I'm just getting started.  Actually, I'm at the "interested and 
doing research" stage and am curious about the amount of 
technical/mechanical expertise needed to do good quality mouthpiece 
work.  I'm not a natural "handyman" type.  Thanks

>... and am curious about the amount of 
> technical/mechanical expertise needed to do good quality mouthpiece 
> work.  

This if from a post I made on SOTW:

I think the main qualities of a good refacer are:

1. analytical 
2. knowledge/experiance 
3. craftmanship 
4. can play well enough to test the work 

Refacing strategy also varies. Some are more traditional/conservative 
and want only to make the piece the best it can be within the intent 
of the original design. Others will customize a piece (shaping/adding 
baffles, etc) to change it into something else that will get the job 
done. Some will do repairs, some wont work on hard metals, some are 
better at sax/clar/classical/jazz/rock... 

Then there are good business qualities. Good communications, fair 
pricing and turnaround, honesty, follow-up customer service. 
 
Most refacers use gages but a few do not. I do not think it is 
possible to get good consistent results without using gages. It is 
hard enough with gages. Just be warned that you are taking additional 
risk in using a refacer that does not use a feeler/glass gage system. 
A tip opening gage is less important. 
 
If you are weak in one area, you can make up for it somewhat by being 
strong in other areas.  But if you are not a good handyman-type, I'm 
not confident you can be real successful.  You'll need a lot of 
patience with yourself.