As an aside to this thread:

I worked for a manufacturing company in Louisiana that did CNC work and
plasma cutting. And fine TIG welding to bring it all together. They had a
laser cutting bed from TRUMPF that cost $700,000. They had other bending
machines and cutting machines that were state of the art, and all linked by
CAD/CAM.

The boss was having trouble making payments that high, and called Trumpf to
discuss the situation. Trumpf said that they would make some phone calls.

Trumpf called Caterpillar and Ford, and got them so much work they had to
hire more guys and run two shifts.

Point is that if one does want to do the legwork and gets lucky, they can
hook up with some specialty niche, and do well. It may take a while, and
you might go through a few, and payment might be slow, but that's biz. I
knew a guy who retired to a picture post card perfect rural Utah town with
spectacular fishing and hunting nearby. All he made was tiny fasteners that
he sold to model train manufacturers. He could ship his whole monthly
output in a 5 gallon bucket, and made good money.

If you know your stuff, it isn't making it that's a problem, it's selling
it/marketing it. And now that the business atmosphere has changed to
foreign manufacturers who can beat you up on price, and less disposable
income among the regular buying crowd, there's that, too.

Trouble is, "side jobs" are usually intended to be a sideline income, using
extra time, or at least not a ton of time each week, so as to leave time for
sleeping, eating, kissing the baby and playing with mama, working your other
job, etc. Some of these take on a life of their own, and then the demands
put you in the 60-80 hour a week category. Then, if you quit your day job,
it better make enough to pay the whole nut and have some left over.

My thoughts from BTDT.

Steve

visit my blog at http://cabgbypasssurgery.com