Mad scientist- Back in my machine shop days, we had a funny incident that was similar. A foreman on a construction crew brought in some actuator shaft of some sort on a Monday afternoon, and asked if we could fix it. (Think 1.5" dia x 10-12" long, splines at one end, index arm at the other, hardened material.) My boss says we could. It was broken, mind you. Len gives the piece to this one crank of a machinist and says "Bet you can't fix this." Sure enough, Jerry does a really nice job of repairing it. The construction guy had said he really needed this thing back ASAP, as it being broken was causing all sorts of logistical headaches, and a new one was a week away. So, Jerry does a nice repair inside of three hours, including stubbing, aligning, tacking, checking for alignment and true, tacking, welding, re-machining, and hardening. The piece was mint! The guy shows up to pick up the part, and Len tells him $240. Three hours labor. The guy says that's way too much. Says it should be no more than $150. Len says "You sure?" The guy says he's sure, so Len takes the piece back out to the shop, puts it in the chop saw and cuts it in half. he brings the guy back two pieces and says "Here. Go get it fixed somewhere else, then." Then, he turned and went back out in the shop.