What is the level of repairability of these equipements ?

[SistMaticZ]

Re: What is the level of repairability of these equipements ?

Interestingly not mentioned by anyone else.... but the buy -> repair -> sell market can be very financially rewarding. Plus you don't have the stress of getting repairs completed to a deadline nor do you have any customer to dissapoint if you couldn't repair an item. This is something you can do in your spare time or full time.

Just find some product that holds a good second value and demand in the area you live and has a readily available supply of 'scrap / spares or repair' items to purchase cheap. What you can't fix either helps to build up a good stock of useful spare parts, or you can always sell it again spares or repair.
.

Rich

Thanks for your words. I have started to follow this approach not too long ago and its better than the stress of getting things repaired no matter how .

What am doing is repairing things that are rapidly repairable without being lazy about it , if some spare needs to be searched for i can do it no problem , but if things get too unlucky then i switch to your approach buy-repair-sell.

[dicky96]

Re: What is the level of repairability of these equipements ?

Interestingly not mentioned by anyone else.... but the buy -> repair -> sell market can be very financially rewarding. Plus you don't have the stress of getting repairs completed to a deadline nor do you have any customer to dissapoint if you couldn't repair an item. This is something you can do in your spare time or full time.

Just find some product that holds a good second value and demand in the area you live and has a readily available supply of 'scrap / spares or repair' items to purchase cheap. What you can't fix either helps to build up a good stock of useful spare parts, or you can always sell it again spares or repair.

I've done this sort of work in various fields, but when I was living in the UK, Mobile DJ and disco lighting (lasers, mixers, amplifiers/speakers, smoke machines etc) proved to be a very profitable market. Especially if you could find job lots of similar equipment to purchase.

Look for local industrial/commercial/bankruptcy/customer returns/insurance claim auctions, recycling companies and online auctions to find stuff to fix.

I am sure there are plenty of other similar niches out there.

Rich

[Curious.George]

Re: What is the level of repairability of these equipements ?

Been there, done all that too. I know exactly what you are saying and I agree with it to a certain degree. But at the end of the day, I have to meet the expectations, to put food on the table and pay the bills. If there is time or $$$ that's gravy.

Of course! A colleague used to rationalize NOT doing certain things because "his time was worth more than that". I pointed out that "no one is paying you, right now, to chat with me -- so, your time is worth NOTHING, right now!" He never "bought" the argument. Then, got fired. Now, his TIME hadn't changed -- still 24 hours in each day -- yet suddenly it was worth $0!

For example: There is no F*cking way, I am going to lift even a finger, while my butt is on the couch watching a movie, once a week.

Ah. I usually can't sit through a movie "uninterrupted". Few seem to hold my interest as I've gotten older (though RED and Flushed Away are good at making me forget the other things that need to be done). But, then again, I only watch DVD movies and there's always the PAUSE button! The same is true of novels.

Other than that, I am always at work, including weekends and holidays. Right now I am just doing too many things at the same time.

When I worked for The Man, I was always called on to put in long hours (deadlines). So, there's no difference doing it for myself. Except I can control the "when" and "what" -- prefering to do most of my work in the evenings/overnite and using daylight hours for other things.

E.g., tomorrow, 4 hours of pro bono in the morning (instead of sleeping late).

I'm always amused by folks who "don't have anything to do" (bored)... REALLY??

[CapLeaker]

Re: What is the level of repairability of these equipements ?

Unfortunately, you can use this to argue that very FEW things are "worth the time" to repair. Guesstimate the number of hours, start to finish; multiply by your hourly rate; inflate to cover the potential for a REPEAT failure within the (nonexistent!) warranty period you'll provide yourself. Anything costing less than that to replace is a losing proposition.

However, the fallacy in this is the assumption that there is someone always waiting to PAY you your hourly rate. If not, your time is (in a bookkeeping sense) "worth nothing" for that calculus!

There's also the value of learning from those repairs -- as well as learning HOW things likely fail (esp if you are a designer trying to produce reliable products).

