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For what it's worth I purchased one of these compressors in 2010. 

While it is a touch heavy to lug around every day, the noise level is amazingly low.  I used it mostly as a stationary compressor inside an 20' enclosed trailer for nearly two years, averaging 2 days of use in a week I imagine.  It's since been retired to hobby use around the home now that I was pulled back into my former industry, but it still functions flawlessly.  I would buy another one today to have as a backup / replacement if my business was still operational. 

As an FYI - when I went to find another one for a friend in January of 2013 and learned it was discontinued according to the online seller I purchased mine from.   I confirmed it at the time from the manufacturer's site as well.  As a result, I'm wondering how old units they're selling are - I thought that was worth mentioning.  If you find one in stock at a nearby store, this bit of info might be worth an in-store discussion to talk about a even better price. 

Greg

I second the recommendation for North Coast.  If you'd like more details, keep reading... if you're short on time, the first sentence sums it up!

Having never touched a sewing machine before in my life other than a failed attempt at a Jr. High home economics class gym bag, it was a big chunk of change to invest in my opinion too. I was looking to change careers and get out of a cubicle life and into the sunshine, and by all means it did just that for me.

Given your sewing experience don't let my above experience frighten you away from thinking it is for folks like me and not folks like yourself with experience.  Aside from what may be a half hour of boring "how to use a sewing machine" education that you likely don't need, it's full steam ahead from then on.  You'll leave at the end of the week with a handful of useful techniques that allow you to quickly take on repairs above and beyond the topic of the course which is your basic cockpit cover.  You'll also take home an example of everything you've learned, including a scaled down version of a full cockpit cover, and your examples will sit in your work area for years to come providing a visual refresher that all the photos and notes sometimes can't provide!

I'd venture to say that while it isn't a "insert $1100 and turn the key to own a canvas shop" but I imagine it's about as close as you can get to that class in 5 days in my opinion.  I want to say I left the first class on 5/16/08, returned a week later to purchase a machine and some supplies from them, received my official "open for business" tax id from PA a few weeks later, and delivered my first paying job July 4th after spending a week practicing on my own boat once my shop was setup in my garage.  One last note about Northcoast, their help doesn't end when the class is over.  I believe it's been 2 years since I last attended a course there yet if I ran into a problem tomorrow I know I'd get the answer I need from them. 

Honestly I'd say two things have led to my survival up to this point; the training I attended at Northcoast (went 3 separate times for the different canvas courses, taking on a new one after mastering the first which was a convenience some don't have but I did given my 3-4 distance from them), and the folks on this message board.  I sincerely can't say enough kind words about the folks here who have offered technical support, decades of experience in business and the field, and last but not least - support when sanity was running low.  Some if not all of my biggest mistakes were the result of not following some of their advice!

Feel free to PM me for my contact info if you'd like to talk on the phone for further details so I don't waste your time reading more of my ramblings!

Thanks everyone for the replies, my first instinct was to say "I'd prefer to replace it with snaps" but the owner was very "proud" of his unique fastener system and seems to want to keep it.

Greg

I scoured the web for the past hour trying to find a source for these "new to me" items, maybe someone else has come across the same situation before. 

Apparently Premier Pontoons uses a perhaps "proprietary" fastener system for their covers - for all I know it is a common standard channel those with more experience would call by another name, but $116 for a 100 piece kit sounds a little ridiculous to me but perhaps it is the manufacturer direct price that sets me off into this train of thought.

https://shop.pontoons.com/store/detail/217/canvas_covers_enclosures_tops/2003/j_clip_kit_c/

I was wondering if anyone else has come across these and knows of a vendor selling a more reasonably priced alternative to the only option I've found so far.

Thanks
Greg

That looks very familiar... here is my mascot.


