Business View Magazine | November 2019

107 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2019 TAZEWELL MACHINE WORKS be in business.” “We’re now fourth generation,” he continues. “My son, Ryan Cakora, he’s been here now five years and he’s our Plant Manager. With employees, we’ve been very fortunate to have a lot of good, long- term people. In this business, there’s no substitute for good experience.” Tazewell doesn’t machine castings made by other foundries, but it does assist in casting design, at no extra charge. The foundry works in partnership with progressive pattern shops on all jobs that require new patterns, engineering changes, pattern rigging, or casting redesign. “We’re small, but we aren’t a garage-type operation,” Cakora explains. casting we make, we can machine. Most of our customers do their own machining, but we’re able to offer full-service, value-added services such as chromating, anodizing, heat treating, and painting, even though we don’t do them in-house.” The family-owned foundry enjoys a wealth of expertise, with industry veterans who’ve been with them for decades and long-term, trusted customer and supplier relationships with respected names like TriALco. “TriALco is one of our aluminum ingot suppliers,” says Cakora. “We’ve been buying from them for about 40 years. Our sand supplier, Warren Sand, has been with us from day one or close to it. Part of our culture is we want to be loyal to our suppliers. If we don’t have our suppliers, we can’t