From the strict "time accounting" outlined in my first paragraph, there are very few "consumer" items that are worth my time to repair. OTOH, there is a certain therapeutic value in fixing OTHER folks' design problems -- instead of perpetually tweaking your own designs. E.g., I can repair a monitor while I'm watching a movie so there's no "lost" time and, thus, no "cost" for that time.

I repaired a (cheap) rescued electronic stopwatch, yesterday -- a $30 (retail) item. How much of my time was THAT worth? (And, I really have no need for the damn thing but it was fun to tinker with it!)

OTOH, data recovery is very tedious -- esp if you are trying to be thorough. You never know if some file isn't "hiding" someplace that you've not yet bothered to check.

And, it's psychologically distressing; I don't want to see folks' photos, tax returns, email correspondence, porn collection, etc. "Too much information"!

[I had to recover a female friend's computer some years ago. I wasn't pleased to see the naked dude sporting a substantial erection as her "wallpaper"! How do I wipe that from my mind when I speak with her, thereafter? :< ]

Been there, done all that too. I know exactly what you are saying and I agree with it to a certain degree. But at the end of the day, I have to meet the expectations, to put food on the table and pay the bills. If there is time or $$$ that's gravy.
I don't really want to get into details and answer each paragraph, because things change when you get a bit older. For example: There is no F*cking way, I am going to lift even a finger, while my butt is on the couch watching a movie, once a week. Other than that, I am always at work, including weekends and holidays. Right now I am just doing too many things at the same time.

[CapLeaker]

Re: What is the level of repairability of these equipements ?

It takes a little while to build it up your clientele
But to me what is most important is the type of quality I give my client

That's true, it does take a little while to build your clientele. I built mine on word of mouth and I could be busy fixing things all day long, if I wanted to. I just have too many irons in the fire. That is my problem.

[SistMaticZ]

Re: What is the level of repairability of these equipements ?

[I had to recover a female friend's computer some years ago. I wasn't pleased to see the naked dude sporting a substantial erection as her "wallpaper"! How do I wipe that from my mind when I speak with her, thereafter? :< ]

Lolz i have experienced this before.

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: What is the level of repairability of these equipements ?

The problem right now is i have realy low number of clientele.

It takes a little while to build it up your clientele
But to me what is most important is the type of quality I give my client

[Curious.George]

Re: What is the level of repairability of these equipements ?

I gave up fixing cheap things long time ago, unless I get it for free and have use for it, or for a family member / very good friend. Other than that, I don't touch anything cheap replaceable stuff. It's just not worth the time.

Unfortunately, you can use this to argue that very FEW things are "worth the time" to repair. Guesstimate the number of hours, start to finish; multiply by your hourly rate; inflate to cover the potential for a REPEAT failure within the (nonexistent!) warranty period you'll provide yourself. Anything costing less than that to replace is a losing proposition.

However, the fallacy in this is the assumption that there is someone always waiting to PAY you your hourly rate. If not, your time is (in a bookkeeping sense) "worth nothing" for that calculus!

There's also the value of learning from those repairs -- as well as learning HOW things likely fail (esp if you are a designer trying to produce reliable products).

From the strict "time accounting" outlined in my first paragraph, there are very few "consumer" items that are worth my time to repair. OTOH, there is a certain therapeutic value in fixing OTHER folks' design problems -- instead of perpetually tweaking your own designs. E.g., I can repair a monitor while I'm watching a movie so there's no "lost" time and, thus, no "cost" for that time.

I repaired a (cheap) rescued electronic stopwatch, yesterday -- a $30 (retail) item. How much of my time was THAT worth? (And, I really have no need for the damn thing but it was fun to tinker with it!)

OTOH, data recovery is very tedious -- esp if you are trying to be thorough. You never know if some file isn't "hiding" someplace that you've not yet bothered to check.

And, it's psychologically distressing; I don't want to see folks' photos, tax returns, email correspondence, porn collection, etc. "Too much information"!

