For Roy Blaisdell, founder and president of Vista, CA’s Hi-Tech Swiss Machining, Inc., the road to success has been fairly straight and narrow, with no detours along the way.

“We’ve been a Swiss screw machine shop from day one,” Blaisdell explains. “When I left high shool at 18, I went to work for a company called Allied Swiss. They were then and still are a Swiss screw machine shop. The owner is still a friend of mine. That was in 1968. I’ll never forget the day I started with them, because that was the last time it snowed in Vista. I started out cleaning parts, working on second operation machines and then setting up their CAM machines. Eventually I became their first-op foreman.”

Twenty-three years later, with a broad knowledge of Swiss screw machining, CAM layout, tool grinding and lapping, employee training and shop management under his belt, Blaisdell was ready to move on.

“I followed a friend of mine to another company, where they offered me the position of general manager,” he recalls. “There was only one problem there. I didn’t like the owner, and I soon realized I wasn’t ready to be general manager. I understood screw machines and how to manager people, but I didn’t have enough business background.”

Opportunity Knocks

Six weeks later, Blaisdell made the decision to cut his losses and go into business for himself.

“A machine salesman I knew from my previous job was selling Tornos screw machines,” he says. “He knew I wasn’t happy, so he said, ‘Tell you what. If you buy a machine from me I’ll get you your first customer.’ That looked like a good way out of a bad situation, so I jumped at the chance. I’ve never looked back since.”

Blaisdell and his wife put everything into the business to get it going.

“We invested my profit sharing from Allied and refinanced the house to give us enough money to operate for a year,” he says. “I rented about 200 feet in another machine shop. It was a dirty little place with packed grease and oil on the floor, rats and lots of fleas from the owner’s big dog, but the owner was a nice guy who included use of his support equipment in the rent, so it was a good deal.”

Blaisdell has some fond memories about that initial experience.

“We were so crowded it was funny,” he says. “I came in one day and found a window busted out. ‘What happened?’ I asked. He said, ‘I had a job and the bar was too long, so I stuck it out the window.’ Another time he knocked a hole in the wall to make room.”

In spite of the crowded quarters, after 6 months Blaisdell bought a second machine.

“By then the Tornos salesman had switched over to selling Star machines,” he says, “so I bought a Star from him for two reasons. One was I liked the guy and I owed him, but even more important was the space problem. I only had a ten-foot wide area in the shop. And in that area I had my mill, grinder, lathe and my office. The Tornos is a left handed machine. And so you stand on the right hand side of it. The Star I bought, an RNC16, was a right-handed machine, which was the second reason I bought it. Like I said, we were cramped. With my wife handling the bookkeeping, I stayed there for about two years before I moved again.”

Blaisdell’s next move was to a 1400 sq ft industrial space not far from his current location. A year later an adjoining space became available and he grabbed that.

“Now I had 2800 square feet of space,” he says. “I had an office and my wife had an office. I thought I had arrived.”

Troublesome Customer

Hi-Tech’s first customer was in the dental industry and like a trip to the dentist, it wasn’t always a happy situation.

“We made parts for low-and-high-speed hand pieces out of 416 stainless steel for dental hand pieces,” he says. “You know, the grinders dentists use? I was making spindles and chucks for those and they were complex parts, so to do them on my equipment, I had to be pretty creative. Still, we got the work done and the customer was happy.”

The only problem was that Blaisdell wasn’t too happy with his customer.

“They knew they owned me,” he says. “We had one other customer at the time, making parts for Roto Rooter cables, but the bulk of the work was for the first customer. They knew that they had me in their back pocket, so they were yanking us around as far as paying their bills. They were giving us a lot of business, so I was doing everything I could to make them happy, but that didn’t make them change their ways.”

Because of the increasing volume from the dental customer, Blaisdell went looking for a loan to buy more equipment just to handle their business.

“The loan guy looked at me and said, ‘Are you kidding? Your collections are 90 days out, and you think we’re going to loan you some money?’ That really shocked me.”

Trade Show to the Rescue

Blaisdell knew he had to do something to extricate himself from the situation, but he wasn’t quite sure what to do about it.

Blaisdell: “Then one day an engineer from my customer came in and asked me if I was in the Job Shop Show. I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He told me. The Job Shop Show was a traveling trade show that was coming to San Diego, California soon. I got on the phone immediately and rented a 10 x 10 space at the show. That was one of the smartest things I ever did, I think. We went to the show, and we were the only screw machine shop there. We had people lined up to talk to us. I was just flabbergasted. That show changed our lives. It wasn’t long after that that we had enough business that our dental customer went from nearly a hundred percent of our business down to thirty percent. My wife and I celebrated the first day we had no business from them at all.”

Secret of Hi-Tech’s Success

Hi-Tech’s business has grown steadily from the day it opened its doors, with about 75% of its business coming from the medical industry and the rest mainly in the aerospace industry. Six years ago Blaisdell, bought the building he now occupies, a modern, 12,400 sq ft facility in Vista, filled with Star, Citizen, Tornos and Escomatic screw machines and support equipment. He currently has 33 employees.

“I believe we’ve grown and succeeded for three reasons,” he says. “First, we have specialized in precision screw machine work, using first-rate equipment. While we have competition, it’s not like milling shops where there is one hungry shop on every corner. Second is that we got started serving the medical industry, mostly dental, right from the beginning. The medical industry is great. People are getting older and they want to keep living, so they get medical care no matter how the economy is doing. Sometimes the medical industry flattens out, but it almost never takes a dive. It’s great.”

And the third reason for his success?

“I’ve become a business man,” he says. “I’ve learned to hire good people and delegate responsibility. You might say I’ve almost delegated myself out of a job. Mostly what I do these days is process control. When a job comes in, I sit with our people and figure out the best flow through the shop to get the job done. I’m not sure I could even run one of these advanced CNC machines, but I don’t have to. I have great employees to do it for me.”

Where to From Here?

Is Blaisdell planning another move in the near future?

“No way,” he says. “I have good people, good equipment and a good life. Right now my business goal is to maximize productivity, to get the most parts made in this building possible. That means more Stars and more automation. I’m happy here.”

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