Career change to Gunsmithing

[Lazarus]

Brian while I understand your point that time lost is money lost but do you have so much work that you don't have any time to waste? I would think that when business is slow you have a lot more time on your hands so you can devote an extra hour or two per piece for training. If you are that busy to where you always have something to work on thats great man and it says a lot for the quality of your work I think.

 

[ngcsugrad09]

Brian while I understand your point that time lost is money lost but do you have so much work that you don't have any time to waste? I would think that when business is slow you have a lot more time on your hands so you can devote an extra hour or two per piece for training. If you are that busy to where you always have something to work on thats great man and it says a lot for the quality of your work I think.

I'm not Brian, but I can imaging that beyond the actual work, I'm sure he's got other things to run the business like processing paperwork, creating invoices, shipping items, calling customers, managing other employees if there are any, taxes, ordering parts, receiving parts/guns/items, etc, etc, etc. There's a lot more to a personal business than just the gunsmithing itself.

 

[Lazarus]

I'm not Brian, but I can imaging that beyond the actual work, I'm sure he's got other things to run the business like processing paperwork, creating invoices, shipping items, calling customers, managing other employees if there are any, taxes, ordering parts, receiving parts/guns/items, etc, etc, etc. There's a lot more to a personal business than just the gunsmithing itself.

Sure there is but day to day its not that much out of an 8 hour day, again, unless you have that kind of volume.

 

[Brian618]

Brian while I understand your point that time lost is money lost but do you have so much work that you don't have any time to waste? I would think that when business is slow you have a lot more time on your hands so you can devote an extra hour or two per piece for training. If you are that busy to where you always have something to work on thats great man and it says a lot for the quality of your work I think.

Sure there is but day to day its not that much out of an 8 hour day, again, unless you have that kind of volume.

An 8 hour day would be great, on average I am in the shop 70+ hours a week, of which about 45 hours is actually working on guns, while the rest is handling regulatory compliance, accounting and taxes, transfers, ordering, handling phone, email & Walk-in inquiries (Very time consuming), and all the other minutiae required to run a small business. My workload is such I cannot afford to spend any less time actually doing revenue producing work. As it is the margins are thin and the kids like to eat (Go Figure). I'm not complaining one bit, because I love what I do, but the economic realities are such that doing less work would have a very detrimental effect on the business.

 

[oc1oc2]

Brian
You are hitting the nail on the head. I have trained a lot of tile setters over the years and you don't start making money off them for at least 6mos. if there sharp. And some it's the first day everyday for a month if you keep them around that long. I can remember telling a lot of guys just what you told me. Everyone that has replied to this has given good advise. On your advise, I have decided to get more educated on the whole matter, before I go out looking to get the experience. I would like to be as little a burden as possible to a shop owner and be a producer as soon as possible. Thanks everyone.

 

[Sharps40]

woops, wrong thread.

 

[Niner]

So, what is it that is bad about the Penn Foster course?
Serious question. I see they have a full page ad in one of the NRA magazines.

 

[Lazarus]

So, what is it that is bad about the Penn Foster course?
Serious question. I see they have a full page ad in one of the NRA magazines.

Well the first set of materials they send you is a cleaning kit, a gun value book, and some other stuff. You do your lessons online I believe it was very old and dated guns they are showing you how to work on which I'm sure the principals stay the same with a lot of stuff but honestly it was worth the money they were charging. At least not in my opinion. Gunsmithing is a trade and 9 out of 10 trades need to be learned hands on, not through a computer.

 

[Brian618]

A full page ad in an NRA Magazine doesn't mean much. They also have ads for Viagra, Stump Grinders, Sleep Number Beds, and Harbor Freight Tools. Just because they bought an ad doesn't make it good.

The Penn Foster course (I've seen the curriculum and course materials) is outdated(The course materials still referred to the Glock as a newly introduced pistol), poorly written, overly broad and very basic. They offer absolutely no hands on training, which is the only way to really learn how to do gunsmithing. The "Exams" are simple and multiple choice and can be passed easily without even looking over the poorly written lesson sections. All in all I felt that it was a waste of good money. If you want to learn gunsmithing go to real school and learn hands on, or try to find a gunsmith to take you under his wing and teach you.

 

[Niner]

Thanks gents. Sounds like my money would be better spent on DVDs from AGI and such. At least on some of the guns I already have on hand that I like to "tinker" on..

I already have plenty of gun cleaning stuff and Blue Books.