Guides from the shop floor
Plain answers to the questions that come up before someone sends us a job.
Written for the person who has to make the call, not for a search engine
Why these exist
Most of what gets published about metal fabrication is either a sales page or a specification nobody outside the trade can use. These guides are the middle ground: what we would tell you on the phone if you called and asked.
None of them require you to hire us. Several of them will tell you when the answer is to do something other than send us the job.
Start here
Each one answers a question we get asked before someone sends a job in.
Millwright or mechanical contractor: which one does your plant need?
The two trades overlap enough that plants routinely hire the wrong one, then pay twice.
02How to get a custom part made when you have no drawing
Most parts that come into a job shop arrive as a broken original and a phone photograph. That is a perfectly good starting point.
03Steel, aluminum or stainless: choosing material for a fabricated part
Four questions decide it, and price is the last of them rather than the first.
04Planning a plant shutdown: what to line up before the window opens
Shutdowns rarely overrun because the work was slow. They overrun because something was discovered.
05Rebuild or replace: when a truck service body is worth saving
The chassis and the body wear out on completely different schedules, which is what makes this decision worth thinking about.
06What a fabrication shop needs from you to quote accurately
Most of the gap between a quote and a final invoice traces back to something nobody asked about at the start.
