Own A Sheet Metal Fabrication Business? Money-Saving Tips For Your Shop
Posted on: 1 September 2019
If you're looking for ways to cut costs in your sheet metal fabrication shop, take a look at the way your operation runs. You and your crew may be making simple errors that are causing those increased costs. Here are four tips that will help you save money on your sheet metal fabrication costs.
Stick With Stock
When it comes to cutting costs in your shop, the best thing you do is stick with stock sizes. If you're using a lot of custom sizes in your shop, you're spending more money than you need to be. Choosing stock sizes for your sheet metal is a quick and easy way to reduce your overhead, while still providing quality designs for your clients. If you do have projects that require custom sizes, shop around for the best deals before you purchase your sheet metal. Shopping the market can help you save money on the sheet metal you need for those custom projects.
Avoid Custom Gauges
Gauging is another area that can run up the costs in your shop, especially if you do a lot of custom gauging. Choosing standard gauges for your projects will allow you to use the tools that you have on hand, without the added expense of investing in custom gauges for your shop. If you do undertake custom projects from time-to-time, invest in the gauges that you use most often. For the occasional custom project, consider renting the gauges on an as-needed basis.
Limit Your Use of Detailed Angles
If you've noticed that your costs are increasing, while your profits have been steadily decreasing, take a look at your use of detailed angles. Those detailed and custom angles can add time and cost to your projects. Unfortunately, both those situations can take a serious bite out of your income. To reduce overhead, and get your costs back under control, limit your use of detailed angles and bends. It's also important that you avoid tight angles and bends on thicker pieces of sheet metal. Attempting tight angles and bends on thick sheet metal increases the occurrence of mistakes.
Maintain Control Of the Tolerances
When working with sheet metal, it's important to remember that tolerances will only be required in certain areas of the metal. Using tolerances in areas that aren't required can add to the overall cost of the project. For maximum efficiency, limit the use of tolerances to areas where they're absolutely required.
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