I need to have something fabricated at a machine shop. It's a modification to convert my boat trailer jack that has a small diameter hard rubber caster wheel on it to something like you see in the picture below with 2 pneumatic tires so the boat and trailer can be winched up over a gravel and sand beach and not sink into the soft spots where the clay is.

I've purchased a swiveling trailer jack with a caster on it on sale at Princess Auto and what I want to do is cut the caster off of it and weld on an assembly like you see in the picture so it will run on the two tires to make it something like nose gear on a plane.

I've got most of the materials together and I have a basic design drawn up so now I need to find a machine shop that can do it for a reasonable price. The quotes I've gotten so far are way more than I ever expected.

Can anyone recommend a good machine shop to go to? I've already gotten quotes from Humfrey's and Almetal. Those are the closest shops to where I work at Blackfoot and 42nd.

I'm now contacting a few jobbers that advertise on Kijiji. Maybe that will be the way to go to get this done cheap.

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Humphry is fairly premium, have you tried Ben's? They're on 76 (or 72) ave near 52 SE. No guarantees they'll be cheaper, but maybe.

Searching Kijiji for jobbers proved fruitful. Found a guy who's a former Can-Am race car mechanic and semi-retired journeyman welder & machinist who is going to build it for $120 which I think is very reasonable. That's way cheaper than Humfrey's who quoted me around $900 (damn near dropped dead) or Almetal who quoted me about $670 (still nearly fainted). The number of hours both those places quoted me seemed way out of line.

The guy I've given the job to has got MIG, TIG, all sorts of lathes and machinery, benders and just about everything you'd ever need to outfit a well equipped metal fabrication shop. It's a big shop/garage and it's just jam packed with all sorts of machinery and equipment. Seems like a really nice guy too. He's located on Beaver Dam Way, near 64th and Deerfoot.

He calls himself Pete the Welder and if anyone needs his services, his phone number is 403-274-2801, email is pjack at telus.net.

I'll post a picture or two of what he produces for me.

I got the piece back from the fabricator/welder today. I'm super happy about it. It's going to work great!

All in, I figure it cost me about $250 and that includes the brand new swiveling trailer jack, the two pneumatic wheels, all the other materials and the labour.

All that's left to do is paint it so it won't rust up too bad.