The Official Skills/Services Thread

[Greg]

Okay, I had this idea while driving back to work from lunch. Why not have everyone post their skillset and/or services they have to offer other forum members? That way, if you need something, you could use this thread as a Yellow Pages of sorts, to find someone in your area that could help you out. In the end, we all save a few bucks, and make a few bucks.

I'll start:

I was a Paintless Dent Removal Tech in a former life, and have worked on hundreds of cars, taking out door dings, hail damage, grocery cart dents, etc. If anyone in the KC Metro area (or willing to drive to KC) needs some dents fixed, let me know. I charge less than half the retail shops, and do just as good a job, and probably better (based on the work I've had to fix from other shops). No appointments necessary, just show up, and if it's something small, you can wait while I fix it. I work out of my house.

I also offer help with any type of car audio installation and custom speaker enclosure fabrication.

And in general, I'm handy with any car-related stuff. I've built one car from the bare frame, having had to completely wire the car, build the engine from the bare block, run/flare all brake and fuel lines, and build the entire interior, so I have some knowledge there, as well.

I also offer vinyl printing services, and banners for the garage. I sell a lot of Cobra-related stuff, but I can do many custom designs. See more at www.f5banners.com

And finally, I have a 4-post lift in my garage, if anyone needs to use it.

Summary for member "Greg":

1) Paintless Dent Repair
2) Car Audio Installation
3) General car maintenance
4) 4-post lift services
5) Vinyl Graphics for cars/banners for the garage at www.f5banners.com

Who's next?

Greg

[rfzl]

I guess I can go next. I don't have the extensive background that Greg has but I have experience in electronics (ET in the Navy + 5 years in the field), electro-mechanical stuff of all kinds, basic do-all for mechanical stuff. I can do relays, wiring, soldering, and most other test/design work. I have a small CNC mill and CNC lathe at home so can fab up simple things.


Summary:
Electronics - digital controls, relays, leds ...
Electrics, motors, wiring, wiring diagrams, design, testing
Mechanical - most anything within reason
Machine Shop - small Aluminium stuff
Fiberglass - Build model planes so have experience with this

No lift, no ground up builds, nothing fancy, just old school (pre 1980)

Live in Olathe, not that far from Greg's

Ron

[sinner944]

Skillz.....Hmmmm.....

I have computer skills, nunchuck skills, bow staff skills, and I can draw a mean Liger......LOL....

The best I have is I can do what I am told. I do some wiring if you like your wire ran through your spring..........

Fredy you should post that pic...LOL

[Greg]

CNC machine, eh? Oh, THAT is good information. You mind if I take up residence in your garage? :)

I may have to pick your brain on some simple bracketry I'm trying to make.

Greg

[captainlaziness]

Dammit Rob, you beat me the Napoleon Dynamite reference.

What can I do? Umm, I think I'm fairly decent with a rattle can. I've sprayed my tail lights, mirror turn signals, headlights, and interior parts with success (although I take my time, so you'd either need a back-up part or be able to go without whatever part for a few days). I've done some vinyl work as well, graphics, overlays, and pinstriping on my car and I've done all the vinyl work for Mafia Mike's Pizza.

So..
Accent painting (with all necessary prep)
Vinyl installation
Basic, bolt on installs

[captainlaziness]

Also, I'm great at chasing down cars full of ladies when I'm out of town and drunk.

[Scikotic Monkey]

um since i work for as a auto tech for jeep, any performance parts motor work ect... also car audio, i have some automotive paint guns that i havent used, still looking for someones body parts to paint. (car parts)

mechanic
electronics.

[rfzl]

CNC machine, eh? Oh, THAT is good information. You mind if I take up residence in your garage? :)

I may have to pick your brain on some simple bracketry I'm trying to make.

Greg

Well, like I said, it is a small mill and lathe (in my basement). I'm limited to about 3"x8" on the lathe and 4"x8"x4" bar stock on the mill. I have all of the software needed to draw up the shape and then cut it. I work mostly in aluminium but also do brass and bronze. I can do mild steel but would rather not as it will take a lot longer to cut and I just have not done much with it so don't have the experience. Of course I have metal saws, band saw, sanding, grinder, etc. to do the other things.

I have a pretty good source for raw stock and the local Metal by the Yard shop usually has scrap for sale cheap.

