year. So I have to have enough backlog to GUARANTEE that He will make my shop MORE than $65k per year for my shop.

Plus, while I do not see huge profit number, if I were to close up shop today, and pay of ALL of my debt, I would have close to $50k in my hands. Not many new businesses can attest to that because of large loans.

 

Good story there, and glad to see you are going up and forward!

As for the part in bold, This may sound silly, but I would go legit NOW. Get your LLC because it is not expensive, and it protects you. ONE bad job or pissed off customer, and you can loose it ALL. Your tools, everything. ONE lawsuit. Going LLC can protect you and your personal tools. Example, the above railing you talk about. What if for SOME reason, next year someone leans against it and it breaks, or they cut themself, or...whatever. YOU could be on the tail end of a million dollar lawsuit. ANY time you start even a small business, you need to protect yourself.

 

It's not just the liability. You don't want to be on the wrong end of the tax man and other fees/licenses you may need either.

 

There isn't much profit as you all think in fabrication. And than the first time you dont get paid, you learn a huge lesson. I was stiffed on 20k in 2012, and there was absolutely nothing I could do. Than you take into consideration wholesale pricing. You have to make it profitable for other people to sell your product and be on par with the market. Making a couple hundred bucks making a set of sliders is cool in your spare time. But that all changes when you have overheard. 200$ won't really run my shop for one day

 

Yes if you want to make money in the fabrication industry off road is not where you want to set your goals. I'd say about 50% Maybe 60% of my annual revenue is off road parts. We do a lot of work for contractors in the area. I have metal work in about 15 restaurants in the greater bay area all Being 10k+ jobs. Don't get me wrong the off road stuff does pay but I'm sure not making at much as I do working on contract work.
I do a lot of plasma cutting for the oil contractors in the area we have a ton of refineries around here.

I have worked my but off to be where I am working a lot of long days to keep stuff rolling out the door. I've been lucky enough to not have to pull any loans for the business. We did just get a line of credit to build credit for the business. But I own all my equipment free and clear. That might change this year if I buy what I want to buy "4.5kw laser" that just depends on how the next 8 months go.

 

Alright guys im having some trouble tig welding with my new Ranger 250 gxt. It stick welds normally, great actually. But whenever I hook up the tig torch its a different story. Trying to weld on some mild steel. Machine set to DC-, anywhere from 15-30cfh of 100% argon, 2% thoriated tungsten sharpened to a point, running about 100 amps, metal is cleaned up with a flapper disk so its good clean metal. Also using a foot pedal. Also I know how to tig weld. Been doing it in welding school for a while now.

Now to the problem, the arc looks like a sparkler, not a focused arc, sparks flying, orange rust colored oxidation on one side of the weld. Welds get porosity in them etc etc. Something is not right. I checked for air leaks in the gas line and couldn't find any. I pressurized the line, turned the gas off, and it stayed at a constant unmoving pressure for 2 hours until I let the gas out. So the gas line is good and not pulling in air.

The only thing I can think of is that Airgas gave me the wrong shielding gas. Would that be causing this to happen? Any other ideas? Is their any way I can test what gas I have?

 

Looks like it's not argon. I've seen similar welds with 75/25.

 

Shielding gas.

 

Yes, but you do not need LLC protection for taxes and fees/licenses. If you pay your taxes/fees/licenses on time, then you are fine. The major safety bracket for LLC is lawsuits that may occur.

 

I have been having similar issues with my Lincoln 155 invertec. Cleaned the metal, sharpened to a point but it was struggling to focus the arc and it was burning the tungsten up as well. Straight into the cup. Sent it in for repairs and they said it worked fine. Did this on both the stick and tig setting.

 

The point I was trying to make is if you are going to operate a business, you need to make sure you take care of all that too. Your method of incorporation isn't going to matter much if the county, state or feds come knocking.

 

Is it set on DC+ or DC-?

 

It's an inverter, not selectable. Always DC neg if memory serves. I haven used it in over a year as it pissed me off too much.

 

While I am waiting for my MIG to show up, what shielding gas should I get for 3/16 steel plate? I will be using 70s-6 .030 diameter welding wire.

 

75/25.

 

What he said ^^^

 

ok. forgive my ignorance here, but what IS 75/25? Do I go to a local AirGas and ask for a bottle of 75/25? lmao

 

Pretty much haha that's all I tell them
75% argon / 25% CO2

 

ok, got ya! Thanks! I am guessing since I don't have an existing bottle, that I will be "leasing" one? or buying one for future tank-trades?

 

yeah they'll know exactly what you're talking about when you tell them 75 25.
I'd recommend a bottle size around 80-125cf for hobby uses to keep it from getting too awkward to move around and you should get plenty of trigger time on a tank that size. I typically buy all my tanks so I just have to worry about the refill costs and no lease fees.
It can go either way for leasing. I'd say if you dont intend to weld real regularly but want the ability at any time, buy a tank.