Did you start your business in your garage?

[katiebo]

I would like to get a feeling for what percentage of business owners started out in their garage?

[Ben Colby]

Started in my garage in 1995 with a used 1978 Maxmill handmill. Bought a harbor freight
bandsaw and went to work moonlighting and weekends. A year and half later bought a
used 14" Cadilac hand lathe. These machines allowed me to purchase a Milltronics CNC
mill off of Ebay about a year later. Stayed with these machines moonlighting and weekends until 2003. At that point, the growth in the business allowed me to quit my day job and work fulltime in my garage. I also purchased a Brother Drill/tap machining
center and an 2-axis cnc Alliant knee mill off of Ebay in 2003 and purchased a home
with a 1000 sf garage/shop to put them in. Two years later, I was able to add a Mazak
CNC lathe to the group. This is my garage shop and I have no desire to leave it.
You can't beat the low overhead.
My two cents and story,
Ben

[ironDigit]

Though i like to think many people started their business' in their garage ,since i hope to join the same category some day.I'ld like to add that imho calling these workshops we ambitiously put together are denied of any respect when called garage ,since the word garage makes one imagine a unheated ,moist and no running water type-of-place whilst that's not the kind of situation i've come across in any CNC-hobbybussiness' homeworkshop's period.

BTW should i from a (wannabe-"garage"businessman-someday") with works in progress ,perspective vote yes or no ?

sry ,couldn't spare the 2cts.

[Nymisis]

i started in my garage ( the kind with no heat . no running water and not enough power to run a drill press ..lol ) about 2 years ago .. i bought a cadilac NC 100 and ran it off an onan 15kw 3 phase generator ... i now have 2 OKK's mcv 300's a bridgeport series 2 retrofitted to PC .. that same caddie a pair of K.O. Lee grinders and a cincinatti EDM .... still in that same garage i started some 2 years ago.. my overhead is so low i can offer shop rates 50% cheaper than any of my compettiors ..

if it aint broke.... dont fix it ..lol

[cdlenterprises]

So my question is what do you do about the floor thickness? Most home"workshops" only have a 4-6" thick slab. Did you re-pour or are you still on the same slab?

[Ben Colby]

My 4" slab works for me. I can't see it being a problem unless you bring in something
really heavy. I have a 7000 lb machine on mine.

Ben

[Nymisis]

when i bought my house, the previous owner had built the garage with a 8 inch slab .. its roughly 1200 square feet and he used to keep his tractor in it .. each of my okk's weigh aprox 18,000 lbs each and the caddie wiegh's aprox 10,000 lbs .. the serries 2 weighs aprox 8,000 lbs and the edm weighs 4,000 lbs and the grinders weigh in the half ton range each .... in the 2 years since i started this shop i've had absolutely no problems with the concrete cracking or shifting ...

[Nymisis]

if you want to view photos of my shop i have them posted on my myspace page... you can find them at www.myspace.com/nymisis . if you dont already have a myspace page you'll have to set up your own profile first .. its free and only takes a min to do.. the pics are in the album called "my shop"

[mc-motorsports]

Originally Posted by Nymisis if you want to view photos of my shop i have them posted on my myspace page... you can find them at www.myspace.com/nymisis . if you dont already have a myspace page you'll have to set up your own profile first .. its free and only takes a min to do.. the pics are in the album called "my shop"

Nice! What do you think about that Series 2? Will that thing hog some chips like some people say, or is it just over-weight iron?

[flick]

I just put a downpayment on a Haas Minimill. It's going in the garage. If things go well I'll upgrade to industrial space and buy real machines when my apprenticeship's finished.

[Nymisis]

hey MC, the series 2 has its place .... i'de be hesitant to call it an overweight iron, but on the other hand there are other machines better suited to fast chip removal ... time is money in this business and the ability to remove chips is going to depend on 2 basic factors , " Rigidity and horsepower " . The machine itself is very solid sporting hardened chromed box way's but its lack of an ATC and the fact it has only has 2 horses on the spindle motor make it less than desirable as a production machine. Where this machine shines is in die and mold making, where tool changing isn't an issue and calculating chip loads is better left to the talking heads in the trade journals. With the right retrofit the machine is capable of repeatability within a tenth on any axis and i personally like the fact i can tram the head in within half a tenth. Parts are still readily available and downtime is minimal. another advantage of this machine is that its relatively very inexpensive to purchase , maintain , and run .. you can set this machine up in your garage on a small rotary phase converter running out of a standard 220 residential outlet on a 20 amp breaker.

[SORCHEROR]

i started in my garage a few years ago,one car at that,with a hass tm-1 vmc,bridgeport
2 grinders and 1 edm,was a tight fit but worked,last year i bought a building and have 3 times the machines,the key is to keep overhead down and machine a wide range of things,for example,myself by trade started as an injection mold maker,but 60 % of my business is machine production parts,we rarely have a slow period due to the range of work,in a garge or building,do quality work on time and have good communication with your customer and you will get repeat business