Making money.

[Screwdriver]

I dont have a big van or cash and i have comitments with grandson.....so distance might be an issue.

I am also seeing alot of dodgy buyers on ebay trying it on just lately.

Ebay is not being discounted but......

Sorry sounds like it's not helpful. Interestingly, your two comments are very closely related to the "trick" in snapping up a bargain: lots of dodgy buyers out there but there's a bloke willing to pop over right now with cash. That commitment is actually worth something to many sellers, no mucking about and usually scores a discount.

Where I have gone wrong in this brilliant plan is I never really seem to get around to actually selling! So I have mountains of stuff but hardly two pennies to rub together.

I love having stuff mind...

 

[ukracer]

Maybe it's time he started to charge his mates - who's paying for the gas, wire, electricity etc? And yet you're doing to do your damndest to help him with his wedding expenses, in spite of all you're going through - time for him to wake up, imvho. Sounds harsh, but......

Is this the same son who had an accident in an M3 en route to the 'Ring a while back.......?

Oh they give him a drink which he puts in a jar for when we need gaz or wire etc but he dont charge proper rates.

Yeah its the same son. He has not asked for help....a couple of relations on her side were going to give them money but one has lost his job and the other is no longer in aposition to assist.

He has just got a part time job with his previous company doing recovery on his weekend off. So he will be working 7 days a week....he has woken up to be fair. But i still want to help.

 

[ukracer]

Im sure there must be an application for my work (see avatar) in those kind of fields - camper vans, yacht control panels, car dash boards, and the like. That's the other side of this coin - i know that market must be there, but i have no real idea how to access it!

Thats also one of my issues.

 

[ukracer]

I'm not sure about your machining skills but there's always a market for lathework. Around here there are 3 firms who do it, one isn't interested in one off or repair jobs, one charges a fortune & the other guy does top quality work but you could wait 6 months before he can get your job finished.

The car restoration, vintage & motorsport scene are always looking for one-off repair or manufacturing jobs. Things like strut braces, alloy foot rests, catch tanks, etc. Take a look through the Demon tweeks catalogue & see what you could make & sell on ebay. There are parts for a lot of cars that are no longer available but the car restoration folk need & the only option is repair or re-manufacture.

Over on the 205gti forum there's a bloke making things like stainless bumper brackets that are no longer available but always need replaced due to rust. Another is making uprated engine mounts involving a simple bit of lathework & a press. There's another making gear lever pivot bush kits from nylon & brass.

So there's work out there, you just need to find the right contacts.

This is what i wouldlike to do. Lathe work to pee the fatherin law off as he has the money but likes to see people suffer/strive like he had to. BUT he always keeps trying to get me to sell my lathe.....he has no hobbies and never ever had one....i have a few things in the fishing scene in mind and this year should see me with access to anglers at the weekend after march.

What i really would like is a nice design for a quick release keepnet clip....

 

[Tom Orrow L]

Sort me a price out Tom please...

Free of charge mate, I bought them as a job lot to use as handles for some knives I was making, they're done now so you can have whatever left over

 

[fizzy]

How about selling garden incinerators? The ones made out of old stainless washing machine drums. Just make a nice stand for them.

 

[Dieselman 63]

I make these little hooks out of 1-2mm sheet metal. They're quick and easy to make and you can paint them with Humbrol tinlets.

 

[Richard.]

there are 2 overall general ways to make money really
Either by been competitive or been different.
If your going to be expensive you need to be better or bespoke. You cannot turn or weld something in your shed that is going to sell against a product that is spat out by the thousands on cnc machines in China. However you can turn or weld something that will fit into someones life in a personal way.
Take a balcony rail for example. You can buy these in 1 mtr lengths quite cheap and fit them to try and work or you can have one made to fit perfectly. One that avoids the parts it needs to avoid and is designed exactly as the buyer wants. They’ll pay 4 times as much for this.
Advertise yourself as bespoke and flexible. You can make loads of stuff if the market knows your around. Spacers, pins , shafts, bushes, bearing carriers. Everyone wants something from time to time that is a fraction smaller or has a strange thread or recess. Loads of it out there. I do loads of little bits on my lathe now that people know I can use it. I made 2 spacers the other day for a go kart engine mount that someone had cocked up. I have a half finished aluminium trike fuel tank sitting on my bench and I’ve got an engine driven scooter to do some welding on.
I was asked to make a bog standard steel tool trolley too but there is little point in me quoting that as I can’t be competitive and they don’t want different or bespoke.

 

[ukracer]

Free of charge mate, I bought them as a job lot to use as handles for some knives I was making, they're done now so you can have whatever left over

Ok mate i have sent pm regarding postage costs.

 

[Richard.]

