Announces 5 Axis Machining

Foremaster Tool, in business for 44 years now, continues to see robust business, and they are thankful for their loyal customers. They are diversified in the industries they serve; their parts span the automotive, oil and gas, medical, aerospace and defense, and entertainment industries. Their customers number in the dozens, with some regionally and national well-known entities including; ATK, TD Williamson, Peterson, Kimberly Clark, AutoLiv, and Parker Hannifin, to name a few.

The company’s success is built upon a number of factors, but a few critical points stand out as key factors;

• Longevity of employees - Brian Foremaster, 2nd generation owner of the company, says that approximately 25% of the employees have been with the company for more than 15 years. He says, “They care about the products we make, and it shows.” What is not published in the company’s marketing brochure is some of the reasons employees remain at Foremaster Tool. One company employee applauded the company’s flexibility. He said, “We have people who start work at 5 am, and we have people who come to work each day at 9 am. Brian and the team recognize that employees’ family schedules are key to their lives, and our business can accommodate these different schedules. Not only is it good for employee retention, it means that we are open more hours for our customers.”

• Communication - As anyone in the industry can attest, shipping complex parts on the dates requested by dozens of customers inevitably means that some dates will slip, particularly when you factor in the number of outside processes that go into completing many parts. Couple this with the fact that, by nature, we avoid conflict, and this means that many shops do not communicate schedule delays to their customers in a timely manner. Lynn Hadley, Process Planner for the company (and 18 years tenure), says, “About a year ago, we began providing our customers with daily reports on the status of their products. We are continuing to evolve these communication ‘Job Status’ reports, and we are now providing them to 3 of our largest customers.” He continued, “The feedback we are getting from our customers is that this is a very valuable tool. Not all parts are needed on the date specified on the PO, and we are able to reallocate priorities when customers know what our scheduling looks like.”

• Investment in technology - Brian says that his father, Peter Foremaster, who founded the company, believed in buying new machine tools and believed in buying high quality machine tools. He says, “Peter bought his first machines from Tracy Smith of Smith Machinery.” He continued, “Since I have taken over the business, I continue to purchase from Smith Machinery, now from Tracy’s son Clark Smith.” Brian values the fact that Mazak is manufacturing a many of their machine tools here in the United States, in Florence, Kentucky.

Foremaster Tool Precision Machining’s Entree
Into 5 Axis Machining

Brian and the team at Foremaster Tool Precision Machining have long wanted to move to the next level in precision machining -- which naturally meant purchasing a 5 axis machining center. Though they could machine the parts their customers sent to them, they were doing it with 3 and 4 axis machining, using fixturing, and necessarily the part took more set-ups than it would take with 5 axis machining.

Brian says, “A few years ago, the price to procure a high quality 5 axis machining center just wasn’t in our budget.” He continued, “But that changed when Mazak introduced a more budget friendly 5 axis machine. It is the space-saving Vertical Center Universal
(VCU) 400 5X vertical machining center with a 5-axis rotary/tilt table that is made in Mazak’s U.S. factory .”

Though Foremaster Tool is a Mazak shop (they do admit they have purchased a few machine tools other than Mazak -- when the Mazak isn’t available in the timeframe or in the features they need), Brian was just a little apprehensive about purchasing such a new product that Mazak offered. He says, “The VCU-400 5X is an entry level 5-axis machine, and it was new on the market.” He continued, “It hit my price point, but I wanted to be sure it would meet my expectations.” Brian contacted some machine shops on the east coast that were using the machine, and when he heard how satisfied they were, Brian and the team at Foremaster Tool made the decision to buy their first 5 axis machine, the Mazak VCU-400 5X. Lynn says that this machine is a space saving machine with a 5-axis rotary/tilt table.

Lynn says that the Mazak VCU-400 5X VMC resulted in such significant set-up reductions and quality improvements that the company made the decision to purchase their second 5-axis machine just 6 months later.

This time they purchased the larger Mazak VARIAXIS J-600 5X vertical machining center with a high-precision rotary/tilt table is a high-value solution for those considering simultaneous 5-axis technology for the first time. The machine also handles machining processes on all 5 sides of a part in one set-up to eliminate multiple set-ups, it lowers lead-times and dramatically improves work piece accuracy.​

Brian says, “With Smith Machinery, we were able to purchase two Mazak 5 axis machine tools at a price point that worked for our business.” He continued, “We have always prided ourselves on our quality of products, and now we can achieve even better metrics with our 5 axis machine tools.”

A Customer Shares About Foremaster Tool

“We have been using Foremaster Tool for more than 2 decades now. I support my company in the R&D department, and so most of the work I do with them is for prototypes. We do sometimes send production work to them.

We value our relationship with Foremaster for a number of reasons; their pricing is competitive, their quality is outstanding, and their on-time delivery is good.

This past year, they began sending us a daily spreadsheet with all of our projects and the status on the each project. We can then review the schedule of all of our projects real time and move projects around for their schedule, based upon our priorities at the time. This is working so well for us, and they are the only machine shop that has offered this kind of direct/daily communication via
a formal system.”

Material Analyst, Automotive Saftey Manufacturer

​Contact Foremaster Tool to see how they can help your manufacturing needs. You can reach them at 801-737-0265 or visit foremastertool.com

41 West Guest Avenue
Salt Lake City, UT  84115
Phone: 801-263-6403
Fax: 801-263-6404
Email: smc@smithmachinetools.com

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