[I had to recover a female friend's computer some years ago. I wasn't pleased to see the naked dude sporting a substantial erection as her "wallpaper"! How do I wipe that from my mind when I speak with her, thereafter? :< ]

[SistMaticZ]

Re: What is the level of repairability of these equipements ?

I think what is worth repairing also depends on what part of the world you live in. Are those welders you work on really expensive and hard to get in your country? If yes, then it makes sense to offer a repair service. Same thing with phones, tablets, tv's, etc. If your import taxes make it really expensive to sell these items, then it makes sense to try and repair them. Find out what items sell for the most money, that will help in determining what makes sense to repair. As mentioned before, computer data recovery is a good idea. How many people do you know that actually make backups of their important data?

Sorry i forget to mention that am actually from north africa morocco , more specifically casablanca the most industrial city in our country .

A lot of construction sites are working with these welders .

These welders are about 250-300 $ new for the small type. The bigger type is about 4000-5000 $ new.

I mostly repair the heavily used ones , i charge from 70 $ for the smaller inverting types up to 200 $ for the heavy ones like these ( see picture ).

The problem right now is i have realy low number of clientele.

[jetadm123]

Re: What is the level of repairability of these equipements ?

I think what is worth repairing also depends on what part of the world you live in. Are those welders you work on really expensive and hard to get in your country? If yes, then it makes sense to offer a repair service. Same thing with phones, tablets, tv's, etc. If your import taxes make it really expensive to sell these items, then it makes sense to try and repair them. Find out what items sell for the most money, that will help in determining what makes sense to repair. As mentioned before, computer data recovery is a good idea. How many people do you know that actually make backups of their important data?

[SistMaticZ]

Re: What is the level of repairability of these equipements ?

So this is the stuff i repair , do you thing there is still money to get out of these repairs ?

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: What is the level of repairability of these equipements ?

Yes I agree with you for the most part these are big machines that I am talking $50,000 or more used mostly servo drive controller CNC controller switching power supply and sometimes computer switching power supply supply if it has specific functions that would take awhile to get working again

The all other type of machine repair I try to stay from is because parts are hard to get they sometimes take along time to get and nobody want to pay the money for you to repair them they rather do them selfs

When I do side work for some one I look up the parts I think is wrong with the item that I am working on and most of the time if I can find the parts and yes I do this as part of diagnostic fee , repair fee and part fee for what I am working on

And if I can not find the parts need to do the repair there is a minimum fee for this service as well

I do also have a minimum repair fee as well which most of the time is 6 hours

The money that I make doing this funds my electronics hobby and my electronics projects

[CapLeaker]

Re: What is the level of repairability of these equipements ?

I gave up fixing cheap things long time ago, unless I get it for free and have use for it, or for a family member / very good friend. Other than that, I don't touch anything cheap replaceable stuff. It's just not worth the time.
There is more money in Data Recovery.

[Curious.George]

Re: What is the level of repairability of these equipements ?

The repair shop I worked in, the boss did not like repairing cheap things. How much can you charge for 1/2 hour repair+parts on $50 item?

Repair $50 cell phone or $1,000 welder - You make more money by fixing more valuable, expensive equipment.

Most shops that I've experience with charge the same hourly rate for the $50 item as they would for the $1000 item. It then becomes an issue of whether the customer will want to SPEND that sum for an "inexpensive" item.

OTOH, recovering data from a $300 laptop can easily cost as much as the whole laptop -- yet folks will begrudgingly spend the money cuz they can't buy "replacement data".

[Curious.George]

Re: What is the level of repairability of these equipements ?

With VFD drive and servo drive most parts available but I find that IGBT modules are some time hard to find

Plasma cutting machine machine have the same problem with finding IGBT modules are sometimes a lot harder to find

High power switching power supply most parts are available except for the transformers are very hard to find if not impossible to find switching power supply regulator IC chips most of the time they are available with out to much problems

The problem with anything that might use parts made of Unobtanium is that you leave the customer with the impression that you WILL (likely!) be able to fix the item. Then, disappoint them, later, when you finish troubleshooting and discover that you can't buy the necessary part(s).

