Advice/Direction

[Kaymen]

I have been in the machining business for 12 years as a machinist/supervisor and have had the opportunity to see and do many things out of the ordinary. My next step in my career would be to open up my own shop, re-entering the corporate world is not an option anymore(already tried to) and I doubt other small shops could give me the opportunity and freedom of where I am currently employed. I have some ideas but I believe advice from owners who have already been down this road would be priceless. As far as where I stand at this point, it is merely just an idea and I have not done anything as of yet to pursue my interest. I realize the condition of the economy but I do believe there is still an abundance of work out there if one knows where to look.
I would like to open shop in Kansas where I reside with a couple of good used machines. My resources are very limited at this point and I am not certain where to look for investors or government/foundation programs, but I seriously want to begin to devout time to "get the ball rolling" so to speak. Any help or comments is much appreciated, private mail is fine too =).

[AlexBanich]

Well truely what are you looking to do? If you're looking at doing tool and die then you're going to want a good surface grinder and tooling. If you're looking at doing .001 tolerance repeat production then a HAAS would be in your future. PM me and I'll help you get things rolling.