# Fabrication and welding shops



## mainewoodsman (Apr 7, 2013)

I am looking to do open a part time business here soon, hopefully it will take off and it can full time but who knows. I just wanted to know if anyone owns a welding shop on here and if they do just what the majority of there work is. Is it fixing cracks and broken parts or fabricating thing? If you get a lot of work for metals other then steel like aluminum, stainless etc.? I guess i am just trying to get an idea before i start anything. I also thought doing some mobile work if you have any advice on that, thank you


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## ChristieAcres (Apr 11, 2009)

DH and I own Christie IronWorks. He is an Industrial Mechanic/WABO Welder/Machinist, so offers services relating to his skillsets, including mobile welding. He recently finished fabricating a steel gate (see pic below). To see other examples of his work, check out our website:

http://www.christieironworks.com/


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## Patches (Aug 9, 2006)

We have owned our custom metal fabrication business for 30 years now and i have been a stay at home mom/wife. It has done wonderful where we are. We get our best work by doing custom jobs. We also work for industry building and repairing machines or metal 'stuff' in a few plants around. It takes a while to get your name out there, but if you do good work in a timely manner, your business will grow. We do portable, all types, and any challenge we think we can do. I run the office from our house, but we have a large shop on our property that the work is done in. My husband would never dream of doing anything else.


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

I'm going to bet it'll depend on your area more than anything. 

My area is ag-based and economically depressed. Consequently, welding shops primarily repair equipment and fabricate pieces that can't be found anymore. 
Decorative work would never keep a guy in business...


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## ChristieAcres (Apr 11, 2009)

You are right, Erin! It does depend on the area.

DH started his business in 1999. He does all sorts of work relating to heavy equipment repair (machining/welding/automotive) in addition to machining, fabricating, and welding. His certification allows him to work on commercial buildings/jobs, too. There is a market here for all of DH's services, but there is also competition. He also works out of a shop on our property. There aren't many, but there are some successful small businesses doing just decorative work (especially custom blacksmithing).


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## joebill (Mar 2, 2013)

I have a machine shop, wood shop and welding and fabrication, the point being, the more you can do, the busier you will be in the beginning. Soon, one part of your business will apeal to both you and your customers more than the other parts and will soon crowd out the lesser things. That's only one route, though.

The other is to gear up for what you like, promote it and stick with it. You may do better with a specialty. One of the local guys does flatbeds and guards for pickups, and rebuilds stock trailers. Stays as busy as he wants to be, builds the same things over and over with slight variations, does not have to deal with emergencies or work odd hours.

In the beginning, he was not getting enough business, so he threw in tire repair, which took over his life in short order. Some years later, he found himself owning the biggest tire repair and sales outfit around and doing welding when he had time, so he sold out the tire store and is now doing the welding and repair at home.

Having been in similar businesses all my working life, I have always found it better for me to make a product and sell it than to await somebody's needing something fixed.

All of those things are personal observations and prefferances, and need not apply to anybody but me........just throwing them out for consideration.....Joe


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

ErinP said:


> I'm going to bet it'll depend on your area more than anything.
> 
> My area is ag-based and economically depressed. Consequently, welding shops primarily repair equipment and fabricate pieces that can't be found anymore.
> Decorative work would never keep a guy in business...


Agreed, In WV where we're moving, most of the welding is to support the oil fields or farmers... 

When I was in Texas, I worked for a guy that all he did was build drill pipe racks and made fair money at it.. 

In Illinois, I bought from a place that mostly did ornamental and industrial building work... They were in a pretty heavily populated big urban area..


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## joebill (Mar 2, 2013)

By the way, if you want to build a product for sale, it looks to me like the manual rammed earth block machine will get you a pretty good price per pound of hot rolled steel, and there only seems to be one manufacturer of it in the US, unless I missed somebody.

Kind of a persnikety design, but you could build fixtures for it once and use them for the rest of your life.

Check them out on youtube if you are interested.....Joe


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## PNP Katahdins (Oct 28, 2008)

There is a custom welding shop about five miles from us that does quite a wide variety of jobs but specializes in designing, making and installing goat dairy milking parlors from steel. They do excellent work and are always busy. Just depends on your local area and the competition.

Peg


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## wes917 (Sep 26, 2011)

Been wondering about this topic as well, especially since I just ordered a new welder today


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## sandc (Apr 26, 2010)

I know the topic is a bit old, but I thought I would throw my thoughts in there. I have worked in smaller shops for years (2-4 guys) and we have done everything from product development to huge structural jobs. It all comes down to what your skillset is, what you have around you in your area and how well you sell yourself and how well you deliver on what you sell. 