Another thing I like to do is take on projects. A bit like screwd with his vices but with other things. Problem here is the time you put into it has got to be recovered in the value of it finished. And the price of it has got to be much lower in its current state. I bought an old snap On tool box from gumtree from Cambridge. It was £25. It was awful. Bent, rusty, seized, snapped key in lock but I thought it was worth a project.
It took me days to get it looking mint and it sold for £170. Not worth doing really but some things are worth buying and restoring if you know your stuff.

 

[Richard.]

Not worth doing if it's supposed to be putting food on the table, but maybe an enjoyable way to get beer money?

Seeing as:



That's a reasonable option...

Well yeah it was enjoyable and tbf it came out lovely I wish I’d kept it now.
In the respect it didn’t cost me much (sprays, lock, abrasives) and it certainly doesn’t put food on my table. But even little projects I don’t particularly like doing all those hours for £5 an hour in the end. So that was a failed one to me personally. I was hoping for it to take half the time and to make the £250 mark. Then it was worth while to me.

 

[Nell#2]

do you have one of those reuse shops at your local tip I've made lots on older tools vices ect. some people just don' know how to shop unless it' on the www. get to know the people who work in the shop and and they will put stuff by for you for biscuits.
1 get it for penny's from the reuse shop
2. clean it and ebay it stick to small items

 

[seanc]

may sound silly buy a few years ago my mum used to visit charity shops and buy up all there knitting patterns, she bought them for peanuts. split them individually listed on ebay for a couple of pound a pop. made good money at it but ended up cleaning out most of the local shops so it all dryed up a bit. She sold a few books for over what there new price was on amazon as well, I guess ebay is sometimes peoples first port of call and they just assume there getting a bargain

 

[Olderisbetter]

@ukracer, Hi, i know i say this to many people but i was doing caring for many years, Really have a good look into what things you might be entitled to and have not been told about, It was the silly things that amazed me such as using a downstairs room as a bed room lowered my council tax by 1 band, It may be worth asking few questions on moneysavingexpert.com, But as for earning my mate used to have a great set up stripping cars that were very cheap but common and selling bits on car forums like retrorides and pistonheads, He also used to clear sheds and when local places were sold/selling he would ask if they wanted the garage emptied to make the place look tidy, I was amazed by some of the things he used to pick up.

 

[Exuptoy]

I've made some surprising amounts breaking a couple of bikes. CB Sevenfifty clocks went to Germany for £125!! Tank was silly money too and all I'd done was strip it and paint it in primer!
Just recently I've started using John Pye auction site and providing you sell the stuff you actually want to keep (that's where I fail!!!) and the multi buys you can make a reasonable amount. I just picked up 6 cd boom box units for just over a fiver each after the hammer price and they should at least double their money, other things may only make a fiver and cost me £25 each but a fiver is a fiver!

 

[Keith 66]

Top tip, stay away from boats unless you live near the Solent or upper Thames (where they are a licence to print money) Making stuff will make you friends? but not rich. I have been a boatbuilder all my working life but got out a few years ago as unviable, Much like all of us im always looking for a way to make a few bob, few years ago I started making Cigar box guitars, easy to do & sound good. Did a show & sold a few but found a scottish bloke knocking them out for the same price the rest of us could buy the parts, and now the chinese are making them. So that avenue is banjaxed.
Doing a boat up at the moment, Just to keep my hand in! 14ft wooden sailing dinghy, jobs going really well & thinking im on the home stretch. Then last night i find a tiny soft spot in the keel right at the stern, i start chasing it & the rot gets worse. Inaccessible place so i have to keep cutting back. If i had found it at the start i would have cut the poxy thing up. Im in too far to stop, so have to fix it probably the hard way. Bang goes my profit margin.
Buying & selling is good! I should know this by now.

 

[CompoSimmonite]

I'd say stick with what you already know whether that be profession, trade or whatever you do for a job or as a hobby rather than something new and completley different.

 

[rtbcomp]

I'd say stick with what you already know whether that be profession, trade or whatever you do for a job or as a hobby rather than something new and completley different.

Also look at what you've got around in terms of tools and materials. That's how I started my grit blasting business, I already had the gear to do my own Land Rover and it just progressed into doing work for other people.

Freecycle is a good source of stuff too. I've repaired a washing machine (heating element), lawnmower (blown fuse), microwave (loose wire), Hi-Fi amp, tape recorder and sold them on. What you can't fix strip for parts or sell as scrap. Keep away from fridges, they're expensive to dispose of.

 

[ukracer]

do you have one of those reuse shops at your local tip I've made lots on older tools vices ect. some people just don' know how to shop unless it' on the www. get to know the people who work in the shop and and they will put stuff by for you for biscuits.
1 get it for penny's from the reuse shop
2. clean it and ebay it stick to small items

Not able to get anything from our tip sadly.

 

[ukracer]

I'd say stick with what you already know whether that be profession, trade or whatever you do for a job or as a hobby rather than something new and completley different.

They havent privatised the fire service yet...lol

But i take your point...