Machine shops .... I just shake my head

[Jens]

I just had a call from the machine shop here in Victoria that I used to rebuilt bits and pieces of Thumper. I can not believe what people will pull .....

I had initially brought down the crankshaft and then added the counterweights, the two old piston assemblies with connecting rods, two new piston wrist pins (as per their request), a new piston and two sets of rings. I asked them to regrind the crank (that was changed to regrinding one journal since I could only get one set of oversized shells), replace one piston with the new one I had supplied, install the two new wrist pins and, making an assumption, I figured since I supplied new bearing shells it would imply they would actually fit them to the crank.
I also asked for the assembly to be balanced.

When I picked up my pieces the other day I found out that they were unable to balance the assembly because of a lack of bob(sp??) weights heavy enough. Apparently the did set things up on their balancer and did phone some outfit in California for instructions on how to do the balance but they were unable to do the job. Nevertheless, they decided to charge me $80 for their attempt at doing the job. They also did not attempt to fit the bearing shells to the crank except for the one journal that was re-ground. They reground one journal, polished the center bearing, the second journal and the two crankshaft seal surfaces for the princely sum of $200 ....
Pulling the wrist pins in both pistons, removing one piston and replacing it with the new one supplied, removing one set of rings and installing two new sets of rings supplied also cost me $80.

When I got home with the finished parts I discovered what I thought was casting sand right next to the new wrist pin in the re-used piston. I was not thrilled. I took the piston back and also decided to talk to them about fitting the bearing shells onto the crank (they did say that they fitted the shells to the one journal that was ground). Turns out that apparently I never asked for the piston to be cleaned hence the grit that was left over and, as it turns out, the majority of the deposits on the underside of the piston crown. It seems that $80 does not get you a cleaning and that installing a new piston wrist pin does not imply to clean up the area behind (or beside) it.
After some discussion they foreman (he was the guy doing the job) said that he didn't want me to feel ripped off so he agreed to cleaning up the piston and to fit the bearing shells as well as reduce the charge for balancing by half.

Today's call was to tell me that the second piston shell needed a shim and could I please supply it.  Apparently these things are not a dime a dozend in an engine rebuild shop. I was surprised to hear that these things were somehow related to hens teeth and quite rare so I asked if they had a pair of scissors and some shim stock. Well as it turns out, they do have a shim stock assortment but don't you know that the thin stuff gets used up first ......
BTW, each of the two bills I paid included a shop supplies charge of around $9.50 and a similar environmental levy.
Anyway, it turns out they do not have any shims for me and can not make any up and not only that but they managed to strip the two studs holding together the center bearing support and it will take about an hour to fix that. Implied in this was that I was going to be charged for fixing this if I requested it. Apparently they torqued the bolts to about 35 ft lbs when they both stripped (and they never did figure out if shims were required in the center bearing support assembly which begs the question of why they torqued the thing down to begin with  ... but hey, what do I know)

I told the foreman that I will come and pick up my pieces tomorrow and will fix the pulled studs myself.

Maybe I am out of touch with reality - if so, somebody please set me straight. Loose grit right above where the oiling holes are for the big end bearings?  Can't make up an f'ing piece of one thou shim ? Charge me for balancing when the balancing wasn't done? Stripping studs and expecting me to pay to fix things ?

Bob, I realize you don't like it when people bash suppliers and I apologize in advance but I had to vent ! I tried to sort this out with them but all it got me is more grief !

For those of you located near Victoria, BC and contemplating any machine work, email me for the name of the place ....

[Crofter]

What will be involved in repairing the "pulled studs"?

[billswan]

Jens

Sounds like the shops in your area don't have much competition! So they can do what ever they please price and quality wise!

To bad freight is so high you could probably get better quality and price but with freight it probably would be a draw.

I still wounder what a new standard crank from india would have cost in comparison to the cost of reclaiming yours?

Looks like to me you better find some machine tools an old building and hire some young guy out of machinist school and start a business in competition with the shop that is jerking you around.

