Cool thread...
I worked for twenty years as a Tool & Diemaker, starting as an apprentice right out of vocational high school. I really enjoyed the challenge and I did a lot of tool design and prototype stuff.
I got laid off in '93 and things weren't doing real well around the area. I wasn't out of work for long though... A friend told me of an opening working in a calibration lab. (C-Body related... I bought my 300 from him years later). It was a temp job though, but I had a bunch of severance pay and this gave me a chance to look around. One thing lead to another and the temp job went permanent and I stuck around. Air Force guys... Think PMEL.
That was going OK, but the place relocated and consolidated with another lab and the job took a bad turn. I got to talking with a couple guys there and the next thing we knew.... We started our own lab.
So... with a lot of hard work, we made a success of the place. We had a good mix. One partner could do management and quality, another cold sell ice to Eskimos and then there was me... I could do all the hands on stuff and take care of the facility. It was good. We eventually took on another partner that was an amazing financial guy and that gave us everything we needed. We've done well, with 20 people working there.
The financial partner... He brought us an opportunity a few years ago. He used to be the shop manager of a small factory. The owner wanted out. The place wasn't doing well and he knew it. He approached my partner about buying the factory and the deal was too sweet to pass up. The next thing I knew, I was a partner in the place.
We make cloisonne car and motorcycle emblems. Ever see the nice enameled badge on the hood of a Dodge Viper? That came out of our place. We make the badges for Harley Davidson (like the new 110th anniversary badge), Ford and Chrysler. The Jeep "Trail Rated" badge is one of ours too. We also do a few other things like chrome gas filler doors for Dodges and Jeeps, and the hub caps on Vipers. We employ about 70 people.
I don't do much there... although my tools now reside in the tool room. My partner has turned the place around and it's paying for itself nicely.
But back to the calibration lab....
I'm looking forward to retirement now... and my partners and I worked out a very fair deal and I've been bought out of the calibration lab. I have to work until the end of 2015 as part of the contract, but after that.. I'm free! I'm still partners in the emblem shop and we might work something out in the next few years... but we'll see.
Whew...