Farm repair work

J

jonathan01

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I am going to just get into the hobby and take in a few jobs just to gain some experience and a little money to put towards some more machines for now. I am going to hold off a year or two before trying to get a small machine shop started, but not going to turn down any jobs that I am able to do. I am going to start off with just the lathe as i had said a few times before. I am trying to see what kind work is farm repair work is there in the country. What size of lathe would be able to do most farm repair work. Is farm repair work like fixing shafts somehow, making new shafts, gears, or what? Because of money right now, I am looking at a 12x36, maybe a 14x40 chinese or maybe taiwan to start my hobby with. I know I most likely am going to new something like a 16"x80" to be able to do most of the bigger repair jobs. If I am able to come up with to by a bigger lathe first I will try to do that. I will probaly have to get a small lathe, than when I have more money, buy the bigger machine, and mill, etc. If I get some production jobs I will definitely look into CNC machines.

Thanks
 
i watched my uncle on the farm with his lathe and he did everything, disk axels the big nuts for them, roll pins, drop pins, shafts, pulleys,, you can always find stuff to do.:biggrin:mac
 
irishwoodsman said:
i watched my uncle on the farm with his lathe and he did everything, disk axels the big nuts for them, roll pins, drop pins, shafts, pulleys,, you can always find stuff to do.:biggrin:mac
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Thanks for giving me some hope. Is there alot of farmers that get stuff fixed or made, or do alot of them just go and buy it new from a tractor company or something. Or, are the things that farmers have machined, parts that they don't sell anymore? Also, I have no clue of what I could charge for any of these parts, I quess I will just figure it out as I go.

Thanks
 
Making a big nut would be neat. I was thinking about the shafts, if it is just a shaft with some straight splines on it, it would no problem for any lathe and a mill. Do most farmers buy new shafts from a tractor company or have a machine shop, like mine would be, make them. What about shafts with a spiral gear made into the end of the shaft. I would have to get some kind of attachment that rotates the shaft as the table is being moved, and it would have to be at the right ratio to cut the right spiral on the gear right? Also, would I have to buy or make a heat treatment oven for shafts or what. I plan to start building a small heat treatment oven for my hobby parts that I plant to make. But, this oven will only have inside dimenisons of about 4"x6"x 12"-16". Also, are there alot of parts that normally need heat treating after they are machined.
 
alot of the shafts i seen my uncle made was for disks cultipackers, the blades and gangs fit on these with a big nut at the end that threaded on, if a farmer can save a cple dollars here and there you bet they are going to use you, its funny i grew up on the farm joined the army took welding came back to the farm and bought me a trailored welder hobart, only welder within 100 miles did i get to farm with my dad [no] i spent my time in the shop welding other peoples broken machinery, my dad actually had to hire another guy to take my place lol, you can make roll pins for catapillar tracks, turn hubs on the grain trucks depending how big you get, if a farmer knows you have a lathe look out, just get the word out:biggrin:mac
 
irishwoodsman said:
alot of the shafts i seen my uncle made was for disks cultipackers, the blades and gangs fit on these with a big nut at the end that threaded on, if a farmer can save a cple dollars here and there you bet they are going to use you, its funny i grew up on the farm joined the army took welding came back to the farm and bought me a trailored welder hobart, only welder within 100 miles did i get to farm with my dad [no] i spent my time in the shop welding other peoples broken machinery, my dad actually had to hire another guy to take my place lol, you can make roll pins for catapillar tracks, turn hubs on the grain trucks depending how big you get, if a farmer knows you have a lathe look out, just get the word out:biggrin:mac
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Ok, I was thinking of drive shafts and such. We just bought property in the country in mississippi, with nothing but farm land, although a decent size town is only 20 miles away, the next big town is about 50 miles. We bought it a few years ago mostly for hurricane evacuation, deer hunting, and a place to get away on the weekends, but I am really thinking about living there most of the time, and starting a small machine shop, that might turn into a bigger machine shop:biggrin:, and grow hay and pine trees and such. I know the guy on the next highway over from me really good, and he knows everbody for miles and miles it seems like. Just about everone around their has their own busniess or farm their own land or both. I want a mill too, but can't afford it right now though. I know if I let that guy tell people that I have a lathe everyone will know. Which is not a bad thing, I just might have to buy more machines, yay. They do have two people that we know that do that dozer and other dirt work all the time that live within 3 miles of me. Also the guy that we know real good, he has spreader trucks that he hauls the chicken litter and spreads for fertilizer. I have not seen really any grain farmers around me, alot of cows and hay, but have not had the time to ride around and see whats out there. Been working on the land too much, but most of the work we needed to do is done now I hope. I know there is no end to work on a piece of land though:D, but have the major work done anyway.