We adopted our little buddy 2.5 years ago from a couple who thought they were taking in a much smaller breed with no place for her to run. Being a lab / border collie mix, she loves stretching her legs on our acreage.  However, my wife and I have absolutely SPOILED this dog to where she is convinced she is one of us. For instance, I'm sitting in a chair at the computer in my home office this morning and after she decided to be a 50lb lap dog while I tried to work (which she also loves doing when I'm seated at the machine in the shop too), she decided she'd be more comfortable on our bed in the other room.  The minute she hears me get up to go out to the shop, she'll be by my side no matter how many times I bounce between the two buildings.  The ultimate companion doesn't quite describe her for me!

I'm sure you already take precautions to make your shop pooch friendly, but despite my best attempts of always keeping chemicals out of her reach and scanning the blacktop and asphalt every time a car/boat is parked or moved, all it took was me to be distracted one day and my 30 second slip in judgement up led to her licking up a half dollar size drop of antifreeze that had leaked from a classic that just left my shop after coming for an estimate.  Had she not been distracted by the neighbors cat and moved away before she could lick the second tasty second drop, I would have never noticed the "tongue mark" left from the first one on the blacktop and never known until it was too late to save her.  Unfortunately, by the time a pet shows signs of poisoning from antifreeze, its absolutely too late as their organs have begun shutting down and the animal needs put down to save it from further agony.  Spring scares the daylights out of me because too many people still use automotive antifreeze in my area to winterize their boat instead of the safer RV product to save a buck, and all it takes is the right angle to have it sneak out of the outdrive so I take even further precautions when any boat comes my way that hasn't splashed into the water yet for the season - as odd as it strikes my customers, its one of the questions I ask before they bring the boat on my property.

It was a very expensive and frightening 48 hours while she was in the doggy ICU that (embarrassingly) brought this 6'4" 225 lb "tough guy" to his knees unable to focus until she was home safe three days later.  Fortunately she never knew she had anything wrong with her and I got her there in time.  I've been one of those guys who said "You spent $1400 to keep your free dog alive?" simply because I never had to make such a choice before, but apparently until you've been in that position after the dog becomes a part of your life the owner is the only one who can decide what their friend is worth to them like I did.  Here was a dog drooling charcoal, tail wagging happily, excited to be somewhere new, and the second vet's office saying "Is there anything wrong with this dog?" to which I had to say "She's dying but doesn't have any clue so please don't tell her." I quickly found myself offended when they asked if I wanted to go forward with the treatment to save her after learning the price associated with it!

If you don't already, keep a bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide in the shop JUST IN CASE it drinks any automotive fluids or other bad stuff.  While it alone won't ave the pooch - it will greatly increase the odds of your four legged friend surviving such an incident by getting the bad stuff out of their system asap.  Also, while most vets stock the antifreeze antidote for cats these days, I've come to learn only the largest vet within 50 miles from me stock it for dogs due to its high cost and short shelf life.  Our regular vet gave her activated charcoal after purging her stomach since I had no peroxide myself at the time, but their only available form of treatment was to give the dog an IV of grain alcohol for 5 days and hope it distracted her kidneys from processing the bad stuff, but an hour drive to the nearest vet with the medicine they found for me would have been my first stop had I known.  While I have no kids and this is my first dog as an adult on his own in the world, I laugh now and say finding the right vet is like searching for a pediatrician for your children.  May nobody make the same mistake I did, but it pays to be prepared!

If I made it to mid December without a re-do I'd be pouring champagne so first I'd like to say congrats on a very accurate year, even if you feel you came up short of your goal.

Secondly, I want to say your method of handling it is very inspiring.  While not rocket science, I have to be honest and say I've never taken the time to do a root cause analysis when I've come across as mistake of my own - only when its an employee and not quite to the intelligent level you use for your own problem.  I usually spend
half the re-do distracted and upset that it happened, but I can really see how taking 5-10 minutes to think it through and "put it behind me" with a lesson learned will help me "move on."

