Hello All,

FYI, my machine shop here in Lethbridge has decided that they'd like to get back in the business of making money, so they've closed the machine shop. They've already let the main guy go and the other two are cleaning up machines for a sale and clearance of projects. The last head they'll do is one that I'm working on currently (they won't be able to set the CR for me, but they'll do the rest they way I want it done).

Not many options remain for performance work down here. For those that were planning on bringing stuff down, don't until I can figure out where the rest of the performance people migrate to and how the work is being done.

End of an era - so sad .

Crappy news indeed...

Yes definitely the way of the world.
On a Locost (Lotus 7 self built replica) forum the question was posed by a newbie,"What cars go to the junk yard with good engines?". Answer was: pretty much all of them.

We have (at the Hyundai dealership) one pce of equipt that is over $15K- the alignment rack and associated software. The machine shop we were dealing with (before he closed) kept reminding us of that. He had 7 or 8 pes of equipt that were over at least 12K, and some staff members here begrudged his rates. He claimed to see 135/hr here and his rate was $85, but I've never seen such creative bookwork as his invoices. He was either inefficient or making around $140-150.
I have an invoice today for washing cleaning surfacing and installing new valve seals on a pair of Vera Cruz heads. With GST, $774.

Thing is, most of these shops made it to the extent they did, by having old, paid for equipment.
You cannot buy new equipment and make a go of it in the present market place, so a machine shop shutting down is a real loss. Unless of course one of the employees "buys up the shop" and moves it to he acreage and works for cash... And I feel bad saying that because what sort of business model is that?

Of the guys I knew locally when I was in the business from 96-2003, most all are gone, merged, etc. Of course Lee Brothers in Red Deer did buy the full house CNC head porting deal, and Flyin Ryan moved to Arizona and is doing high, high end drag stuff.

I am just going to leave this here.....http://www.performance-shop.com/showthread.php?t=48864
A discussion on the cost of paint/bodywork, To me some business is still "profitable"

So is silver still selling parts? Or is that gone too?

Does CEP still have a machine shop?