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Tallmadge company rebuilds the really big stuff

Old machines over 10 tons given new life at Pyramid

By Jim Mackinnon
Beacon Journal business writer

Published on Monday, Jun 16, 2008

What's old can indeed become new. Or at the very least, like new.

Take the 10-ton or so piece of sculpted and cut steel lying on the floor at Pyramid Rebuild & Machine.

The huge, round piece of tooling equipment came into the Tallmadge company well-worn. But when it leaves the South Thomas Road shop in upcoming weeks, it will have been refinished, recut and refitted into as-new condition. And then it will be shipped back to work helping build parts that will enable a new under-construction bridge in Oakland, Calif., to better withstand a major earthquake.

''We do a lot of crazy stuff,'' said Jeff Edds, co-owner with Jim Leigh of the small specialty company.

Edds and Leigh want to do a lot more crazy — and not-so-crazy — stuff with worn-out machine tools that they can rejuvenate.

Business is booming, they say. Work comes in from around Ohio and surrounding states, and as far away as Georgia and Texas. A lot of new orders are coming in from companies in the oil, gas and mining industries, the owners said. A lot of the machinery that Pyramid rebuilds is used in turn to make large durable goods — things like cars, trucks and appliances.

Pieces of large and small equipment in various stages of being rebuilt fill the 5,000-square-foot building that's been their location since moving to Tallmadge from Suffield Township in 2005.

''Right now, we're sort of crammed in here,'' said Leigh.

By October, that should change.

Pyramid Rebuild & Machine is expanding — it broke ground in May for a 3,800-square-foot addition next to their current building. The addition, which the owners call a service bay, will let the company take on even bigger projects once the building is finished as expected in the early fall. Pyramid financed the addition for under $500,000, an amount Leigh and Edds said is significant for a company their size.

''There's a portion of the business we feel we are missing,'' Leigh said. ''The new addition will give us the ability to go after that.''

Pyramid can do smaller work in its facility, but also sends employees to rebuild machinery at customer's plants. But there are limits on the kind of work they do now that the addition should eliminate.

''Essentially, the new business that we are looking for are the larger projects that are complete rebuilds or remanufactures of the machine,'' Leigh said. ''Those projects usually require that the equipment be taken out of the customer's facility and the project completed in your facility.''

While they can bring in components of machinery to work on now, the new facility will let them bring in an entire machine at the customer's option, Leigh said.

''We can do a complete rebuild in the field,'' he said. ''That's a sector we want to keep.''

But in other cases, equipment might be already in transit and a company wants work to be done on it before it is put into permanent use, he said.

In their line of work, equipment that is 10 to 15 tons is considered small, he said.

For instance, a company-owned planer mill the shop uses in its work weighs 25 tons (50,000 pounds).

''The ones we typically work on are two or three times this size,'' Leigh said. Smaller machine tools, when they wear out, usually can be easily and economically replaced, Leigh said.

 

But larger, more specialized equipment used by manufacturers is not so easily replaced, Leigh said. It is cheaper to rebuild that kind of machinery instead of buying new equipment, if there is new equipment to be found, he said.

A 25,000-pound specialty lathe, built in the late 1960s or early 1970s, was shipped from an Akron-area customer to Pyramid, where it will be completely disassembled, inspected and then rebuilt to like-new condition over the next 12 weeks, Leigh said.

''These things are virtually indestructible,'' he said. ''That's why it's worth putting money into this.''

The shop also will design, build and install computer numerical control (also called CNC) equipment.

Pyramid has 11 employees, including its two owners.

The new addition, which will be used for assembly and disassembly work, will enable two more people to join the ranks of mechanics, rebuilders, machinists and industrial electricians.

Since they moved into Tallmadge some three years ago, Edds and Leigh said they've been thinking about expanding.

''Now we're finally doing it,'' Leigh said.

 

Jim Mackinnon can be reached at 330-996-3544 or jmackinnon@thebeaconjournal.com.

 

What's old can indeed become new. Or at the very least, like new.

Get the full article here.


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