Thanks
 
we used to live in mississippi in a small place called greenwood it was in the delta but about 30 miles untill you hit the hills, i remember a artisian well we had near by that spewed water 60ft in the air they never could cap it and we had a swamp near by called millstone byuou, boy did i get some big bullfrog legs from it lol:biggrin:mac alot of drive shafts to do on farm
 
1200rpm said:
i live in an area where there are quite a few "mini" farms, there used to be larger ones but no so much anymore.

i get lots of little oddball jobs from local guys, simple stuff like pins,shafts, bushings, usually just trading work for whatever- beans,corn,eggs....

i could get lots more but for a lot of farm machinery you will need some larger machines and i just have small ones.

if you are serious about it get some approprietly sized machines, from what i have seen at least a 16" lathe(bigger is better here), and a large horizontal mill because you`ll be doing a lot of keyways on large shafting.
i`m sure there are some guys here that do this kind of work that could advise you much better than i can.
it`s a good idea you have if the farms are around you. you`ll make lots of good friends too.

1200
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Thanks, most of the land around is all family owned. Some of the families have 400-500 acres, and some have 1000-1500 acres, and than they have all the people that have their hunting camps there. I think the larger pieces are mostly just pine trees though. I have seen lathes like this on the internet for a decent price, at least i think so, http://www.machinesales.com/machinery/Engine-Lathes/0000000722 http://www.machinesales.com/machinery/Engine-Lathes/0000000723 . What kind of shape are these bigger used lathe in, do they normally get used alot have alot of wear on them or what. I will probably get started with the 12x36 or 13x40, if I get the work, I will go and buy a big lathe. Unless I find a good deal a big one first, but I will probably get the 12x36 anyway to do the small parts on.


Thanks
 
After looking and thinking more about it, I think I will get the PM1236 with the perferred package, but not a DRO, right now. I will do what I can with it and see how much work is in my area. What are some rough prices that can be charged for farm repair work? The PM with costs me about $4,000. I already have a 6" dail caliper, 0-1, 1-2, 2-3, and 3-4" outside micrometers, 76 pc. tap and die set, rethreading set, #1-60 drill bit set, and dail indicator, and of course wrenches and sockets, normal shop tools. I am thinking save some money now by getting the chinese lathe, and get started doing what I can. Then, save up some money over the next year, and get a ACER 17"x60" or 17"X80" E-series lathe with DRO and constant surface speed http://www.usedequip.com/q/nlist/=,000502,20202509 , when I have more money. The acer has a 2.25" bore, and variable speed with the three speed ranges.

Some other reasons I thinking about getting the small lathe now and the big one later are: 1. I don't have the building in Mississippi built yet, so I have to put it in my garage at my house in Louisiana, which could the 17"x80" could fit, but it is a shared garage. 2. I may want to get a mill before I get the big lathe. 3. I could use the 12"x36" to do my small parts (less than 1' dia.)

This is somwhat a different issue, but from what I am understanding, for repair work a manual lathe is good. Also, from what I am seeing, it would be best to get a CNC mill if I only had the money for one CNC machine. Although I really only have to money for a chinese lathe right now, but am hoping that I have some extra cash within a year. If I am able to get a good amount of 100 or more parts producton runs I would get a CNC lathe for sure, but right now I don't see me getting too many production jobs.
 
labor cost is hard to say, if your quick at what you do i'd say about 42.00 a hr not to exceed a certain limit if you slow then quote per job, cut retube and weld drive shaft 190.00, always dble what you have to buy parts for, if a part costs you 20.00 charge customer 40, this is called mark up everyone does it, determine what is your labor worth, sometimes its better to have repeating customers than try to make a full weeks check on 1 person:biggrin:mac
 
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