While it hals  never my goal to make mistakes, never once have I ever set a goal to have 100% accuracy which shocks me considering in my previous industry, accuracy was absolutely a measure of one's performance.  I guess its one of the things I slacked off on when becoming self employed, but absolutely will be a New Year Resolution I plan on starting early - make it through today, then next week, next month, etc! 

I guess the key is to "celebrate" the successes and not spend too much time focusing on the failures, just enough to learn from them.  That right there has been my greatest weakness to date.

Thanks for sharing
Greg

Thanks everyone for the advice.  I'll most certainly look into a lawyer and possible counter sue.

I ignored this guy's negative publicity when a customer after his job told me about the name bashing he was delivering at a recent event, but this one has me rather interested in putting a sock in his mouth.

I spoke to the guy the other day and his story sounds terribly shaky.  He couldn't answer my simple questions so I stopped short of discussing if further so I didn't give him anything to prepare a case for.  What a waste of time.

Between the above customer and the customer from hell I wrote about earlier this year with the houseboat enclosure, I have two jobs in the history of my company that have not gone smoothly and refuse to go away despite resolution on each.  Of course I'm referring to the d-bag customer who felt he he knew more than me about canvas and my stupidity for not taking all of your advice of "I don't care what it costs, run Greg - you don't want this guy as a customer." In the three boating seasons that have passed since I opened my doors, I've had the pleasure of service around 325+ different customers, resulting in 325+ very satisfied customers to the best of my knowledge. 85-90% of my business is from referrals so I must be doing something right I imagine, and yet I spend my time focusing on two insatiable con-artist customers when I take a snapshot of my successes and failures.

The freaking guy with the a-hole job in the spring I wrote about long ago sent me an early Christmas present the other day.  Here is a guy who hasn't contacted me since I completed the dreaded enclosure to his satisfaction in May other than to contract me for MORE work on his boat which I only accepted because it was simple and I needed to recoop some losses on the enclosure I basically gave him, and now is taking me to court.  He called at the end of his boating season to ask for his bimini storage boots I had completely forgotten to deliver with his enclosure (it stays up every day its on the water so he was in no hurry for them at the time and my true mistake for never delivering them), apparently I did not return his voicemail fast enough (if you recall that other story you can see why I didn't jump fast enough at calling him), and received a threatening voicemail from his buddy who contracted me for the job originally a few days later.  I said enough was enough, I knocked out his overdue items, apologized for the oversight in an email / printed letter accompanying the boxed goods I sent him after not reaching him by phone, and then proceeded to state I no longer wished to do business with him for obvious stated reasons but felt I had no choice.  Never a peep in the months that have passed since doing so, stupidly I assumed no contact meant "understood."

Two days ago, a certified letter shows up where he filed a civil suit against my business at the magistrate stating he wanted all of his $5k+ back for the job because "Inferior product. Poor quality. Refuses to come correct neccessesary repairs" (typo intentional).  I can't wait for my day in clown court over this one, I say "clown" only because I feel any process that allows anyone with the ability to hold a crayon to file a suit and waste your time requiring your attendance without any screening of validity or merit before making you show up, not to mock the people in the magistrate's office, simply the process they hate as much as I do.  I actually look forward to it.  

He's another classic example of "I used my product for 5 months without one complaint upon finally accepting it after asking you to make 10 modifications in design after the fact, but I had to pull my boat out of the water early this year for undisclosed reasons, so now I'm going to say after using it all season without a gripe that its poor quality and try to get my money back because I'm in a financial pinch most likely."  Yes, it will be a blessed appearance in our local version of People's Court.  

Some of you may recall I come from the IT industry and started this business after having a longtime dream of doing so when the "once in a lifetime, the stars are really aligned" moment presented itself.  For almost three years now I've resisted job offers as former colleagues try to pull me into their new employer's doors with some rather enticing offers that exceed what I had made / I am making now.  But no kidding, earlier in the same day the letter arrived I couldn't resist going to check out the latest opportunity to make way too much money to ignore and was considering "going part time" or even more fun, enjoyable hobby with the business because the potential deal dangled in front of me is simply too good to ignore.  Unfortunately if the offer is formally made, I can't resist making twice as much while working half as hard but I'm in my early 30's and have plenty of time to regroup and apply my lessons learned... At the very least, I'll have one hell of a toy collection for my hobby if I flip the closed sign a final time.

