Needful Things

 Okay, universe, I'm asking for stuff again.  Still on the undelivered list: a band-saw and some sheet metal working gear.  Come on, I put in an order for that stuff decades ago!

 Now, the next few things are new requirements, I never needed these things before, for my own personal needs, but now I find that what I had isn't - probably - enough to run a job shop on.  The more services you can offer, the more likely you are to get hired.

 I could really use a tap disintegrator (AKA "sparker", "burner"), as in the EDM sort of rig specifically set up to remove broken drills and taps from expensive machined parts.

 If the broken tool is HSS, a good machinist (cough, not me, cough) with the right kind of fancy solid carbide drilling tools (which I don't own - yet - but I will) can sometimes, on a good day, with a tailwind, if the stars align correctly and the entrails are in order... drill out a broken drill or tap.

 If on the very other unfortunate hand, said tool is carbide, you, the owner of said expensive part with the broken tool in it are royally fucked... unless you know of a shop with a tap burner.  Usually customers do not know about tap burners unless they have used the service previously, they just call machine shops or job shops and ask you if you can remove it.  You'd like to be able to say yes, for a price, every time.

 Entire businesses are built around this service.  Some people even go mobile with it, although the really big units - bigger than I intend to ever get into - can require special power like 3-ph.  But mobile units will run on a 120V 20A, or a very casual 240V circuit.

 So, universe, get crackin', I needs me a tap burner.  Used ones worth owning seem to run around $2K - $3K.  $2K to $3K new, will get you a small-capacity, cheap chinese portable unit which will run for about 18 months if you are lucky.  Meh.  Good things cost more money, who knew?

This next item is not necessary, but it would be fantastic revenue-generating capability, even more so after we move to the mountains.  Because literally everyone in the mountains is in love with plasma-cut customer ranch signs made of thick, bullet-resistant plate steel.  I am talking of course about an X-Y table capable of being run as EITHER a CNC router spindle OR a plasma cutter.  I'm seeing and hearing about $5k and up, without a CNC router spindle, without a plasma cutter, if you want something that will last.  Think ShopBot. 

 Get on it, universe, I got bills to pay. 

 But to quote an old washed-up Xian comedian... "don't wish me luck, oh no!  I could walk outside, it could be raining soup and I would get hit in the mouth with a bail of hay."

 So I'm not going to hold my breath... but you know, universe... you kinda owe me for not Tampering With Things Man Was Not Meant To Know and stuff.