Hi everybody,
I think this is my first thread on this site, so we will see how this goes. My reason for posting is I am looking for advice, I have started my own machining business currently under the name Draco Machine. I have been playing with it for several years but have always worked other jobs. I have always been too busy on the other jobs to do much with the shop since I was not able to put the time in the shop never did well. This year I decided to focus on the shop and see what I could do with it if I put the time in. I have a good customer that is keeping me busy at the moment but I need to get bigger. I am working with old manual machines that have a ton of wear in them, I can do fair work with them but it takes longer than it should. I am also set up in a 24 by 24 garage so space and power are an issue. My problem is I need to get bigger and do more work to keep moving forward ( I have had to turn work down due to lack of time or too high of quantity). But I can't seem to make enough with my current setup to jump into renting a bigger space with better power and buying/ leasing better equipment. It seems to be a catch 22 I need to get bigger so I can handle more work, but I need to handle more work to get bigger. I don't want to go very far into debt so please don't bring up bank loans ( I'm 25 with no credit and everybody seems to think no credit is bad credit) pluse being deep in debt is a bad idea and not a place I want to be. I have been talking with Haas and they are willing to finance machines at rates that are doable for me, but I don't have ceiling height or power enough to set one up. What I am looking for was something small I can get set up that does not need a lot of attention but can generate some extra income to help me break out of this. I was thinking something like a small stamping press If I can find a customer that needs a lot of some small part I can get that setup to run while I am still on the manual tools. Any thoughts, advice, or ideas would be much appreciated.