One of the last machine tool manufacturers

[pressbrake1]

Coborn engineering in Essex has gone
Admittedly their machines have been re worked Indian machines for some time it’s still sad .
They also made the first powered metal scrapers

 

[minimutly]

Today I was talking to an engineer that works in a repair workshop, he wanted to have a closed ended cast iron cylinder spun cast, around 1m dia, 2.5m long. He was made a promise by an Indian firm to take the job on but they bailed. So he scoured the globe to find someone he could trust to do it. In the end it came down to one company, in Spain. Nobody else would or could.

 

[frank horton]

just sad.......it was always a downward spiral.....nobody wanted to pay.....
Carp govenments and accountants....
I quit at 55, most of my self emp skilled mates in eng and building had quit before me.....
Most went to southern europe.....
They found it too hard to make decent money esp when u factor in rent n rates....

When I had my place with 5 men working, it worked out that it took 4-5 days to pay for everything and what was left was my profit....
I just gave up with the last rate rise.....earnt more money working out of the back of a TRANSIT VAN WITH LESS STRESS>>>
This is one reason why companies go under....

 

[GRW]

just sad.......it was always a downward spiral.....nobody wanted to pay.....
Carp govenments and accountants....
I quit at 55, most of my self emp skilled mates in eng and building had quit before me.....
Most went to southern europe.....
They found it too hard to make decent money esp when u factor in rent n rates....

When I had my place with 5 men working, it worked out that it took 4-5 days to pay for everything and what was left was my profit....
I just gave up with the last rate rise.....earnt more money working out of the back of a TRANSIT VAN WITH LESS STRESS>>>
This is one reason why companies go under....

I'm running a costing exercise steadily atm for where I work (in between daily tasks).
It's scary when you add up the amount of money it takes to just keep the door open.
I'm looking to work out the overhead cost for each type of job/task/service the business provides - to make sure each one is worth doing, or only worth doing if it's charged out at a higher rate.

Like most small businesses the rates were set at what the market was when established, and have just gone up here & there by a very arbitrary amount.... IMO its so tight now that you need to have a much better handle on things.

Where I work is another of those engineering places that are an endangered species with difficulties of getting skilled and reliable staff, increased costs etc - and the kind of business that once lost is unlikely ever to be replaced - which is a loss to everyone.

 

[pressbrake1]

Business rates doesn’t take into account income do you could have a big premises just to respray trucks as I one man band or it could be packed with fifty people running cnc . Obviously rates are based on the former

 

[northwest]

Eastern Europe esp. Poland will become the heart of true engineering I think. We are done for, a combination of over zealous Elf n Safety, onerous legislation, Unions and the reluctance of any school or college to actually teach the skilled manual trades has finished us off. The fact that the youth of today are being taught told that a degree is the be all and end all spells doom especially in the long term seeing what Ai is capable of we are rushing headlong into a real abyss.

I just hope we can show our grandkids what we can do with actual machinery before we are all dead . Maybe, just maybe we can keep the spark alive, though personally I don't hold out much hope as the human race is inherently lazy.

 

[pressbrake1]

Czech Republic is the manufacturering go to

 

[northwest]

It's scary when you add up the amount of money it takes to just keep the door open.

I did similar about ten years ago. Pooped myself and promptly moved to a (much) cheaper location.

 

[northwest]

Czech Republic is the manufacturering go to

I don't disagree with you Clive though years ago when I was doing deals in the Czech Republic one of our mantras was: If you must do a deal with a man in the Czech republic, don't! Is probably still true. The women on the other hand were much easier to negotiate with and generally stayed true to their word.

 

[GRW]

Czech Republic is the manufacturering go to

A friend of mine in the timber game was going over to Poland & buying chassis/Tracked Sawmills & bringing them back here.

It does seem that Eastern Europe is producing the kit the UK routinely did maybe 40 (50?) Years ago.

It's noticeable too the skillsets (& work ethic) of many of the Poles I've met working in the UK. A "can do" attitude and being versatile and handy (generally in both senses of the word ) is the general impression.

 

[Keithmac]

Why my son was looking round hs college for his car mechanic apprenticeship they still have an engineering / machining course going with fully kitted out workshop.

I did wonder where the students would go after completing their course as it does seem a dying trade unfortunately.

All the people I know that do bits and pieces for us are in their 60's now.

A real shame.

