I'm with Vark. I thought for sure this would be about the bassist of Coheed and Cambria, who apparently robbed a pharmacy over the weekend and then caught a cab to the show's venue where his band opened for Soundgarden.

Looking California, but feeling Minnesota ... oh, yeah.

For a minute there I thought this was going to be a music thread! Haaa!


Well, basically speaking we'd do work for anyone. There was a lady that wanted some ornamental fish for her garden, she had just walked in off the street. We were able to punch out some nice 1/8 steel fish according to her design. Probably better quality than what you could get at a craft/art fair. Don't know how much they charged her. Our regular shop rates would be way to high for an individual so she must have negotiated a flat rate.

Then there was this guy, a friend of one of the owners, that was pimping out his Escalade. He wanted a Cadillac symbol about two feet across, to go across the front of his grill. I was able to draw it up almost exactly (including the laurel wreath device). We machined it out of 3/8 aluminum. I think four or five guys in the shop wanted one. Too bad I was only allowed to make two. Then of course there's Jeff's Lotus emblem I did up in my spare time.

Most job shops can usually squeeze in one-off pieces or 'government' jobs for the workers. My boss built himself a really nice chain-driven stainless grill rotisserie for his pig roasts that he has once a year. And a lot of guys will bring in broken stuff that needs to be welded or machined. My brother is always asking me to get him pieces of metal in various shapes for replacing parts on his 4 wheelers or dirt bikes.

THE
LIGHT INDUSTRIAL
AARDVARK

Hey, so there was that time you very generously made me a plate that allowed me to use that expensive joystick from Europe. It was awesome, and you are awesome. At your place of work, do you take orders from customers that aren't corporations? Like, if someone needed metal created/formed/smelted in a certain way, is it possible to order that? Or is all the work you guys do pretty much in the range of getting hundreds of pieces done?

(I guess I am curious for metal shops on the whole, as well, if you do not feel comfortable talking about your specific place.)