Blog #5
I often get asked, “how did you get started?”, so I thought
this topic would make for a good blog post. I’ve always had a dream to own my
own business. Before I left the military, I already had a job lined up in
Fairbanks, Alaska which was my last duty station. I had applied at a local
machine shop and was hired. This was a busy job shop with many different and
sometimes demanding jobs. It was what I called “heavy” work as almost
everything was oversized. For example, we would machine mining equipment, large
bushings for barge rudders, and other various big items. My boss wasn’t one to
turn away any work, so we got an education through involvement in some eclectic
projects. On my first day, I was tasked
with making hundreds of spacer bushings for aircraft seatbelts. This was
tedious, but I could handle the monotony. I worked there for about a year
before I decided to head back home to California. I loaded up my 1970 Toyota
Landcruiser and started the next chapter in my life. Driving from Fairbanks to
Southern California was an adventure in itself. I did it nonstop, chain-smoking
Marlboro Reds to stay awake (don’t try this at home).
My father had a five hundred square foot workshop in the
backyard, so I started my business there. I had a lot of ideas, but no way to
produce them and limited capital. I submitted some drawings to a handful of
companies in the industry but never heard back. At that point, I knew that I had to find a way to get it done myself. Figuring that I needed a
milling machine at a minimum, I drove deep into the heart of Los Angeles and
purchased a used Bridgeport mill from a dealer. It was built from various
mills, so none of the serial numbered components matched, but that didn’t
detract from how accurate and reliable it was. It was the cheapest option that
they had, so it was the obvious choice. You have to start somewhere!
A Bridgeport mill weighs around two thousand pounds, so we
had to take it apart into sections in the driveway, and with the help of a
rented pallet-jack, haul it down into the backyard workshop one piece at a
time. My father was an electrician by trade, and he wired everything up. A
couple of days later, I was up and running.
My initial product was the first gen bipod. I sold them through a
distributor, and this got my foot in the door of the firearms industry. That
eventually fell apart after non-payment and other issues, but I harbor no ill
will. They gave me my start, and perhaps more importantly, the confidence that
I could design products that would compete with the bigger players in the
industry. I converted the Bridgeport into a CNC after about a year of use. I
worked alone, grinding through twelve plus hour days seven days a week for
years. Looking back, I sometimes wonder how I did it.
