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The company I work for is closing down.

GAJ said:
We were a BK franchisee for almost 30 years.

Sooooooooooooooo glad we closed the doors on our office in June 2008.

We likely would have gone bankrupt under the weight of mandated borrowing for unneeded new equipment and remodeling.

But that is derailing the thread a bit.

My apologies.
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Relevant narrative, for multiple reasons! Thanks for sharing.
 
GAJ said:
We were a BK franchisee for almost 30 years.

Sooooooooooooooo glad we closed the doors on our office in June 2008.

We likely would have gone bankrupt under the weight of mandated borrowing for unneeded new equipment and remodeling.

But that is derailing the thread a bit.

My apologies.
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No need to apologize Geoff, all my threads get derailed! I truly enjoy the tangential discussions within them. I haven't had a BK Whopper with cheese in decades; a friend in high school used to buy them for me when I was broke, which was always! Great stories, keep them coming.
 
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40 years is awesome. I hope that the new chapter of your life is just as amazing. I have been with my company for 37 years. I'm 62, and hope to retire in 3 years- so I will be in the 40 year club too.
 
900ss said:
No need to apologize Geoff, all my threads get derailed! I truly enjoy the tangential discussions within them. I haven't had a BK Whopper with cheese in decades; a friend in high school used to buy them for me when I was broke, which was always! Great stories, keep them coming.
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Anytime I hear folks wanting to get into the restaurant business in some way I kind of shudder.

The only thing I could see being a good move might be as a wait person at a high buck joint for a couple of years.

Other than that, stay away.

Being a customer is far more relaxing.

Retirement is not nearly as bad, not even close, as some people think.

I never thought I'd get a chance to enjoy the pleasure to be honest.

Good luck to you moving forward.
 
Ken please let me know when the auction is scheduled. I'm looking for a manual mill and lathe. Used market is clapped out and high priced these days
 
Of course I will; I will post here when I know the details. We have a few Hardinge tool room lathes as well as the lusted after Monarch EEs. We also have a Takisawa engine lathe that is in cherry shape. We have a Hardinge chucker as well. Bridgeports with various CNC controls; various Prototraks, one Hardinge (I think; I will check this tomorrow), and a few EZ-Traks. One of the EZ_Trak controls went tits-up a while back and we didn't fix it. We have a few surface grinders. Many pedestal grinders with various types of wheels. We have a crap-load of round bar stock, some with certs, a lot without. The ones without certs will be fine for hobbyists.

I fucking hate auctions in machine shops. It's definitely a death-knell that few want to see. Auctioneers are like The Grim Reaper to us.

On a side note, I was contacted by a fellow who has bought 14 machine shops over 20 years, always trying to keep the businesses whole and retain the employees. I won't go into details at this time, but SWMBO (the owner) went from "I'll think about it", to "absolutely not" in the space of less than 5 minutes. Emotion, ego, arrogance and pride have always clouded her judgement (English spelling, Grammar Nazis get over it) :nchantr. Man, I would go this route in a heartbeat; at least enter into negotiations with the fellow. In hindsight, I made one critical error by revealing the fact that he sounds like he was not born in this country. I despise bigots. Because of that outburst, my level of commitment to her in these closing days has been diminished.

She and her daughter (the company "President") will be on a conference call tomorrow with one of our Federal government contractor customers, with whom we have some long-term contracts. I may get to be the proverbial "fly on the wall" during this call. I sure hope so.

Breaking down and closing out a machine shop our size is a massive untertaking. If she does go the auction route, many machines will not sell and will be sold at scrap metal value, literally for very few dollars per ton. All machines run, except one Haas VF-1, but many of our machines are old.

I once saved a Deckel Maho Gildemeister (DMG) 5-axis mill from this fate (the scrap heap); it would have sold for a (very) few hundred dollars to the scrap metal dealer. I spent many hours of my own time resurrecting it, and finally it was sold in working condition to a mid-west DMG reseller for $17,000.00. I do enjoy a challenge. All the time that I was working on it I was given a bunch of crap by her, her daughter and her son-in-law (all officers of the company at the time). Did a get a thank you? Of course not! My satisfaction was in the fact that I saved a cool 5-axis mill from the scrapper's blowtorch.

I believe I have stated that sometimes I am a glutton for punishment? Have you heard of the error code I D 1 0 T? That sometimes pops up in my cranium. Or as Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes was fond of writing; Feckin' Eejit!

Fun times indeed.
 
900ss said:
No.
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You had me scared for a while there thought I'd hit a nerve
900ss said:
I fucking hate auctions in machine shops. It's definitely a death-knell that few want to see. Auctioneers are like The Grim Reaper to us.
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I certainly don't like seeing the auctioneers postings. Knowing that scope of the jobs y'all handle there will definitely be some loss felt by customers large and small. Everything I got to send your way came back beautiful I am sad to lose the resource
 
auntiebling said:
You had me scared for a while there thought I'd hit a nerve

I certainly don't like seeing the auctioneers postings. Knowing that scope of the jobs y'all handle there will definitely be some loss felt by customers large and small. Everything I got to send your way came back beautiful I am sad to lose the resource
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Sorry for the scare.... I'm not going to lose my sarcastic streak! We have a couple of customers who are flipping out. We make two very similar products for one company that go into a sensor aboard Arleigh Burke Class destroyers. I guess we have been the sole source for them; dumb on the customer's part.
 
