On Wed, 17 Mar 2004 15:49:25 -0800, "Lane"
lane_nospam@copperaccents_dot_com wrote:


"Gunner" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 17 Mar 2004 03:30:44 GMT, Bruce L. Bergman
wrote:

If I was Gunner, I'd fix up a small fully self-contained motorhome &
a compact car Toad for errands, or a pickup and a self-contained
travel trailer. If you are going to be working somewhere for a few
days or weeks, rather than a killer commute to Fresno every night you
drive your house down and stay there. The "per diem" should cover the
gas both ways if you work it right.

Make the clients set aside a small /secured/ place to park, and
provide power & phone hook-ups. Or internet - if the company has a
highspeed T1 or SDSL Net connection you can run 100-baseT out there
and use Vonage for your phone.

As an added bonus, if Gunner can't get his house problems sorted
out, he still has a home - a little one riding on radial tires. ;-)


I have a 1978 22' Aljo travel trailer in a park in Ontario. ($350
month) that I work out of during the week. Its within 50 mile radius
of most of my customers in OC and LA. It has a shower, fridge, fax and
internet ($35 for phone and $12 for Bluelight internet). If I have
work, I go down Monday or Tuesday (142 miles each way) from my home in
Taft, and work out of the trailer, then go home Friday night, unless a
customer wants something done over the weekend.

My cell phone is $90 month (Nextel, 600 minutes, free unlimited
incoming) which I have to have as it may take a while for my out of
state customers on a phone support call. At the current gas prices,
last week I spent $85 on fuel, and $30 on food/toilet paper, etc.

Most service calls last 1-3hours, then its on the the next one, or
making cold calls or customer visits. I try to do as many customer
visits over the cell, but I often can get an hours labor out of simply
walking in the door. Might be fixing a machine, a phone system,
unplugging a toilet, etc..bucks is bucks. I charge a different labor
rate for work other than CNC, and depending on customers..some of the
little guys simply cannot pay much, but still need work done. Bucks is
bucks.

Ive been working out of that RV for about 7 yrs now. Bought it for
$800. Its paid for itself several times over. Ive done a number of
jobs in Phoenix, etc, and I generally sleep in my truck on the
customers back lot, to save the cost of a motel. Some times I can get
them to spring for a motel, sometimes not. Shrug.

This week Ive been on the cell making "got work?" calls, and havent
gone to LA, just to save the gas money and wear and tear on my truck,
a 94 Mazda B3000 with 322,000 miles on it (second engine from a
wrecking yard at 294,000). Ive got one little non critical job for a
customer, that wont even pay the gas, and they dont care when I show
(replace a brake on a Hardinge chucker), so Im waiting for a better
service call before going down there. The wife and Daughter in law
have a bunch of medical appointments, so they have been using the
truck. Still havent been able to finish up her 84 Volvo. Its almost
done, but that $235 back registration is holding things up. I sold a
bunch of old machine tools that I had out back a couple weeks ago, so
managed to get mostly caught up to this month on mortgage, power,
water, cell phone etc.
With luck, one of my customers wants me to rebuild 12 OmniTurns, but
he has been promising me that for 4 months. His business is picking
up, but its still not enough to warrant that kind of expenditure. Over
the last 2 yrs, Ive cannibalized them to keep his other ones running,
and they are now going to be mighty pricey to put back to specs.
Servos, ball screws. etc. When Im done, they will be new machines
again..but they are gonna cost him a fair amount of change to do each
one. Shrug. But it will be bucks in my pocket (and out to the
creditors..sigh)

Service work for an independant is feast or famine in this kind of
economy. There have been times where I didnt get a service call for 2
weeks. Nor did anyone else in the biz. Hence my ability at times to
post a lot on the net, and other times Im simply too tired at the end
of the day to even turn on the puter. Shrug.

To make the average service call in Santa Ana..35 miles away..its
usually 1 hour going, and up to 3 hours coming back. Thats if I dont
have to go to Van Nuys, or Dago, or Hemet or Palmdale....

I charge mileage at .40 a mile, portal to portal to/from Ontario, and
travel time at $25 portal to portal. Based on best time..not Sig Alert
time. So if I get a service call in San Marcos, I can pay for the gas
for the week. If its 15 miles away...I make zip. Many weeks I go in
the hole simply going to So.Cal

Move to So. Cal? My mortgage and my RV rent is still less than a 2
bedroom apartment nearly anywhere in So. Cal. I have a reasonably
spacious place in Taft, with the shop, dogs, cats etc etc.,all of
which Ive worked 30 yrs to get and dont wish to dump and start living
out of a dufflebag, in a truck stop at my age. My wife is unable to
work, the kids have the new baby and my wifes son is on SSI, but I
still wind up paying most of their freight.

Not complaining. Shrug..just how things are. I keep hoping that the
economy will keep picking up, and Ill be doing better. Ive got a good
network of customers, machine tool dealers, hobbyists and can pick up
a couple dollars puting folks together. I should be getting a small
finders fee from a couple shops I put together on some work recently.
Might lead to good things for them, and they might remember me. Found
a couple folks needing machines, and found someone who had them for
sale. 10% finders fee from the seller. Not much on a $350 or $2500
machine, but its bucks, and more of them call me as my rep for being
the guy to call is spreading. I think since the first of the year,
Ive made more selling old machines to hobbyists and commercial shops
and brokering than I have in doing service work.

I have a good rapport with my customers, and they keep calling me
back, so I must be doing something right. Its just the economy in
California is still **** poor in manufacturing. We seem to be the last
ones to go in the toilet, and the last ones to come out of it. Shrug.
Ive always been something of a pragmatic optimist, so am keeping my
fingers crossed and keeping on, keeping on.
I like the work, am quite good at it within my specialties. On more
than one occasion in the past, Ive sold off everything I owned, and
headed out for greener pastures. Nearly every time..it was the same
old pasture when I got there..so Id rather not once again have to
start from the beginning. Im getting too damned old for that ****.
Living out of your car is ok when you are in your 20s and single..its
not quite so easy when you are 50 and have people that have to be
taken care of.
Yup..its a stone bitch robbing peter to pay paul, living from service
order to service order..and those that insist on paying 'net 30'
really **** things up, but thats the breaks in the biz. Im not the
only guy doing this..LOL..far from it. Its a changing world, and an
uncertain economy. But the buggy whip makers and horseshoe'rs all had
the same situation. Ill bet they occasionally sat in a dark corner
and cried too, but they got off their asses and took care of business.
If we all layed down and curled up when things got rough..the species
would have died out millenia ago. Ill never be able to retire. I
figure Ill die on the job, or in traffic between, or have a stroke or
grab my chest..but at least I will have been known as a guy who kept
on coming, who always tried to take care of his family and his
responsiblities, no matter how ****ty things were. Shrug. Thats all
any of us can do.. And there are lots of others far worse off than me.

"I used to cry that I had no shoes, til I met a man who had no feet"

Gunner


My hat is off to you for your endurance. Hope it stays with you till that
happy day when you don't have to anymore.
Lane


Maybe Ill win the lottery G

Gunner

"When your child has matured sufficiently to understand how the judicial
system works, set a bedtime for him and then send him to bed an hour
early. When he tearfully accuses you of breaking the rules, explain that you made the
rules and you can interpret them in any way that seems appropriate to you,
according to changing conditions. This will prepare him for the Supreme Court's concept
of the US Constitution as a 'living document'." --Joseph Sobran