Sacramento Job Shop - Looking for Mill Work

[Covenant MFG]

What's up all,

I checked the rules board on this and I'm pretty sure this is ok. Summer was screaming along SUPER busy and I dropped off with my sales hunting to keep up, and about early October work dropped quite a bit with the regular customers. I'm expecting to pick more from them back up in mid November but looking for parts to take up spindle time meanwhile.

All that to say, anyone (especially in the NorCal area) looking to farm out some work?
I'm set up with a YCM 560- Mill work with a 16" x 22" envelope.

Here's our website: https://www.covenantmfg.com/

Usually low volume with high complexity- you can see most of our recent work examples that aren't NDA here:

Caleb Harris (@covenantmfg) • Instagram photos and videos

12K Followers, 1,854 Following, 3,150 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Caleb Harris (@covenantmfg)

www.instagram.com

More info on the shop in this thread: https://www.practicalmachinist.com/forum/threads/realistic-revenue-profit-goals.416431/

Hope y'all are doing great! Good stuff on this site, I probably read instead of post way too much.

 

[Donkey Hotey]

Great looking work, nice photography and well presented. Suggestion: find a better place to post your work than Instagram and Bookface. I'm not on Instagram and can't see anything beyond the grid of pictures. Also: suppliers you're probably after will likely be on restricted networks that either completely block social media sites or they won't be able to log in using their personal credentials on the work computer. I know I couldn't see anything posted on Bookface at my old job. If we were trying to get them on an approved supplier list, those pictures may as well not exist.

 

[Covenant MFG]

Great looking work, nice photography and well presented. Suggestion: find a better place to post your work than Instagram and Bookface. I'm not on Instagram and can't see anything beyond the grid of pictures. Also: suppliers you're probably after will likely be on restricted networks that either completely block social media sites or they won't be able to log in using their personal credentials on the work computer. I know I couldn't see anything posted on Bookface at my old job. If we were trying to get them on an approved supplier list, those pictures may as well not exist.

That's great advice, thank you! It's a weird juggle between a website that needs regular updates, and social media which kind of "naturally" gets updated. And/or me being lazy about that.

Covenant MFG

CNC Milling Capabilities

www.covenantmfg.com

 

[Ox]

Per your website - you're spotlighting round parts in a "mill only" shop?


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

 

[Covenant MFG]

Per your website - you're spotlighting round parts in a "mill only" shop?


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox

Would you suggest keeping those off so ppl don't get confused and/or I don't attract too many rounds? The round parts are either done 100% on the mill, or TGP shafts. I outsource turning sometimes but none of the photos there are that.

 

[Ox]

IDK that I am suggesting anything.
I was wondering if you did actually produce those on the mill?
But then the question begs - "why"?

But I doo s'pose that I wouldn't prolly spotlight something that I'm not typically competitive at.
But maybe you need filler for the site, and you have those, so ...

Or maybe you are thinking that you may fetch a lathe in the foreseeable* future?



* WAY too many vowels in the word!

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I am Ox and I approve this post!

 

[Covenant MFG]

IDK that I am suggesting anything.
I was wondering if you did actually produce those on the mill?
But then the question begs - "why"?

But I doo s'pose that I wouldn't prolly spotlight something that I'm not typically competitive at.
But maybe you need filler for the site, and you have those, so ...

Or maybe you are thinking that you may fetch a lathe in the foreseeable* future?



* WAY too many vowels in the word!

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I am Ox and I approve this post!

A bit of an "all of the above" I suppose
Partly because those parts were the good photos of non-NDA stuff that I could actually grab, partly because a large number of the nice looking parts are round, and partly because I just quoted work and if I could do it I did it, and a lot of the early work was round parts.

I've got a lot more mill-only parts since then which would be really nice up on the site... but all NDA covered (probably 80-90% of work). I think I can update with some since the last time I worked on the site but it won't be a ton.
And yeah shopping around, hoping to pick one up before the end of the year but not sure yet, depends on the work that comes in now LOL.

 

[Matt@RFR]

I vote to show pictures of anything you are proud of and can make currently, even if outsourced. Customers don't need to know how parts are made, or by whom.

Also, I've found that I can compete quite well on small lathe parts up to a few hundred pieces on the mills. So, fair game.

Example, maybe 200 pieces, we whooped on the lathe guys who quoted. After that they went to a screw machine shop.

 

[LOTT]

Even with a lathe on hand, if I only need a couple of a round part it can be faster and easier to mill them.

To the point, have you gotten out and knocked on doors? We had a slow spell this spring so I made lists of businesses that looked like they could need machining done and made some rounds. I'm not a natural salesman by any stretch, but it's worth the struggle.
The old crotchety old businesses owners that need parts made probably aren't on Instagram, or Practical Machinist (these crotchety members all make their own parts...).

 

[EmGo]

a website that needs regular updates

why ? Maybe add a few photos once in a while but that's no biggy ... just make the thing old-style, without all this ridiculous crap current sites are filled with. You don't need json to go to the next page, honest.