They're cranking out their blanks that we sinker EDM the features in to make the finished product.
 
What happens to the customer base, Ken?
 
900ss said:
The company where I have worked for 40 years is closing down. Some of you know of it. We are staying open long enough to complete machining all the orders that we have. I will post details of the auction that we will hold in the 2nd half of the year. The 2 Monarch EE lathes that some have lusted after will be included in said auction.... :cool:

I received a call today from a buyer at one of the companies we do business with, regarding the possibility of and investor buying it. Apparently this investor has purchased two machine shops that make parts for them, and may be interested in ours as well. He / she / they would buy the whole enchilada and carry on, possibly with some of the existing customer base after dealing with the requisite legalities.

I had asked recently about what the first Monday of retirement will feel like; maybe I will find out later this year. :dunnoI'm not there yet mentally.
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Ken, I'm so sorry. You did mention that the business was struggling when you took me around through your shop.


Guys, Ken's shop is the most amazing machine shop that I have ever seen and I have seen a few in my mechanical engineering days in 5 different industries.

Ken's shop would make SSL satellite parts for projects I worked on back in the day.
 
To be perfectly clear, it is not my shop. If it was, the outcome would be rather different. Incorporated in 1981, I was employed in 1985 as near as I can tell. Regarding the customer base, I have reached out to the buyers I am comfortable with to offer shops and resources to help ease the transition due to our closing. Some of the buyers are wigging out due to RWI being the at present (for many years actually), SOLE provider for some products, as mentioned. Sheesh,,,,,,, WAKE UP PEOPLE, THIS HAS NOT BEEN GOOD BUSINESS!! Meh, I'll set them up as best I can. They won't be left in the lurch if I can help it. I am currently offering up our old stock inventory for them to purchase.

You machinist types or hobbyists, I have some catalogs that contain a wealth of information, even in this internet age. Earle M. Jorgensen, for example. It is an encyclopedia of metalworking knowledge. Turn a page and you have a wealth of knowledge at your fingertips that you don't need to Google, and it is on paper! https://www.ebay.com/itm/115055722832. Some fucker wandered off with mine years ago and I bought a copy off Ebay. I still have a bunch of GD&T reference material left.

Power does go out, you know, leaving you with the internet... Maybe they are of little use, but if anyone wants to check them out please let me know. I already ditched a bunch of catalogs and company specifications (the ones from IBM and Rockwell really hurt), but thought I would offer up what is left before consigning them to the Captain Crunch dumpster.
 
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Ken, do your customer require assembly of machines parts (full assemblies); or simple part runs? I have a good friend with several Mori lathes and mills in Livermore who is a perfectionist and has available capacity.
 
Holeshot said:
What happens to the customer base, Ken?
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It will be up for grabs. I was able to convince the owner to at least listen to the interested party's proposal. I'm sure it will all be for nought, but at least may be heard. If he does end up buying the business, I am sure he will reach out to our customers (or have me do so if I stay, if he would even want me to). As I stated earlier, I will help any of our customers find new vendors.

We used to manufacture parts and / or fixtures and assemble them, but not for many years. I would be happy to make an introduction for your friend to some buyers at different companies. If you want to share his company name in a PM, I could look up his capabilities. I will not contact him without your consent. Do you know if he does any work for Maxxar by chance, and does he have any EDM's?

One of our Federal Government contractors has us manufacturing and building a few very cool, specific-use assemblies. Mostly aluminum, mostly milled parts, but some turning. He would need to go through a very thorough vetting process with them of course.
 
I have worked since I was 15 or 16, with only one brief period of unemployment at 16 years of age (fired, and boy did I deserve it), during which time I did not file for unemployment pay. I'm going to pose a question somewhere in this post, which is not asking for advice, but I am curious to hear opinions. Once RWI is shuttered, I am considering filing.
My FRA for SS is in December at 66yrs 10 mo. Fuck me, I was 16 a couple of years ago, what happened to those 50 years? Are we in a time warp? :afm199

I feel that I should feel no guilt if I do collect for a while, but I am wrestling with it. To be clear, I do not need the income, but due to the fact that so many low lifers routinely live off the dole, I think why not? I have not take one cent of California's unemployment money in half a century :afm199:afm199:afm199:afm199:twofinger), and have certainly always paid my taxes. I don't like to be a cynic, but hey, I'm English.....

The floor is open. I have a fire extinguisher ready for youse flamers :staRang
 
The aerospace company I worked for decided it would be much cheaper to move my department to Alabama and employ younger and less expensive rednecks. They made the announcement 2 weeks before x-mas.
I chose to nope out and not apply for my job down there with the ticks and snakes.
I've been slipping by on my retirement package, but that seems to be conventionally sub-par.
This gave me the opportunity to apply for county property tax relief and a lower yearly tax payment.
At the end of this year though I'll be hitting 70 and really should apply for SS if there are enough people in the office left to process it.
That will likely double my income and squirt me out of the prop-tax bracket I've been in.
Oh well. It's worked ok for the last decade.
 
You paid into the system. Why not get some of it back.

I worked all my life and waited until I turned 70 to take my SS. Now I’ve been retired for approximately 3+ years and I can live entirely on my SS.

Take all of what you earned.
 
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