In search of a machine shop that is not fully booked in NE Ohio / Western PA. Looking to get my heads checked before install.
Yeah they named it after me. I was also City Engineer / Service Director for Painesville for 23 years. Asked that question many times. My daughter is now City Engineer for Painesville. She was appointed 10 years to the day when Sandy and I retired together in 2004. She worked there too,that's where I met her. Actually, it was named after General Edward Paine who founded Painesville in early 1800s.
Francis is very good.....by far not the cheapest but good and cheap don't normally play together. Be very clear on the your time line.....eith any shop.....then add at least a month because very very few shops can get stuff done on time
Some of that is poor management. Lotsa guys who really know how to "do" the work, don't have such a good grip on how to run a business. However, beginning with the Wuhan Plague, sourcing parts has become a real nightmare, and it's not getting better nearly as fast as a person might expect. My machinist buddy spends a huge proportion of his day on the 'phone to a variety of suppliers trying to get stuff that used to be shelf-stock at his primary "first-call" source. Any time spent on the phone is time NOT drilling/reaming/cutting/grinding/polishing/welding/finishing actual work. Short story: Sometimes it's not the shop's fault that stuff isn't completed in a timely manner. (Sometimes it is.)
I have never gotten anything from Francis engineering thats has been wrong. They truly do great work. I've not had Cody's do anything for me yet, but I've heard nothing but good. Fowler's in Columbus was great also, but I believe they closed down the other month, they were all ready to retire and no one up and coming
Hopefully, there will be some younger guys getting their hands dirty in the machine shop. It took two years to get a block, crank, rods and pistons checked, cleaned and prepped when I started my 350 build back in late 2020. I didn't even have anything bored or turned, just decked the block, honed cylinders, new cam bearings and new rod bolts were the biggest things. The closest shop was so backed up he wouldn't even consider taking my stuff for 30 days. When I called him back, he wasn't even answering the phone for a solid week so I gave up on him. Haven't taken a brake rotor to him in 3 years now. Second shop, 50 miles away was near where I grew up and was highly recommended by friends. He kept it 7 months and only disassembled the heads, resurfaced the flywheel, polished the crank and knocked freeze plugs out. I figured that was a days work, 2 if you are lazy. Probably all of it done by his helper as none of it was what I consider highly demanding work. I even offered to help him in his shop if it would speed things along, just cleaning/blasting, etc. Grunt work that he could avoid and do higher value jobs. I finally picked it up when he stopped answering the phone for a solid month. I only called at most once a week to see if he needed any money and/or parts to continue. The next shop, 25 miles away, kept it almost a year exactly. He said he'd not get to it immediately but thought it would be 3 months in the queue. He decked the block, resized the rods for new bolts, verified the clearances, rebuilt the heads and installed the cam bearings and freeze plugs. During that time he was down with COVID for 3 weeks and had another medical issue that knocked him out of work for a full month. He apologized for keeping it so long. The final shop was 80 miles away. He balanced the rotating assembly in about 10 days. Traveling some distance to find a decent shop that can get stuff out the door in less than double their estimated time and within 50% over the dollar estimate seems like a miracle to me.
