Jeff,
I'm with Matt on this. The only difference between Matt and I is turn around time. I'm not fast at all. I'm open and up front with my customers that I work full time and spend 10-20 hrs a week on side busines if time allows. I found that if you can do things for clients that they just can't get "anywhere". They will wait for you and pay your price. Anyway I already have enough stress. The client that comes in with the "I'm gonna be on your back until you get it done" attitude...well those are usually the guys that tend to get wishy washy when its time to collect. Don't have much room in my shop for those customers.

What you have to decide is what you are willing to fabricate for money because, believe me, if people realize you have a cnc there will be no shortage of people wanting you to make every strange widget they have managed to conjure up while standing in their morning shower.


It took me a while to realize I had no problems being busy with my cnc machine ...but not everything was profitable. For guys like us who can only commit 10-20 hrs per week to a "side business" we need to be much more focused on profitable endeavors.
Besides if I'm not gonna make money on the project I would rather be working on some strange widget I dreamed up after 3 days with no sleep.


Either that or just donating machine time to a good cause.

2cents

Bill