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Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 16:17:45 -0400
From: Ernest Christley <echristley@nc.rr.com>
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To: Rotary motors in aircraft <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
Subject: Re: [FlyRotary] Re: eMachineShop.com
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Jerry Hey wrote:

> In my area, northern Indiana, there are probably over a hundred small  
> machine shops with talented and experienced owners who don't have  
> enough work to survive.  They are very happy to do one off small  
> projects.   I would much rather talk the them directly and discuss  
> the project in detail than send it off to a complete stranger at E- 
> machine.  Jerry


Jerry, some areas aren't so blessed.  More importantly, my experience 
with the nearly universally busy shops around here (central North 
Carolina) has been horrible.  You have to keep it VERY simple or be 
treated to confused looks.  Turnaround time is "when we get around to 
it".  And if the part is complete when you get it back, you'll most 
likely wish you'd done it yourself to begin with.  I think the angle 
that E-machine has going for it is the project submission process.  
Instead of explaining what you're trying to do to someone that's 
irritated by a non-professional, one-off project, you submit a drawing 
that should clearly nail down all the expectations to a company that is 
geared toward prototype projects.

I think it all depends on what you can find in your area.  Lucky for me, 
I've found a machinist that has taken a keen interest in my project, ie. 
he's willing to come out and see what I'm doing for himself.  He's also 
a member of the local EAA chapter.  I was looking at having eMachine 
build an adapter for me, but Tom has built several in the past, so my 
plans have changed accordingly.

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