For myself, I have done quite a bit of side work and have really started moving into the custom blacksmith area over the last few years. There is money to be had in a lot of different areas of the trade if you are willing to chase it. A field rig will need to have a $1 million insurance policy on it to roll onto most job sites and $5 to roll onto a mine site. Not as daunting as it sounds, but the ability to repair on site is where a lot of the good money is at for a smaller shop. If you have the ability and the area would support it, building a few cattle gates and having them on hand to sell can lead to more work as well as decent profits. Coming up with some things that you can produce on the cheap during slow times to sell in the future can help a lot as well. During any down time I have this year, my forge will be producing Christmas ornaments as well as other things that sell during that season.


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## sandc (Apr 26, 2010)

Also if you haven't already bought a good mig, then buy one you can buy a spool gun for so that you can weld aluminum without having to invest money into an AC/DC tig that will sit for 98% of the time. If you think that the majority of your work will be repairs to major equipment then look into getting an engine driven welder that can do air arcing without killing it. My personal preference has always been Miller in the shop and Lincoln in the field


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## Maxiem 1530 (Sep 11, 2013)

We bought 5 acres 6 years ago on Vancouver Island. Was vacant land partially cleared. I installed water, septic, power all by myself as no cash to hire contractors. Lived in the RV as we were broke and no cash left to build a house. 

Over 4 years saved up a good whack of cash, then used our house money to start the business.

www.islandwaterjet.com

Wife was enthusiastic about it. 
Hint: A wife that believes in one and always will be at ones side regardless of all the stupid things one does is incredibly valuable and vitally important. 
Early on in our marriage we actually had to live in our car due we had no cash.
I have put my wife through a lot and every single morning without fail she wakes up with her big beautiful smile for me. 

Yep, still living in the RV...

Starting the business cost us $240K to buy all the equipment and set up including the cost of the first year of lease at the rented shop.

Have over the last year built our own 32x42ft shop. Again did all the work myself, no contractors. Moved the business into our own shop on the property just last month. So no longer paying rent saving us over $3000 per month in overhead, extra insurance, gas for the vehicle for the commute to work, etc. 


We were profitable right from the first month, always able to make the payments and pay the bills but little left over to pay ourselves. 
Business for 2013 was 90% greater than 2012, we almost doubled and for 2014 we expect to be over $100K gross. 

Right now I am at approx 30% of capacity. I expect to be at 50% capacity by end of this year. We have no aspirations to get larger than 50% of capacity as we want to have a life and a business where the customer truly does come first - If the product is not perfect then it does not go out the door. 

With our own shop, overhead is now greatly reduced and now that the shop is built we no longer have the huge cost of construction materials we had last year. And it was very aggravating to be simutaneously trying to keep a business going, constructing a new building and all the other things that one has to deal with. 

Have been in business for 2 years now. Debt today is almost exactly the same as it was 2 years ago when we started. But the difference is we now have a shop built and a business rapidly expanding. It will be 2 or 3 more years to get out of debt and be back at zero again. :bowtie:

I would suggest not trying to be all things to all customers. One can be good at only one thing. For us we chose to be the experts at Waterjet Cutting and leave the fabricating and welding for all the other shops to fight over. And quite frankly the fabricators and welders around here are very good at what they do. It would take me many years of learning to match their skills.

There are other waterjets around, but the fabricating and welding shops all come to me because I am not trying to compete with them, I offer 24hr turnaround time and will deliver to their door, work all weekend if required at no extra charge, etc.

Finding that niche was very difficult, and we had to go into huge debt to pay for the machine. But long term it is looking like the right move.

Find your own niche and let us know your success story.


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## TheMartianChick (May 26, 2009)

My husband is a welder for a large company and over the years, I have met a lot of people who have been able to make a go of it as a  side business.

Many of the auto repair shops need work done to repair cars. If you network with them, they may send some work your way.

I also met a family that coupled welding, woodworking and wrought iron to make all sorts of country crafted items. Their woodworking skills weren't all that great, but when you add wrought iron to a simply made wooden piece, it suddenly becomes something spectacular! I still have a couple of their wrought iron quilt racks in my house and they once borrowed a cheap wooden ladder (designed for holding knick-knacks) from me in order to replicate it for customers. It was a very popular item for them. They also made headboards, bookshelves, paper towel holders and anything else that they could think of. Instead of looking for customers, they sold items on consignment in country craft stores.

As I mentioned, my husband also welds, but he doesn't consider himself to be particularly creative. If he were to decide to weld in retirement, he'd rely on me to create the designs.

Edited to add: There are so many other things that can be made if you can weld other types of metal.


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