Good mechanical workshop

[heilong]

Hello everybody!
I need to modify an aluminum bicycle part with good precision.
Basically I need a good quality router that can work with metal, and a skilled person operating it with precision. An average workshop I can find on the street will most probably mess the part up.
Can anybody recommend a good place for this kind of thing?
Preferably Pran Buri or Hua Hin or anywhere in the vicinity.
--Gene

[Gregga]

Try a shop between 7/11 (close to a market) and a traffic light on Canal road The guy sells motorbike side carts so you'll see them with sale sign on 'em. His shop is just a dirty mechanical workshop but the guy has gold hands he can do almost everything with metal. I used his skills 3 times and was amazed by the quality.

[heilong]

Gregga, can you explain a bit more detailed? As I live in Pak Nam Pran, I'm not so familiar with all the 7-11 shops in HH
I basically know the main street, the railroad, and Hua Hin school.

[Nereus]

If you have to come to Hua Hin there is machine shop in the block of units just past the Toyota dealer at Soi 6 on Petchkasem Rd, before Makro. He has a very neat and clean shop and does precision machining. No English, so you would need a detailed drawing of just what you want. He has a couple of lathes and a milling machine if I recall correctly.

[heilong]

Nereus, thanks! Sounds exactly like what I want! I can draw a picture and explain in basic Thai what I need.
So let's say I'm driving into Hua Hin from the North (actually I'll be coming from the South side so let's just say I go north to Soi 6 and make a u-turn), after the Toyota dealer I turn left and the shop is there? Any special marks/signs that I can recognize this place by?

[Nereus]

Coming from the South you do not need to do a U turn. All the even numbered Sois are on your left travelling North. Come through Hua Hin city and stay on Petchkasem Rd. I guess it is about 4 Kms to Soi 6: Soi 10, Hua Hin Hospital, PTT station, Soi 6 with a big archway over the entrance, Toyota dealer, a block of shops including Bupa Insurance office, then about 100 metres or so, not sure if it is after Soi 4, but the shop has frontage right on the road with parking in front, all on your left side. If you pass Macro you have gone too far!

[heilong]

All right that sounds like a pretty tight search area, I bet I can find it.
Thanks!
If you know this stuff well, maybe you can also advise on a really good tool shop? I've been to Home Pro and Thai Watsadu and was grossly disappointed - for the size of these shops they don't have surprisingly many things.
And while I'm asking all these questions, can you give advice on where should I go if I want:
1) Tools (already mentioned)
2) Nuts and bolts, especially metric stuff and stainless (especially where I can buy in small quantities, I don't want a box of 100 when I need 4 bolts).
3) Aluminum, stainless steel, plain steel - but not things like complicated aluminum window/door profiles, but just flat stuff in various sizes, square stock, round pipes, things like that. Most of the shop I can find focus on some specific stuff like aluminum - windows and doors, stainless - fences, gates and various decorative stuff. Like I needed a flat 2mm thick piece of stainless and none of the stainless shops in Pran Buri had anything like that, very limited selection.
4) Wood - for example I need planks 2cm by 2cm, been to many places and nothing. Some say they can cut but I'm really not too sure of the quality... Back home I'd just go to a big DIY shop and it would have a huge selection of different sizes. Here in shops like Thai Watsadu it's, again, very specialized - they come in some particular complicated shape for some really particular uses in construction. And I just need regular flat pieces (e.g. to make DIY furniture, or in case of 2cm by 2cm - cheap mosquito net window screens).

Sorry for so many questions and would appreciate any answers

[Nereus]

1) Tools--if Thai Watsado have not got it then you will probably have to go to Bangkok, and beleive me, you really do not want to go there! It also depends a bit on just what type of tools you are looking for.

2 & 3) After the machine shop go North about 1Km. Opposite the airport there is a big shop called: "Hua Hin Metal Blending". He has a huge range of steel, aluminium, stainless steel nuts and bolts.
There is also a good Chinese shop on the Pa-la-u Rd, but as I cannot spell it, it is difficult to explain if you do not know the area. He has nuts and bolts, including stainless, and also tools.

4) Wood--sorry cannot help you. It may be worth asking the guy in the Asian furniture shop, sorry, the name of it has slipped my memory, but it is just near the Land Dept office on the same side of the road before the flyover on the way into Hua Hin.

[heilong]

Great advice, thanks!
I do sometimes go to Bangkok (and yes I don't want to go there, but still have to, sometimes)
Can you recommend the best places for good tools in Bangkok?
I'll be sure to visit the "Metal Blending" shop soon! Sounds like heaven to me.
I know the Pala U road itself, know Hua Hin School and the Thawon construction market. Is the Chinese shop near there?

[Nereus]

Is the Chinese shop near there?

It`s on the right hand side going West, about 100 metres past the small Tesco shop. He is part of a big supply shop, but now separated inside. There is always stuff on the footpath, and you have to step up into the shop. Don't be put off by the apparent size of the shop, he has a vast array inside and is very helpful.

[heilong]

All right I'll look in that area! Thanks again.

[Farang]

There are, in Hua Hin, nuts by the case!

[heilong]

You mean, crazy people? I'll check it out, thanks