And, likely charge for the time to come up with this diagnosis!

So, IMO, you want to be reasonably sure that you CAN, eventually, repair the item. Then, the customer is only worrying about how much that fee will eventually be.

[redwire]

Re: What is the level of repairability of these equipements ?

The repair shop I worked in, the boss did not like repairing cheap things. How much can you charge for 1/2 hour repair+parts on $50 item?

Repair $50 cell phone or $1,000 welder - You make more money by fixing more valuable, expensive equipment.

[sam_sam_sam]

Re: What is the level of repairability of these equipements ?

With VFD drive and servo drive most parts available but I find that IGBT modules are some time hard to find

Plasma cutting machine machine have the same problem with finding IGBT modules are sometimes a lot harder to find

High power switching power supply most parts are available except for the transformers are very hard to find if not impossible to find switching power supply regulator IC chips most of the time they are available with out to much problems

[SistMaticZ]

Re: What is the level of repairability of these equipements ?

Curious george , with my limited english i can only thank you for sharing your experience.

I will absolutly try to repair different equipement including mechanical stuff.

[Curious.George]

Re: What is the level of repairability of these equipements ?

Thanks for the quick reply.

I am currently trying to figure out what to do in my bench , should i do repairs only or combine it with something else like selling stuff to cover a respectable income.

I also have some skills with laptops and software repairs .

I find smartphone very delicate and not a good bisness for me too much microscopic components with high integration level and hard disassembly

It largely depends on the value of retaining "old"/broken/repairable devices vs. simply replacing with new kit. Here (USA), I find most consumer items (laptops, small appliances, etc.) are inexpensive enough that people opt to replace instead of repair. This also gives them an "excuse" to treat themselves to something "new".

High-end phones see repairs because the cost to replace is so high. Though I am now seeing folks take out "insurance" so they can just have their phone replaced when/if the drop it, lose it, etc.

One thing that people seem willing to pay for is "data recovery"... cases where their computer has been "infected" with some form of malware and they want access to the photos or other files stored there. They might not care about being able to restore the computer to normal operation (instead, they'll "treat" themselves to a NEW computer) -- but the data is irreplaceable.

Simply being able to remove the drive and process it in a "clean" environment (or, booting the "bad" computer from a CD/USB and doing the recovery in situ) is usually enough. Then, it's just a matter of time to track down everything that MIGHT be of value (folks often don't realize what they've got on their computer if they can't actually look at it!).

So, you could charge a fee (fixed + hourly) for the recovery and then a second fee to "reinstall Windows" (for those folks who want to keep using the computer). A third fee could be charged for those folks who want all their original software reinstalled along with the recovered files.

[Note that the third task might be difficult if they don't have their original install media]

While not strictly "electronics" service, you might also explore servicing electric wheelchairs (powerchairs). The folks who rely on these are often physically unable to perform even simple maintenance tasks. For example, changing the batteries on a chair can take 1 - 3 hours. And, if you can't physically lift them or contort your body into a suitable position to get access to them, then you are stuck relying on someone else to perform this task.

On larger chairs, the (inflated!) price of batteries can easily be $300 and the labor to replace them another $300-$800. You could hide a little profit in the resale price of the batteries (cost being $100 - $200) and, as you get familiar with different chairs, the time required to make the repair can be cut, dramatically.

If you are willing to travel TO the chair, this adds value to the customer as some chairs are very difficult to transport (weighing many hundreds of pounds). And, if the batteries are shot, just getting the chair TO the transport is tedious.

Most of the other "electronics" on the chairs is pretty reliable so not needing repair.

[I just replaced the batteries in a "scooter" for a friend, yesterday. Two hours of my time, including travel. She bought the batteries (2 req'd) so I didn't have to bother with that -- and any price savings went to her, directly -- and just called me when they had arrived.]

[stj]

Re: What is the level of repairability of these equipements ?

something that can bring good money is car modules.
ECU's, fuseboxes with integrated switching etc.
specially if you get to know some garages - they would rather deal with a person that wait for mail-order repairs.