Re: Where have all the machine shops gone

Posted by goose on March 04, 2021 at 07:39:03 from (166.182.84.229):

In Reply to: Where have all the machine shops gone posted by Geo-TH,In on March 04, 2021 at 04:50:52:

Engine longevity has had a lot to do with it. When I was a kid in the 1940's and 1950's, most car and pickup engines lasted about 50K miles before needing to be overhauled or rebuilt. Most every parts store had its own machine shop.

Then as engineering and metallurgy improved that figure moved to 100K. Nowadays, most engines outlive the vehicle they're in. All of that reduced the need for machine work, until now about the only need for it is racing and special applications, and now you can buy kits with either new parts or the machine work already done.

Some shops did themselves in. There was once a large NAPA shop in Lincoln, NE in the 1970's and 1980's that did most of the machine work around the area. After I obviously didn't get my own parts back a couple of times I figured out the guy was keeping all of the choice stuff for his buddies and giving junk back to the customers.

On one occasion I had a crankshaft ground for a 350 SBC. I had the engine built up to the point of installing the harmonic balancer when I found there was a bolt broke off in the end of the crankshaft. I'd personally disassembled the engine the crank came out of and there was no way that could have been my crankshaft. When I confronted the guy, he wouldn't back down; he had all sorts of stories of how that had to have been the crankshaft I brought in. I was finally able to remove the stub of the bolt, but it should never have come to that.

Same with a 350 block I had bored. When I torqued one of the main bearing caps the crankshaft locked up. Then I could see traces of heat by that journal. The engine had been running, although tired, when I tore it down, so that couldn't have been my block. He didn't back down on that one, either, and I wound up paying an extra $75 to have the block align bored. Since that was a racing engine, that may not have been all bad, actually.

It all finally caught up with the guy.

Frankly, the last block I had bored was a 3.0 Buick V6 about 20 years ago. I took it to a guy I knew who did machine work in his garage behind his house, and I don't know what became of him.

Replies:

• Re: Where have all the machine shops gone Billy NY 17:07:16 03/04/21 (0)
• Re: Where have all the machine shops gone Dean 10:59:00 03/04/21 (1)
  • Re: Where have all the machine shops gone Phil-Mar Farms 14:58:26 03/04/21 (0)

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