 

[dieselsamurai]

My friend needed a couple of MRAPs built for a film job and couldnt find anyone with a remotely sensible quote in this country found a company in Poland did them for a 1/3 of the cost he could get here

 

[Domdom]

This is so sad, but completely predictable unfortunately. The bit which kills (killed) UK engineering and manufacturing are always overheads.

These take only 2 forms really, taxation and wages. All the rest is predictable and can be budgeted. New machine? Cost it, split that over X number of years, look at its productivity and you have the unit cost to factor into every job.

Taxation, wow, how do you account for that? Especially with Rachel from accounts keep changing the rules. Business rates are another mental cost. This takes no account of productivity/profitability against the required space to operate. It really should. As noted above, it takes a lot of space to cast a massive closed ended cylinder, you simply cannot cannot do this is the space that an office desk occupies.

Corporation tax is another one which is heinously unbalanced, if you're a global organisation you can have paper based loans from another part of the company and offset payments against your profits before paying tax. It amount to money laundering. The small business based solely in the UK cannot do this. Should be a much smaller percentage and be based on turnover.

Wages are a huge cost. Not so much that they are high per-sé, but the employer's costs that go with a wage are at an altogether silly level. Employer's NI, Holiday pay. Sick pay, Pension contributions - this lot really adds up. My wife is a Payroll Manager so I get to see this first hand, and in a manufacturing company, not some desk-jockey organisation. And the workforce at her place have a large Polish contingent, strange that. (They make extrusions from billet, like greenhouse frames etc)

With all this cost it is a real disadvantage compared to some far-eastern places where people work for a bowl of rice a day, factories are not taxed to oblivion and so on. Small wonder the UK based companies are closing, the game is far too unbalanced.

 

[pressbrake1]

As the virtue signalling net zero mantra
It’s better to make in Asia using dirty energy than clean energy here.

Like paying a scallywag to take away your rubbish knowing it will be fly tipped but having a clear conscience as you’ve tidied up and it will be dumped in another neighbourhood

 

[bricol]

If only people, especially engineering types bemoaning the loss of UK engineering, didn't buy cheap crap from around the world on next day delivery . . .

 

[pressbrake1]

If only people, especially engineering types bemoaning the loss of UK engineering, didn't buy cheap crap from around the world on next day delivery . . .

The choice is gone

 

[bricol]

The choice is gone

We had a worry for a while when China entered our market. It really was "our" market - the photos in their website was our machine in our factory! After a while, they "frosted" the guard windows so you couldn't see our factory.

However, roll on a few years, we're still selling machines, as far as we can tell, our customers, after a short flirtation, have stopped looking to China and are back with us - our machine work, reliably. And if they don't, we go fix them.

 

[pressbrake1]

I did similar about ten years ago. Pooped myself and promptly moved to a (much) cheaper location.

About 15 years ago I moved workshops. Same size workshop but nicer road 200 yds away.
I was distraught when the rates enforcement turned up the same day to inform me my rates were £400 a month more .
So I had to work even more hours , luckily I was busy enough to work harder

 

[Tinbasherdan]

Eastern Europe esp. Poland will become the heart of true engineering I think. We are done for, a combination of over zealous Elf n Safety, onerous legislation, Unions and the reluctance of any school or college to actually teach the skilled manual trades has finished us off. The fact that the youth of today are being taught told that a degree is the be all and end all spells doom especially in the long term seeing what Ai is capable of we are rushing headlong into a real abyss.

I just hope we can show our grandkids what we can do with actual machinery before we are all dead . Maybe, just maybe we can keep the spark alive, though personally I don't hold out much hope as the human race is inherently lazy.

I have to argue about not wanting to teach, the problem is the constant watering down by governing bodies. I know for a fact that a major exam board didn’t get enough top level passes to suit the government figures, so they’ve rewritten the exam to be easier. Those that work hard, pay attention and just “get it” no longer get any form of respect, instead the dross is bumped up. To seemingly everyone else’s level so that it looks better on a spread sheet.

I have a constant argument in every educational establishment I’ve worked- aspiration is not aptitude, and just because you want to be an engineer doesn’t mean you will be, and yet we are pushed year on year to have top levels of passes. I don’t entirely blame the college management, they have to dance to the tune played by the government, written by someone who’s never done any sort of vocational job and who simply cannot see why people SHOULD fail engineering courses. I’ve seen some absolute dross get a qualification they never earned, simply because to fail them would result in a spanking from the government