Thank you all so much for taking the time to read, respond, and commiserate with my fun tales of "what not to do" yet again.  I know I'm long winded at the keyboard, but I can't help it.  As always I sincerely appreciate the advice of my wiser and more experienced online support group here!

Thanks and I hope your days are less drama filled!
Greg

Thank you all for the good advice.  I apologize for the disappearing act, but I ran into some health problems that took me out of commission for a couple weeks.  Nothing like losing the ability to work when you're already talking about being stiffed ;)

I've been looking into the Mechanic's Lien and plan on following through with it at least.  I'll have to do some investigation on debt collectors as well moving forward.  Sadly, that boat is most likely going to become a part of the guy's lawn ornaments some day with the rest of his "forgotten" vehicles that litter his lawn on his country property.

Seeing as how he insisted on paying cash, claimed to not have a checking account or credit card when I said I preferred something with a little more traceability for such a large transaction, I'm going to assume a debt collector would not get very far with him.  Its not small change I'm out, somewhere to the tune of $1400 for the contracted work and about $2000 total when you factor in the "above and beyond" work that was added during the job.  I'm by far not a rich man, nor am I small in stature, easily threatened, or easy to take advantage, but when I was in full swing of the busy season I thought it made more sense to just let it go away quietly because the production I'd lose fighting him in my already hectic schedule would prove to cost more than I'd earn.   Spending more than 1-2 days on this guy would make his $1400 debt double due to being the one man show who can't work on other jobs and fight to get paid on an old one at the same time.  With no guarantee, I decided to focus on my good customers who were patiently waiting for my services.

I have this terrible habit of obsessing on negative things I guess, and I wanted to not do it with this issue but here we are 6 months later and the thought of it or driving near his street churns it up again.  I was satisfied with the profit I did collect despite the non-payment right up to when he tried to weasel all of his money back from me by claiming poor work after accepting the boat 4 months earlier with never a complaint or request for a repair to anything sold. 

Simply put, days before picking up / accepting the finished job he found out his very beloved 12 year old dog had bad cancer.  Fast forward a few months and he called first telling me he spent $8000 trying to keep the pooch alive but lost.  I knew what that dog meant to him, so I wasn't shocked when he vanished with a balance due and I honestly thought he'd be showing up any day to bring that last payment but days turned into weeks, etc.  Next he tried to pick apart every single aspect of the job stating he heard "I offer a 100% money back guarantee" from someone which I do on my boat covers - if I can't satisfy the pickiest customer, I'll unsnap the canvas, take it back, and hand over their deposit which of course I've never had to do.  But we're talking about a 19' cuddy cabin whose only original piece of interior that remained after the job was the plastic shell from the captain's chair due to rot so I couldn't exactly roll over and let him use a loophole.   His arguments were that because he let the boat sit for something like 8 weeks and pink mold formed inside was somehow my fault or the hours he spent trying to find flaws to bitch about (the stripe on the port side seat is 1/8" wider than the one on the starboard side he claimed as one reason for asking for his money back) which was clearly his way of trying to recoop his losses on his poor dog.  I'm sympathetic more than most when it comes to pets, but not to the point of losing my own house!

continued...

Long story short - I was burned by a customer to the tune of $1800 on the balance of his job.  I have a contract signed by him stating he's in the wrong, but I know the complicated battle is not going to be worth the trouble associated with collecting the balance due.  In reality, I'll lose more money  by wasting time and costs on such a pursuit, but I can't let go mentally and need advice.