Billswan

[mobile_bob]

i feel your pain jens

i get screwed from time to time as well, the worst i can remember
was about 15 years ago, when i took in two heavy truck spindles that i had steam cleaned
and removed the kingpin bushings, i bought the parts from the parts counter and took the lot
to the service dept for them to drive in 4 bushings and ream them to fit the new kingpins

bearing in mind that i have done the job myself many times in less than an hour, i figured on maybe an hour
and a half

i came back the next morning and inspected the job, the pins were a sloppy fit with the bushings having been reamed too large
and they had the gall to charge me 650 bucks!

yes they heard an ear full, and i have made it my mission in life to steal everyone of their customers i can get!

its bad enough to get hosed on the price, but to get shitty work too boot?

the service managers excuse was "that is what the time card said, so that is what we charge"

i told him that if i was his boss, i would fire the mechanic that milked the job and then fire him for trying to cover it up.

having a relationship with a quality machine shop is worth its weight in gold, a bad machine shop is like a bad exwife
no matter what you do anytime to get around it/her you come out missing something.

sorry to hear of your problems.

bob g

[LowGear]

I can remember when I wanted to return to earth as Mosses or perhaps Jesus.  Then I realized that being the head cheese in a machine shop had some real perks.  Since that time I've come to realize that being a licensed electrical contractor in Hawaii has got all those school boy dreams left in the dark.

Casey

[Crofter]

Some of the indian iron has rather oversize holes drilled before they tap. Makes for very skimpy thread engagement. That is likely whitworth thread as well.  Bummer! Hopefully you can find something in imperial or metric size fastener just a bit larger that will fly with just retapping rather than have to go the helicoil route.

[vdubnut62]

The guys at the shop would fix my studs at their expense, or I would take it out of somebody's a$$!
That is a promise.
A shop like that here wouldn't last a month, some redneck would burn it down.
Ron

[rcavictim]

I have modified an age old expression to fit the sad state of modern times.  So modified, it fits very well.  The expression used to be "If you want anything done right, you have to do it yourself",  My version is, "If you want anything done at all, you have to do it yourself."

I suspect not having any money, thereby never taking work to others to do for me, has saved me a lot of grief over the years.

Pricing for a new Indian crank does not sound right to me.  Shud be 1/3rd of what you said IMO.

I think you should post the name of the Rotten Service Rip Off Machine Shop in Victoria, BC.

[rl71459]

Jens
I can relate to your machine shop woes... One year back when I drag raced I was freshening my balanced, blueptinted, ported, polished & tweaked big block chevy which had run 2 consecutive seasons without any failures. It was time to replace the rod bolts... Soo... I loaded up my rods and my "Trick" new cold formed oversized head rod bolts (these require slight remachining of the bolt seat surface of the rods to allow for the larger heads).

So later when I began building the engine.... I noticed a very odd looking finish on the big end mating surfaces! Upon closer inspection with the caps torqued in place if you held them up to a light you could see right thru about half of the cap seating surfaces! So I went to see the owner of the shop and they made it "RIGHT". Come to find out the Sledgehammer machinist used the Bench Grinder on the rods to shrink b4 resizing! If that was not bad enough... instead of machining the rod to accept the bigger bolt heads the dumb ass ground down the bolt heads to fit the rods because it was easier!

They ended up buying me a complete new set of professionally prepped rods from a grade a speed shop!
Never took anything to them ever again!

Rob

[Henry W]

Bench grinder on rod caps where bolt heads seat!!! Ground bolt heads!!! Oh #%*+ !!! I wonder how many engines blew up they built. I never had that problem with engine building machine shops I went to. I guess I am lucky.

Henry

[rl71459]

Henry
It is mind boggling that it happened... Whats even more suprizing is this shop had done excellent work for myself and others. I am equipt to inspect precision work and always check all my engine components before assembly. (I dont think I could assemble if I didnt)

Jens
Yes I do beleive that is a Trump.

Rob