Now, if we can come up with a good welder....

[captainlaziness]

Bronze you say? Do you think a bronze shift knob could be done?

[burstaneurysm]

I have computer skills, nunchuck skills, bow staff skills, and I can draw a mean Liger
Chicks do dig a guy with skills. :lol:

Uh... I consider myself a jack of all trades and master at none.
I'm awesome at taking things apart, and pretty good at putting them back together. (If you have extra parts when you're done, it just means your a more efficient engineer than the person who designed it)

I'm decent at small paint stuff, bolt-on stuff, carpentry, and comic relief. :D

[rfzl]

Bronze you say? Do you think a bronze shift knob could be done?

Sure, a shift knob is possible. Depends on how big you want it and the threads needed. I don't have a metric tap and die set so that will be an issue. I've been looking at getting a thread cutter for the mill which will allow me to do any thread you want but a cutter is expensive, about $30 each for cheap ones.

Bronze can be hard to work with and is porous. The stuff I get is mainly used for bushings and bearings, not like the cast stuff used for statues. It is also expensive for bars over 1" dia. An example for a 1.75" x 13" solid rod is $60 and weighs in at 10lbs. Compare that to a 1" rod at 3lbs and $20.

Aluminium is a different animal. It is a lot cheaper, I already have some large stock, and I can make it as unique as you want (within reason). If the shape is symetrical and you don't want anything too elaborate designed into the head, I should be able to make something in about 2 days. I might even be able to do some 3D shapes but I've not tried much there and the finish time is a lot longer as grinding and polishing are needed. Again, I am no machinist nor am I a great designer. I do metal working as a hobby and have done most of my work just converting the mill and lathe to CNC from manual versions. I'll try anything once. I've made lots of chips but nothing really worth while at this time.

Think about it and put some thoughts onto paper. I'll see what I can do. I may try a miniture version first and then just blow it up to fit.

[Fredy]

Here's Rob's skills:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y174/Fredyd0309/Scikotics/Picture079.jpg

[burstaneurysm]

Astonishing! :shock:

[sinner944]

The spring was loose so I tied it in.....Thats my story....:eek:

[Scikotic Monkey]

so i'm bring home most of my tools home this weekend to do a 30k on the B if anyone else needs to get some things done this weekend will be the time to do it.

[Fredy]

my skills = 0000

[rfzl]

Since a few of you were interested in my CNC milling equipment, here is a sample of what I can do. It is very crude and is only a sample but you get the idea. I am planning on doing a new battery hold-down using aluminium bar of .25" and then polish it out.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2346/1881873958_21d0e3f496_b.jpg

For those of you in the KC area, I'll try to help out if I can and make parts/stuff for the cost of material. Even if you don't think it is a viable project, send me an PM with a description of what you want and I'll see what I can do.

As a point of reference, the "B" is 7/8" tall and about 5/8" wide. The depth of the cut is .05" but I'll change that to .02" which will give it a much finer look as the cutter is a ball end mill so a shallower cut will make the width of the cut that much smaller.

Ron

[captainlaziness]

Damn, that's pretty cool.

[rfzl]

Yeh, it turned out ok for 20 minutes of work. I didn't even have the mill tramed in, so one of the axis is not even calibrated correctly. When I get down to making a "production" part, tolerances will be somewhere <.001", or about the width of a hair.

By the way, what about that bronze shifter knob? A tall order but I think I can make something reasonable. Perhaps a Scion logo on the top or just a Cap. S. Since I can do any TrueType font, it can be fancy or plain.

[Scikotic Monkey]

i could use a battery tie down, but how about with the scikotics logo engraved into it

[rfzl]

i could use a battery tie down, but how about with the scikotics logo engraved into it

That should be easy enough. I just need to know what font you want it in and I can make it fit the space available. Based on a quick measurment, the tie down is about 1" wide by 8" long. I can make it longer but the width is limited by the battery. If you can send me a picture of the logo, I should be able to get pretty close. If you know the exact sizes and font types, I can make it "perfect".

There are other options where I can add risers and then make the top of the hold-down wider. Of course, the larger the part, the more expensive the material. I just need a basic idea of the outcome you desire and I'll play with it to see what I can do.

[burstaneurysm]

That's very cool. Nicely done!