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Article published Apr 13, 2009 The Axis of business Blount fabricator keeps other area companies humming
By Robert Norris of The Daily Times Staff
The hum is a steady drone at Axis Fabrication & Machine Co. LLC at Stock Creek Development Centre in Rockford.
Sounds of cutting and sawing and bending and painting and finishing -- noises that keep area businesses humming. Axis' shop floor is like an operating room for machines. It's where worn and broken parts are duplicated to keep assembly lines running and industry working.
The machines that do the job cost $2 million to $3 million new. The machines they keep in operation in Blount County and beyond are worth many millions of dollars more.Axis is celebrating it's 20th anniversary this year and recently held an open house to show off what it does.
The engineers and machinists don't wear white coats and carry stethoscopes, but when a company has a piece of machinery that's busted, the staff of Axis Fabrication & Machine are just what the doctor ordered.
"That's what we do. All these other businesses -- we help people when they run into trouble. We help engineer it. We make the part. We get it back to them quick, so they can get in business again. Our goal is to keep your boss happy," said Pat Hughes, founder of Axis.
"I've got a Tennessee engineer and a Georgia Tech engineer and lot of smart people that work here. They counter what I do to em. Even in spite of my skills of throwing a wrench in the works, these guys can still come out on top. They know how I operate. I defer to these guys."
Hughes' casual style and self-deprecating humor wears well as he walks from machine to machine, trading light verbal jabs with his employees and bragging about them.
"He's been here 15 years ... He's been here 17 years ... He's been here 18 years."
He's also proud of the machines that make the parts that keep other machines working.
"It's a computer operated lathe, but it's got a real big swing diameter. Not many people have got this around here. It's also got the capability to do machining -- not turning, but come in and put a keyway with a milling machine while it's still chucked up.
"Or maybe a long keyway slot in it. Or maybe put a bolt-hole pattern in the end. And see that head right there, it's got what they call live tooling. Each one of those can be programmed to turn into place and then drill a hole or machine something -- not just a turning lathe."
There's an EDM, an electro-discharge machine, that cuts metal by melting it with electric current. It makes precision cuts accurate to 0.0001 inch.
There's abrasive water jet machine, with a long nozzle that shoots water mixed with abrasive grit that will cut about any material.
At Axis, even the machines seem to have personalities of their own.
"These are our manual mills. Like a real fancy drill press," Hughes said. "The table moves back and forth. The spindle moves. You select the cutter you want. We machine plastics. We machine metals. We machine ceramics. We machine rubber, all kinds of different things."
Streaks of light, like shooting sparks, fan out from another piece of equipment that is cutting intricate patterns through a sheet of steel.
"That's our most expensive machine. It's a laser. It's got twin shuttle tables so you don't lose any time changing your material out. It's got a robot arm that will come over here and suck up that sheet of material, place it in the proper position on that shuttle table. The shuttle table will run in the machine, the machine will cut, the other shuttle table will come out, it'll scoop up the parts, lay it down there on the middle table and we don't even have to be here to have that happen."Teaching shop
As Hughes moves from department to department, talking with his employees and about his machines, it's not hard to imagine that he once was a teacher. He graduated from the University of Tennessee with a bachelor's degree in education. He went to work as a teacher at Christenberry Elementary School in Knoxville.
"I always liked shop work. I wanted my summers off. I was, 'Man, I'd love to be a shop teacher. Perfect job,'" Hughes said. "Well, I found out I was making $10,000 a year and there were no summers off."
He got a summer job as a fabricator at Commercial Plastics. He made aquariums and industrial products out of plastics. Then he went to work full-time at Magnavox when it moved its headquarters to Knox County and he learned how to work with sheet metal. After three years there, he took a job as an engineering technician at National Seating in Vonore.
"Then I just decided to do it on my own. Of course, nobody else wanted me to. The only person that really believed in me was my mother. She loaned me $11,000 and I bought this old, green mill out here with it. I paid her back within a year," Hughes said.Operations manager
That's when he crossed paths with James Lewis, who was to later become operations manager for Axis. Lewis was working his way through school on a part-time job with an Axis customer at the time.
"He couldn't go full-time at this company that I was doing work for," Hughes said. "They said, 'Do you need any help?' I said I could probably give him a week or two of work, but I like working by myself.
"He stayed for a couple of weeks, and it turned into a month and a month into a year. Never in my wildest dreams did I think James, once he became an engineer, is going to stick around a little one-man shop. By then it was a two- or three- or four-man shop. He knew I couldn't operate without him, so he felt sorry for me and stuck around," Hughes said.Perfect match
Lewis was listening and smiling.
"James really was the technical brains -- very organized in his thinking. So it came off as a good match, he and I. He was analytical and calm, and I was more shoot from the hip and prone to make mistakes, if he didn't put the reins on me. So it was just perfect."
Lewis has finally had enough, and has to interject.
"He's not giving himself enough credit, of course," Lewis said. "The thing that you learn, if you work for Pat, is that he cares about the people who work for him. The people that do him a good job, he treats them well. They like him. And that's a good part of why we've got good people."
Hughes jumped back in the conversation. He confirmed that interpersonal relationships with his employees and his customers are important to the success of Axis.
"It's true with your customers and it's true with the guys that you work with. We're personal friends with vendors of ours and people that we do work for," he said.
"Many, many have said this is the best place they've ever worked."
It shows in the loyalty of his employees.
"I never really had to fire anybody, because these guys are so dedicated to this company that they'll get rid of a guy who doesn't work out -- 'This guy isn't going to work. This guy doesn't care. He doesn't fit.' -- It's just like a brotherhood and that's a great way to be."