I'm reminded of the movie "A Bronx Tale" and trying to convince myself that by "paying $1800" for this guy to go away, I'm better off.  The problem is I can't let my mind accept I've been burned by this clown and move on.  Does anyone have any advice on "letting go" which I obviously have a hard time doing?  I more than earned that money, I'm really proud of the job, but when I see the photos of my work instead of a feeling of pride I'm overcome with resentment over the ordeal.

Any help would be great, again - I'm legally in the right spot, but its simply not worth the time and money to chase down a deadbeat who I now know has larger financial concerns than this balance to me which results in even less of a chance of satisfaction ever happening.

Thanks
Greg

I typically ask for 50% with the deposit being non-refundable once materials are ordered (agreed upon in the signing).  In the busy season of canvas work, the money down along with the binding agreement are required to get on the schedule.  Its really obnoxious to stick to, but when I tried to be nice I got burned related to my schedule too many times.  I was waiting until the project was here to order materials at the time, but that delay got old.

It varies from industry to industry, but the typical productivity expected from a given employee according to studies is about 75%.  At my former employer we used 62.5% productivity for  scheduling purposes or basically said that in an 8 hour work day (not including breaks or lunch, 8 hours of actual work time), 5 hours of work should be expected.  It sounded absurd at first to me when I was new to scheduling, but it was pretty spot on when compared to actual data collected at the end of each project right or wrong.  In my prior industry things like meetings, visitors dropping by your desk with questions, and the trip to the bathroom turning into a 30 minute adventure by being hijacked while en route back to your desk consumed the other 3 hours of the day.  I currently plan on accomplishing 6 hours in a 10 hour day with an 1.5 hours of planned "break" time for myself throughout it.  If I exceed expectations I find myself much happier than I was when I booked 12 hours of production into a 12 hour day and came up hitting 50% of my target deadlines, so I figured I'd give it a shot.  While my distractions are not the same as they used to be, they still occur in my world. 

I considered hiring an office manager, however to me (and maybe I'm a control freak?) that would take away from the ability to "be my own boss" or result in putting too much into the hands of someone without so much on the line as I have.  Has anyone had any success with doing this? 

I started into the industry using a Seiko purchased right out of the classroom at Northcoast in May of 2008 after being told it was approximately a year old.  The servo motor has easily logged 360 days of steady use without a problem.  I'd have to look to see what brand it is, but I was impressed with it until I received the motors on my new setups from Keystone.  If anyone is interested in the different brand names I like / dislike I'd be happy to crawl under and take a look.

I learned not all servo motors are the same and I might find myself liking the old Seiko a little more if it had the motor my Juki has on it because its so much easier to control.  I imagine the difference is in the controls tied to the motor of course, but have no idea if a little tinkering can save me from replacing everything.

The energy consumption of the servo motor is especially important to me in my mobile setup because I power the entire 20' trailer off of a power inverter that runs off an auxiliary battery in my tow rig (no AC unit in the trailer though).  The draw from the motor has almost no impact on my battery despite stitching away from sun up to sun down with it and leaving it on all day long.  While I have no proof of what the clutch motor would run, if Sofadoc's story about his power bill is accurate I imagine I would not be in the same boat and possibly have to run the generator at some point in the day.

Now if I just get rid of the  HID Metal Halide light fixtures in my garage that literally cost $10-15 a month each to keep lit, I might consider myself greenish!

I've been using a Fasco for two years now.  My only complaint is the same as June's and that is the safety is obnoxious.  The spring in the safety lever broke (I'm sure I dropped it or something) so it was flapping around, I keep saying I'm just going to remove it and be done but its still on there...

Otherwise its been one of the most reliable tools I've purchased.  The only time I run into problems is from user error when someone forgets to put a drop or two of oil in it or runs the pressure too low but you can't blame the tool there.  Hope it helps....

Very cool idea, thanks for sharing and keep us posted.  I've considered using LED's for over a year now but never settled on a way to do it, may have to try your idea out. 

Do you think putting a row of them across the bow pockets where the canvas doesn't have to flex as much to close the opening would work any better with a long strip?