Discussion with donnatop

[LeftCoastCNC]

...cont'd from.... Quick Quote Needed- Two small Alum parts, 1 set now... in Mill Work

How do you figure "Nice little part" is extreme unprofessional rear end kissing? He was looking for feedback on his design as it relates to manufacturing. I am a manufacturer and would not have major issues with making it.

You have never received any "extreme unprofessional rear end kissing from me" so why was your comment directed toward me? You don't know me, you don't know my business practices so why attack me on a thread that I am simply quoting the job and has absolutely nothing to do with you?

I could not agree with you more on how disappointing it is with manufacturers not charging for programming, throwing in the material for free and so on. I can not and do not compete with that.

You are not trying to compete with this but rather you are taking advantage of it and are keeping it alive and well. The two parts you have awarded on here I would have been outbid... but I am sure you were happy to pay that low price (or your employer or who ever). If you are truly sickened by the business practices here, why are you here rather than looking in a phone book and giving your work to a local shop? Maybe you are not sickened enough to pay what the parts should actually cost?

If you were a manufacturer with $200K in equipment and another $25K in software coupled with this economy, you too would "love" to run some parts. Running parts is what keeps the doors open.

So while I continue to quote jobs in hopes of finding someone willing to pay what the job is actually worth despite people like you bashing my quote, and you continue to design in MS Word in hopes of someone taking the job and recreating your geometry in their CAM system (which I am sure you compensated them for); the world will continue to go around. But it could certainly be smoother.

Since professionalism is important to you, I would kindly request that if the brief wording in my quote notice postings are offensive to you, you keep your comments professional when it concerns my business.

Kris

MS Word was an upgrade from the napkin and crayon drawings that were used around here for in house machining. Management is not going to lay out
money for anything better at the current time. I made the best of a bad situation, but our vendor came through with good quality parts delivered on
schedule. I was just shocked at the extreme unprofessional rear end kissing I
have received when posting a few jobs for bid. It just bums me out, I feel people in USA manufacturing are desperate and have thrown away their pride
and are steeping over little old ladies to get work. Even though people out soucing work, like my employer are benefitting, it doesn't look good for this country. People advertising free programming, no set-up charges, etc,etc
and they design nice parts and would "love" to run them, makes me sick! Seems like the rats are eating each others tails off.

 

[Larry1]

I do not understand the problem on what you said. I also do not think you were kissing up to get a job, two parts would not make much difference in making it or going out of business. I do not have the equipment or the expense that LeftCoastCNC has but I agree that under bidding is just a slow death for a shop and does not help anyone who is trying to get paid a fair price.

 

[Dualkit]

Left Coast,

I would not bash someone for wanting quotes off of word drawings or anything else you consider unprofessional. I have a customer who is local, who
I would feel lucky if he gave me as much a word drawing. What he wants is off either a rough sketch, or some kind of crude sample. Just last week he welded
a v-groove pulley in front of a serpentine pulley (ugly mess) and said " I need 3
just like this." I charged him shop rate for all time involved plus materials. Why
should he spend $5,000 for drawing software and all the hours of learning how to use it, when he can explain what he needs from time to time in just minutes?
He has been a customer for over 10 years and I probably make $25,000 a year
off of him at an average rate of about $60 an hour, that makes the house payment. The reason I am commenting here as I bid on one of the parts Don
posted and I had no problems understanding what he wanted from his drawing.
In fact the above customer I mentioned orders similar parts, what shocked me is
he claimed he got them for $5 each, I bid $11.25 which is what the above mentioned customer happily pays for V-groove pulleys in 50 piece lots of similar size. I just figure somebody just made them at no profit hoping for some repeat business that they could make money on. That is a no win situation for all of us.

 

[LeftCoastCNC]

Dualkit, you are correct in that it does not take high dollar CAD software to communicate design intent. I too have customers not using CAD software and the design can be communicated.

Donnatop boiled my oil, when he attacked me for a quote that was not prepared for him, nor was he quoting the job-- it had nothing to do with him. It served no purpose but to make me, a total stranger, look bad. His frustration of (his opinion) American manufactures throwing away their pride, extreme unprofessional rear end kissing, stepping over little old ladies to get work, bla bla bla was pointed towards me, again a total stranger. He implies to be sickened that American manufactures do not have the pride to charge what the job is worth while ironically taking advantage of the lower Internet pricing which is the root cause of his claim that American manufacturers are losing their pride and giving their work away. Yes, a no win for anyone. This is one of the reasons I brought up the fact that he designed in MS Word and expected the manufacture to recreate his geometry... that is a perfect example of work that has to be given away to get the job on this site. My other point in the MS Word comment was directed towards him implying that we ( manufactures) are so unprofessional he is glad he is not quoting work here—while he submits a completely unprofessional drawing that that any 4th grader could have created. Again, it more or less communicated the intent of the parts but talk about taking pride and being professional???? Ultimately... Just look at yourself and your role in the “system” before attacking a complete stranger.

 

[mickrio]

My other point in the MS Word comment was directed towards him implying that we ( manufactures) are so unprofessional he is glad he is not quoting work here—while he submits a completely unprofessional drawing that that any 4th grader could have created.