Took the first step towards building my shop

[jdurand]

I'm with you there. If it's in my skill set, you can bet I will do it and pay much closer attention to detail than anyone else would. That is a huge project, in every sense of the word, I'm not sure if I'd take it on, good job Frank!

Ditto, and also on demanding if it's something I expect the contractor to know how to do. We used to have tons of trouble getting PC boards fabricated in the USA, they often acted like they'd never made a board before. They couldn't quote anything until we had the design complete then they would say "no, can't do that" or "we will have to charge a lot extra for that".

We now use exclusively reputable Chinese manufacturers. We ask what they can do, they give us a list. If we want something special, it's a cheap add-on or even free. AND they ship early with boards that match our requirements.