Good to see a fellow manual machinist !! that vapes and mix recipes !! You will not regret starting your own business , and getting out of the city !!! I started my business at 28 with nothing but a truck and portable welder. Now have 2 shops full of everything weld and machine related. Not many manual machinist around, that is all I do custom fab and machine, no job is the same. sometimes I get into production work. Had a production job that lasted 7 years and kept 7 employees going. I wish all the best for you and anything business related questions, please feel free to ask me. A few pics of my front shop, where all Fabrication is done, my machine shop is behind that one with alot of Machines, to numerous to type, !!!
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Awesome! Wasn’t sure how many machinists or metal workers were on this site!
As of right now, my machining/fab work is a side gig that makes decent extra money. I wouldn’t mind turning it into a legit full time business. At 29 years young, this is a perfect time to do it. Just have to find out how to compete with CNC…
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yes you are at the prime age, don’t hold off to long, the sooner the better, but first and foremost, make sure your foot is in the door with at least 3 large plants. Back in my day I was lucky to have my foot in 15 companies and 4 of them are blue chip companies, if you wait on the public to walk in the door, it won’t be to good. Myself i hate dealing with the public, but i do, cause cash talks, and uncle sam ain’t getting crap, all my toys paid in cash !!
And we can not compete with CNC, Myself I have no desire to, and will not do it. I love a challenge, and building things that cannot be bought or found is what i do !!!
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So far, most of my paying customers were originally friends. Who then referred their friends to me and so on. I haven’t gone out looking for business, yet.
Once I get moved and set up again, I may do what you said. Get my foot in the door at a few places.
As far as CNC goes, it is really nice. It has its pros and its cons in my opinion. I did however start to convert a bench top mill to CNC, only because I got it for cheap. Gave up as it was too much BS to deal with. Especially for a one off part. And the mill was the size of a toy. I set the bench top mill on my Bridgport mill table and couldn’t stop laughing 
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hey, my first milling machine was a mid size table top, and it has paid for itself 1,000 times over, and still use it today, when my other mills are set up on something else !!
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Nothong wrong with that. My first lathe was an older Jet BD920N. I thought it was perfect. Then I quickly outgrew it then bought a Grizzly G4003G, then outgrew that so I kept it and bought the same PM lathe you showed lol. I didn’t make that mistake with the mill, not so bad at least.
The first mill was a Grizzly G0802, outgrew that. Kept it then bought/restored an old Bridgeport. Unfortunately, the Bridgport might be leaving my possession soon 
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A fair amount of the tooling I have came from my dad, who didn’t have a use for it. His old company went out of business several years ago and he took a lot from the machine shop. 12" rotary table, Starett surface plate and height gage/scribe, Starett machinist level, very large selection of end mills and R8 collets, a few Kurt vises, several micrometers from 0-1" all the way to 5-6" various brands like Starret, Brown and Sharpe, and Mitutoyo. Then I purchased the rest. So yes, I had a good helping hand acquire most of my stuff lol
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you got a good start on the tooling, Tooling and I mean pretty much close to everything you will need will cost 5 times as much as you paid for the , whatever machine you got. I was not that fortunate, every penny I made went to buy tooling when I First started. AFTER 10 years at age 38 I Had my land, shops, vehicles, home, toys, all paid for, and did not go in dept for nothing, that is why my credit rating sucks, because I did not barrow, no record of payments, but I could care less. Insurance , utiluties, taxes, cpa, food lion. takes my income now !!
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Agreed on the tooling costing several times more than the machines. I price stuff I want that I don’t have all the time. You pay for quality, and it’s a pretty penny. I could easily spend my entire yearly income on tooling in a matter of minutes.
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Lovely display boxes!!!
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Stained glass was my entry into glass work, moved on to fusing and torch work. Absolutely love working that medium. Nice to see it here, good job.
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Thanks guys😊
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