Is there anythign someone can do in his own shop part time starting
out that would be some income? Even if you had to buy some equipment?
I always hear people doing this starting out then turnign it into a
business.

Just curious your opinion.

A friend of mine was a free-lance custom machinist that worked out of his
home shop. He passed away about a year ago, unfortunately.

His secret was that he got hooked up with some orthopedic surgeons.
There's all sorts of FDA headaches if you make hardware that goes INTO
and STAYS in the body, but they need tools to precisely cut ends of bone,
drill holes, etc.

A similar story for you. An orthopedic surgeon I know always used
something called Knowles pins when he did fracture work. The company
that supplied these was the sole manufacturer and they decided to end
production. He showed them to me and I took a sample to friend who
has a tool and die shop as a potential business line. He made up a
dozen of them without difficulty and I gave them to the surgeon. When
the original manufacturer found out that a local shop made some, they
quickly reinstituted production of Knowles pins. I have no idea why
they decided to stop production in the first place; I was told that
they were a popular item among the orthopedic surgeons who had trained
at Temple Univ in Philly, so it wasn't like the local surgeon was the
only purchaser.

RWL