To follow up on this, we are in an interesting spot as a company, related to size. We are usually looked at one of two ways, and in reality we are in the middle.
People that have never seen inside the shop think that we are either VERY small, and don't have the ability to fill machines, so everything needs to be farmed out. There was a time that we DID use a machine shop down the road for certain parts that we couldn't justify a machine for. Nothing specifically wrong with that, though we are no longer in that place.
OR
They see a picture of the shop, where we have 18 CNCs, nearly all of which are automated, and insist that we are really just a job shop because there's no way we can move enough parts to justify what we do. Since 2016, we have taken exactly one project that didn't have 419 on every part, and it was a fixture for a local large-name manufacturer that couldn't figure out how to do a great multi-part fixture, but Jon could, so he got a nice check for making a fixture. I think that was in 2017/2018.
Here is the most recent published tour of our shop:
We are an enormously fortunate and grateful group to be able to produce what we do, the way we do, and sell it to the world. There are times we make decisions (like bringing fastners in-house) that may not make the most sense possible in a vacuum, but fit into our long-term vision of being the best damn American-Made part/accessory/tool company possible, and do it in a way that allows all of us here (I think we are at 38 people) to have a strong and stable work/life situation. It's what we think the American Dream really is, and every day when we walk through these doors, we make decisions against that ethos.
