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Joint Ventures?
January 6, 2012
3:52 pm
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Ries
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For a long time, I was doing a lot of public art projects, but those jobs are harder to get these days- or maybe I am just past my pull date.
Anyway, I am not as busy as I would like, and I am looking for things to do.

I am open to all kinds of collaborations on jobs that are not necessarily "pure" blacksmithing- I have been fabbing and welding and machining and making all kinds of stuff out of metal for a long time, and while I love forging, I will do most anything.

I have a great shop for jobs you may not quite feel like you can handle alone- tons of space, equipment, and experience.

So if there is a job that might include more sheet metal, or welding, or bending, or machining, than you would normally take, or one that is big enough to require a forklift or more room than you have, or its in a material you dont normally work with- give me a call.

This is a quick rundown of what I can do -

4000 plus square feet of shop space, including big fab shop with 20 foot ceilings and built in floor plates for bolting down jigs or work.

4500lb Forklift, 1 ton rolling gantry, lotsa smaller moving and shoving equip.

Complete welding, all metals- Tig,Mig, Stick, Gas and spot, in aluminum, stainless, non-ferrous, and, of course, mild steel, up to 400 amps or so.

Sheet and plate bending, rolling, punching, notching, welding up to 1/8" x 48"
Bead rolling and edge finishing. English wheel and hand forming for 3d shapes.

4' x 8' machine plasma cutting up to around 1/2" in steel. Slightly less in other metals. This machine is optical trace, that means one offs from drawings are quick and easy.

Since Grant is gone, I am probably the most experienced hossfeld guy in the northwest- one off or parts runs of 100's, I can set up and bend, hot or cold, pretty darn quick, in almost all materials up to 2" solids and 4" flats.

Circles and arcs in all kinds of materials- I have 5 different machines for making curves, repeatedly and accurately, up to 48' circles in 1 1/2 square tubing, or maybe 100 an hour 6" circles in 3/8" round- pretty much anything, I have bent it a few times.

Ironworker, shearing and punching holes, cold saw for accurate repeat cuts up to 3" diameter, saws, plasma, etc.

Forging, of course- my hammer isnt the biggest, its only an 88lb machine, but it hits pretty hard for its size. Also treadle hammer.

Power twisting- Hebo is in the house. That thing is FAST, hot or cold. And it will twist 1" square cold all day long. It also does scrolls, have a half dozen different scroll dies for it.

Machining- Bridgeport and medium sized lathe, great for custom tooling or the odd part that cant be made any other way. I also have an old Gorton, which engraves text, and a dozen or so fonts, and misc machine shop support equip for drilling, tapping, and second op stuff.

Plus, most every kind of hand and power tool, a wood shop for support stuff, industrial sewing, half a hardware store of parts and fasteners, and a loud stereo.

I am not into temper tantrums or ego trips- I just like making stuff.
My place is in the Skagit Valley, an hour and a half north of Seattle. The local steelyard delivers, and Alaskan has a truck by every day.
Plenty of Free parking- I have 32 acres. no problems with theft, or nosy neighbors.
Its very beautiful here, as a bonus, and the local food is great.

So if you have a job thats just a bit more than you want to take on yourself, give me a call or email. I am open to huge jobs- I have done things like 500 linear feet of stainless railings- but I am also open to someone who just needs to come up and roll a couple hundred rings or cut a special part out.

Ries-
rniemi-at-fidalgo.net
or
360-766-8004

January 6, 2012
4:53 pm
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JNewman
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Ries;13956 wrote:

I am not into temper tantrums or ego trips- I just like making stuff.
My place is in the Skagit Valley, an hour and a half north of Seattle. The local steelyard delivers, and Alaskan has a truck by every day.
Plenty of Free parking- I have 32 acres. no problems with theft, or nosy neighbors.
Its very beautiful here, as a bonus, and the local food is great.

R

So I guess we are not going to see a "West Coast Public Art" on the Discovery channel any time soon then.

January 6, 2012
5:13 pm
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JNewman
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Maybe you should put this out more on some art forums, or even advertise in some sculpture magazines. More emphasis on the types of work you can do and are set up to do less on the specific machines.

I have done some patternmaking work for an artist working on large public art projects a couple of times. The work was fairly lucrative, and nice work. The first time I worked with him I was still working for someone else we did quote it a little high because of some unknown factors, but I believe he was happiest with us as a supplier as we actually stuck to our quote unlike some of the other companies doing work on the job.

I am sure lots of fab shops charge a fairly high rate to Artists due to the "translation" they may have to do from artist to fab shop. Seeing as you are bilingual you might find you can charge less and yet make more due to your experience. You may be able to do some consulting as well due to your experience.

January 6, 2012
9:49 pm
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James vonMosch
White Salmon, WA
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Hi Ries. I think a referral system within NWBA would be a great benefit. If for instance one of my customers that I have made hooks for were to ask me to build a custom railing or large candelabra lamp...well, I would be out of my skill level. It would be nice if I could refer it to another professional smith and not lose my customer, and he could get a nice price. On the other hand, if a full timer was bothered to make one poker or a couple of hinges he could refer it back to one of us part timers to help pay for the coal and steel. What do you think??

January 6, 2012
10:34 pm
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Ries
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As far as referrals, I think a lot of us do that already all the time.
Especially in a geographical area, most people know most of the other players...

I already do some fabrication of public artworks for other people- in fact I am working on a piece like that this month. But thats a different market and set of problems, one I know very well.

What I am talking about here is something that also happens already around the northwest- a group of metal artists get together to make a project that works better with multiple artists and differing shop capabilities.

For instance, Jurgen and Jeff and Jake have been doing a series of projects together for years, where each time a different person may be the "lead" on a job. Similarly, Larry and Andy just did some stuff together- both have their own shops, do their own jobs, and sometimes they work together on certain projects.

I have done this myself many times over the years, sometimes hiring other people to help me, other times being hired, other times working as equal (or unequal) partners on a project.

I am just posting this to let people know I am open to this kind of work right now- I know a lot of guys, for instance, may have the forging end down, but arent set up to knock out 150' of 8' fence that may have forged details. Or that some people are not comfortable with commercial cutting houses that require .dxf files, when they really want to try a shape, see how it looks, maybe change it a bit, cut another one, and THEN decide to cut 200 of em. Its very hard to do this with $200 an hour waterjet shops.
But in my shop, its easy and natural.

Everybody works differently, and some of us think in very unusual ways- and a lot of blacksmiths and artists I know get much better results if they can get their hands on the tools.

January 8, 2012
3:42 am
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Lynn Gledhill
Junction City, Oregon
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Love this idea!! Just wish you were closer to my location!!

January 8, 2012
3:52 pm
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Larry L
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I think Joint work is a fantastic way to take advantage of our local metalworking community..

I have done projects with Dave Lisch, Nick Rhinehart, many with Andy and Lisa, Anna Sher, and several more.. I am currently working on one with a big group of smiths. I find it pretty normal to share work back and forth with people.

I dont have much work myself at the moment, defiantly not anything to get excited about. I know there are a few folks busy with good work but they seem to be the exception. I have been referring a bit to other local folks not because I dont have time but rather because I still am struggling with the loss of my boy and find it hard to work on anything that is very creative in nature. Dull and mindless work I can do...

Whatever you are, be a good one.
Abraham Lincoln

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