Quick facts: Dayton Machine Tool
Founded: 1949
Located: 1314 Webster St., Dayton
Owner: Bob Davis
Other Davis holdings: First Tool Corp., Dayton Manufacturing Co., Estee Mold & Die, Walter Cavender Co., all in Dayton.
Employees: 23
DAYTON — When Bob Davis says a machine is “big,” he isn’t joking.
One look at the horizontal disk broach being rebuilt in one of the bays of Davis’ company, Dayton Machine Tool, will confirm that.
The machine’s back-end weighs 125,000 pounds. The front weighs 55,000 pounds. When completely rebuilt, the machine will extend about 70 feet in length, standing more than 8 feet high.
Davis believes his company’s work on the machine — re-manufacturing its back end and building its front — may be the biggest machining job in Dayton today. Owner of Dayton Machine Tool since 2003, Davis puts the value of the job at $2.25 million.
“It’s one of the largest machine tools being built in the United States,” said Richard Alden, DMT’s chief operating officer.
When the broach fully functions, it will cut a series of notches in the edge of aircraft engine disks. The work is being performed for Tusas Engines Industries, a General Electric affiliate in Turkey, Alden said.
“It’s unique,” said Tom Forsyth, DMT general manager. “There are no other machines like it in the world.”
Jerry Kronenberger, president of Dayton Tooling and Manufacturing Association, said he couldn’t be certain that the job was the largest in the Dayton area at the moment. But he added: “In today’s market, that’s definitely a big job.”
The broach has been in one of DMT’s four bays for 18 months. DMT leaders hope to have the job complete no later than mid-January, planning to host an entourage from Turkey when the machine is turned on.
At a tough time for Dayton tool shops, the job has been a tonic for DMT, Davis said.
“Business is not too great right now,” he acknowledged.
The company laid off about eight people in 2009, Alden said. A chief challenge has been finding workers with the skills DMT needs, he said. He put the average age of current employees in the “middle-50s.”
DMT specializes in large, complex projects and has for 60 years. Alden said Davis could have sold off the company’s equipment when he bought it out of bankruptcy six years ago.
Instead, Davis kept it operating.
“The Dayton area is not dying,” Davis said.
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