Selling Fishing Gear Is Another Way I Make a Living

By Kenny Williams

One of the other things I do for a living is sell fishing gear. One product that my fishing tackle company sells is made in a local machine shop owned by a good friend and mentor, Jay Altman. This product is called the Multi-Pole and the process of bringing it to market has proven to be one of the most educating experiences of my life. I can honestly say that I have learned more in Jay's machine shop about business and the real world than in my high school and college years combined. What draws me most to the machine shop environment is that it presents situations that put your logic and reasoning abilities to true tests. In the end either your idea works or it doesn't and the proof is always quite clear.

I really admire the mind of a good machinist. They can take a task and break it down to simple components and create a logical sequence of steps for production. I, unfortunately, have to work real hard to achieve these types of results. For instance, I spent over an hour attempting to set up a machine to make a simple part for the Multi-Pole. During the course of this hour I went over the process in my head a dozen times and still couldn't get it straight. Then in walks Neal Smedegaard (one of the best machinists around) and, with the ease that I show in turning on my television set, gets things working in less than five minutes. It really amazed me.

After this experience I decided that maybe I needed a little more machine shop education and turned to my faithful computer and the Internet for some help. I have to say that I found some great stuff that will add quite a bit of useful info to my bag of tricks. The site that had the most information pertaining to machine shops, their suppliers, and the techniques used in them is called modern machine shop and it is located at http://www.mmsonline.com. This site covers information ranging from the modern computerized machines used today to shop management ideas. This site is a great resource if you are interested in finding supply sources and offers an area to bid out quotes for projects.

My favorite machine shop Web site was located at http://www.emachineshop.com. This site is really cool. It gives you the chance to design your own ideas online and have them made and sent to you. To design your idea you will have to download their free software and spend a few minutes working with it. I found it to be very simple to use and the prices were quite reasonable. I am going to see how good they are with an idea I have for a computer case that incorporates a small refrigerator that will cool your internal components and chill your beverages at the same time. I will keep you informed as the project progresses as I am sure there will be many interested buyersJ.

The reason I like computers so much is they allow you to extend your talents into areas previously untouchable. With my computer I can consider myself a machinist, a digital machinist. I know that only time and experience will help me approach the skill levels of the masters, but my computer will help me expedite the process.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, e-mail me at WebServerColumn@yahoo.com