Grant’s Engineering & Machine Company

I’m not sure how this place has never been reviewed!
I needed some custom machining/​threading work done on an aluminum hose end for my car. I searched all over the city for somebody that would do it, and everybody would look at the piece, shake their head, and point me to a different shop.
Finally, I did a quick search on Google maps, and this place was right around the corner from me. I gave Doug a quick call, asked if I could swing by, and he said «sure, but I’m eating lunch right now and am leaving for the weekend right after, so any work that you need done will have to wait until next week.» I was in no particular rush, so I figured a conversation was worth having.
I headed over, and after explaining what I needed, hoping to get it done by the following week, he eyes the piece for about 2 seconds, fishes through his cabinets, and pulls out the right tap — BAM, he guessed it right on the first try. «Let’s just take care of this right now.»
10 minutes later, I have exactly what I need, and he even machined all the surfaces to ensure a tight seal when I’m done.
Here’s the scoop: custom machinists is a dying industry as manufacturing costs are so cheap that it almost always makes more sense to just replace parts than to repair. Doug has been doing this work for decades, has had over a hundred different employees/​apprentices over the years, but he’s pretty much the last of his breed here in downtown San Francisco. He’s going to retire in two years, so if you have ANY kind of custom machine work done, don’t even look around — this is your place.
(And yes, I got all this while he was tapping, surfacing, and cleaning up the piece, with a bloody finger from the aluminum shard that came during tapping.)
He did it all for next to nothing, and I figured the least I could do was put in a review for his shop.