There is something fascinating about a machine shop.
It could be the large machines that are used to carve dies, bearings or bushings from raw metal.Maybe it's the slivers of metal trimmed from a large piece of brass rod that pile up as the product is finally finished.
Or it could be the machinist, dressed in bib overalls and sporting dirty hands, making a part that must be carved to the smallest of measurements.
Machine shops are the backbone of heavy industry in Utah and surrounding states because they not only make original parts but repair large crushers, bearings, centrifuges, grinders and rollers that keep large machines operating.
One of the busier machine shops in Salt Lake City is Bonneville Machine Inc., 1835 W. 1500 South, where six men have parlayed their original $1,000 investment each into a company that had combined sales of $6.2 million in 1989.
In 1973 the six men were working in a machine shop in Salt Lake City when they decided they could start a business doing the same thing, only they would be in charge. With their $6,000 they purchased some equipment from J.M. Grisley Machine Tools, 1485 S. 300 West, and they started their company in some space at that location.
Eldon T. Smith is president of Bonneville, although the six men have equal shares in the business. The others are Keith Millerberg, who was a machinist in the old company and now is operations manager; Ken Bleak, a machinist who now is shop superintendent; Walter Gudat, a machinist who directs tool purchasing and shipping and receiving; Bill Webber, an office manager who now is in charge of the metals department; and Marlow Yost, a certified public accountant in the old company and controller for Bonneville.
Late in 1973, Smith said, Bonneville moved to its pres-ent location in a 6,000-square-foot building, and a few employees were hired after a few months. Although their operation was relatively small at first, the company specialized in customized machine work, hardly ever doing the same thing twice, Smith said.
In those early days, Smith recalled, the company made bronze bearings, parts for filtering systems in sewage treatment plants, dies for salt blocks for salt companies and tube sheets for industrial filters and dryers. Bonneville also made parts for the soda ash industry in Wyoming, including large rollers that crushed the mineral, and driers and gears.
As a side service, Smith said, Bonneville got into "red metal," mainly copper, bronze, cast iron, stainless steel and aluminum.
In 1976, the six owners doubled the size of their machine shop to 12,000 square feet and expanded into fabrication and welding. In 1980 the shop was expanded to 24,000 square feet of space, and the company started rebuilding machines used in long-wall coal mining.
Bonneville Machine now has 30,000 square feet of space and 97 employees. The company is divided into six divisions, including the machine shop, metal sales, Bird centrifuges (a device that separates liquid from solids), Kop-Flex (self-aligning couplings used in heavy industry), American Babbitt Bearing, and Flame-spray.
American Babbitt Bearing has some space at Bonneville Machine Inc. and is headed by Bill King, president and general manager. The six Bonneville co-founders own a total of 60 percent of American Babbitt. Babbitt is a soft alloy of tin, copper and antimony used to reduce friction in bearings.
The company has expanded its metals-producing company, Bonneville Metals and American Babbitt Bearing to Huntington, W.Va., and also has a Bonneville Metals operation in Phoenix, Ariz., Smith said.
Flamespray is a procedure of spraying onto an item a heated metal alloy that rebuilds worn parts and improves the strength and helps the item last longer than it would with its original surface.
In a machine shop such as Bonneville where unusually heavy and weird-shaped items are handled, big machines are commonplace. Bonneville has a 15-ton crane, a 10-ton crane and two five-ton cranes to move the products around so the employees can work on them.
Once inside, the items are moved to lathes, milling machines, horizontal mills, vertical boring machines, drill presses, grinders, planers, welding machines, band saws and presses. That's when the machinists use their experience in repairing the parts or building new items using specifications provided by buyers.
If a customer has an item that must be repaired and cannot transport it to the machine shop, Bonneville has a trailer loaded with a wire feed welder, boring bars, flange facing equipment, power generator, portable milling machine, welding equipment and magnetic base drill and the people to operate them who travel within a 500-mile radius for repairs.
At Bonneville, two shifts are operated, but Smith said the company offers 24-hour service so a customer needing repairs can get his equipment back into operation quickly.
Smith said Bonneville has standing contracts with many Utah companies needing repairs on their heavy machinery.
A native of Salt Lake City, Smith attended Salt Lake Community College and served an apprenticeship at Lundeen and May Foundry and then worked for State Brass & Foundry for 12 years as machine shop foreman and four years as machine shop superintendent before he and his five partners started Bonneville.
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(ADDITIONAL INFORMATION)
Bonneville customers
Here is a partial list of Bonneville Machine Inc. customers:
American Oil
American Western Steel
Eaton-Kenway
General Electric
Hercules
Kennecott Minerals
Lake Point Salt
Mark Steel
Thiokol Corp.
Mountain Fuel Supply
Portland Cement
Rocky Mountain Machinery
Utah Power & Light Co.