Thread: Hidden Costs

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Originally Posted by pro70z28

Roger you may want to cross the photography off your budget hobby list too. I can attest to the fact, that can get pretty spendy too.

Yeah, you're preaching to the choir! I'm waiting for the UPS guy now to bring my Canon E60D 18-200mm unit Boys & their toys!! But at least with digital a guy can take a ton of pictures, select the "good" ones on the screen, and then only deal with how he wants to utilize those "treasures". A far sight from the old days of film and developing, plus then enlargement, mounting, etc, etc....

The camera I use now is a Canon EOS 50D with a 28-135 lens

Parked are 4 or 5 Minoltas and a Haselblad----

I used to have a Pentax, great camera, I spent way too much on it. but it gave up after about fifteen years.

Anyway, I want some of the cool tools too. Mostly because my time seems more valuable then it used to be. I tore my back up in this last stint in the infantry, so marathon efforts in the shop are less appealing too. I used to think nothing of four hours of turning wrenches after a ten hour work day. Now, not so much. My little Campfield Housend flux core mig does the job, but I'm definitely going to spring on a decent gas mig, if for no reason than to speed up the job and save my back.

Yea', I've been infected too. It's sad really........

As I was working on the patch for the wheel well I found I didn't have a single pc of round stock in the whole shop.The only thing was a semi flat tire which of course bonce on every hit.I'm close to the final cut size of the floor board it's self.That isn't a problem with only one brake bend in it.




The issue is the wheel well patch that has multi angles in the bent.I has to end up beening a invisible repair.



I do have other medal working projects in the van in other areas,the trailers,and the RV.So I have been working on the van.I just reached apart of it that made me realize what I don't have to work with.That is after I went through a period of buying used a horizontal band saw,Dewalt metal chop saw,B & D jig saw,some minor body hammers.

That is the third construction paper template which is getting closer to the size and shape I want for the wheel well patch.

bent alot of stuff over my knee alot of time on floors i would get it to a close shape tack weld it in the corner of old floor then work it tack weld .work it more with a hammer weld up .

I have some cut off panels that I am not planning to use on this van.So I did cut out one test pc to see what I could do with it.I think I found out it is 19 gauge.It does bent,but not that easy.The floor is I think 19 gauge.I have in stock a 4' x 4' sheet of new 18 gauge.

Well the "test pc" didn't come anywhere near what I wanted.I mean I made me realize I didn't have even the basics to work with. So it made me think of only $299 cost of a HF E-Wheel and I started to investigate what it would take to make one of those useable.Super smooth curves.And yes,I obsess over perfection.

To answer the question about me wine'ing.I look at body/medal working like this.If a manufacture can build it,I can too.

I want to thank everyone who has posted to this thread.Please keep it coming.

Just remembered some of my earliest auto body work. Nothin more than a 4" angle grinder, acetylene torch, and hammer. Beat it close, tack it, heat it cherry red, massage it to shape. I once cut the corner out of a valve cover to patch a running board. Wish I had that energy still.

Ok, my edition to the hidden costs thread:

Just what does it take to build a box out of 3/4" ply?
Actually, it's a kitchen cabinet, so I'm trying to keep dimensions +/- 1/64".

My efforts produced a parallelogram. It's out of square 1/8". Oh well. On to the hidden cost!
3/4 horse skillsaw $75
Cheap tablesaw $150
Two carbide blades $50
Router, $75 (used)
Small carbide bit set $30
DeWalt 18V drill $250
Tri square $12
Carpenter square $15
Lots more odds and ends which easily add up to another hundred.

Over $700 to build a bloody box.

Originally Posted by firebird77clone

Just remembered some of my earliest auto body work. Nothin more than a 4" angle grinder, acetylene torch, and hammer. Beat it close, tack it, heat it cherry red, massage it to shape. I once cut the corner out of a valve cover to patch a running board. Wish I had that energy still.

Ok, my edition to the hidden costs thread:

Just what does it take to build a box out of 3/4" ply?
Actually, it's a kitchen cabinet, so I'm trying to keep dimensions +/- 1/64".

My efforts produced a parallelogram. It's out of square 1/8". Oh well. On to the hidden cost!
3/4 horse skillsaw $75
Cheap tablesaw $150
Two carbide blades $50
Router, $75 (used)
Small carbide bit set $30
DeWalt 18V drill $250
Tri square $12
Carpenter square $15
Lots more odds and ends which easily add up to another hundred.

Over $700 to build a bloody box.

You missed the cost of building the trailer to go fetch that sheet of ply...and the running expenses of car and trailer...and the cost of power to run the router/drill/skilsaw...

It's a hopeless task trying to quantify the cost of the equipment in a workshop...for insurance purposes the contents of my shed is in the vicinity of NZ $100,000...that's about what it would cost me to replace it all.

But I'd be 'out-of-pocket' by about the sum of NZ $10,000...if that.
All my tools and equipment have been acquired over the last fifty years at bargain prices, some of it even pulled out of the local dump and rebuilt when spoon-fed and a##e-wiped locals threw it away.

Some of my wood-working hand-tools were my Grand-dad's, handed on to me: no charge; but totally irreplacable.
You just can't buy that quality any more.
I've even got a drop-leaf work-table built by my Great-uncle Johnnie when he was an apprentice...and he was in his seventies when I knew him when I was a teenager.

Gary...if you need an English wheel badly enough you'll justify it.
You can't take your money with you; there's no pockets in a shroud!
Just do it.

.

Yeah,I do think it would be a good addition to my shop having a E-Wheel.I'm thinking after the first of the yr,I'm going to visit Dutch Comstock a master medal worker to try out his E-Wheel and get some tips from him.He is about 2 1/2 hrs away,but he has extended a open invite.One of the corner stone members of Allmetalshaping web site.

Hidden costs???? well, over the years I got lots of stuff to do engine work because couldn't get it done right, on time------

But, one of the biggest tools I got, was a Hunter Aliignment rack set up which I used form frame fab work where I could check out all the suspension travel and specs as I built things------------

Posted this once before.Been tire kicking on a used two poster lift shopping on Craigslist.Pricing ranging from $500 to $2500.Got the landlord to agree to allow me to install it.Well really I would get a company that does installs to put it in.No way I would do that.I want to be sure it has the proper base for safety reasons.Been told it has to have a minimum of a 6" concrete base and I'm not sure how thick the floor is in the shop.They might have to cut the floor,jack hammer it out and pour a re-bar'ed(sp?) base by where the base of the two posts would be.

I think with a lift,it would be a positive game changer in that shop of the kind of jobs I would be willing to take on.

''cut the floor,jack hammer it out and pour a re-bar'ed'' ............. count on it.

4 post lift dosen't require all that expence and is just as versital as a 2 post...I have owned and used both. It realy depends on how you work.