Sometimes things just work out in life. Sometimes a critical success factor is being in the right time at the right place.  That is, to some extent, how partners Stephen Mackert and Michael Smith founded their business.  But, of course, it isn’t just being in the right place at the right time.  That helps, but then you must add in other intangibles like the ability to take risks, negotiating skills, a superior partnership between 2 colleagues, just to name a few. 

​Stephen was a young man, nearly right out of high school, when he went to work at a machine shop. Stephen says, “I loved the trade from the start”, and he admits, “My family members were all in the construction industry, and it gets pretty cold in construction in Utah winters!”  From his initial years in the machine shop, he went on to work for a mold making shop.  It is here that he began the arduous journey of becoming a mold maker.

​​​Michael was busy installing car stereos, and made the decision that he didn’t want to be climbing under cars for his career.  And so while he was working, he also went to school for machining — doing both full time.  He went on to earn his associates degree in the trade.

Stephen says, “While I was working for Sorenson Mold, I had a friend who was having a stereo and phone installed in his car, and Michael did the installation.  My friend was so impressed with Michael, and since he knew Michael was already studying to become a machinist, he put the two of us in touch.  Stephen says, “This friend said that Michael was so smart and so particular in his work.  I needed some new blood in the company I was working for so I hired Michael as an apprentice.” Michael finished school, and came on full time at Sorenson Mold.

Michael and Stephen worked together for nearly a decade at Sorenson Mold, where Stephen supervised a team of several mold makers.  Stephen says, “In September of 2010 we learned that Sorenson Mold was closing its doors.” Stephen approached Michael about the possibility of buying the business before it closed down.  Michael says, “I had to be talked into it by Stephen — this was a huge step.” The 2 new partners negotiated with Sorenson Mold, brought in an expert to appraise the value of the machines, and in the end they successfully purchased the assets of Sorenson Mold. ​

​Stephen says, “We changed the name on the door — to Molding Solutions, Inc., and we never looked back. Within the first year we were profitable.”  Michael says, “We were a new business, and getting financing was tricky.  Several banks turned us down.  We owe much of our early success, and the ability to grow to Key Bank, and to Jace Johnson.  He helped us to get the financing when nobody else would do it." ​

Today, Molding Solutions supports customers largely in Utah and Colorado, and their customers hale from such industries as medical, irrigation, dental, and commercial, to name a few.  Stephen says, “We get the most difficult tooling requirements from our customers, and we specialize in new mold building as well as mold repairs.  Our footprint capability is for molds 24”x36” and smaller.”  The partners are particularly proud that they are often called on to rebuild tools that were built in China, and Stephen says, “We are getting these because the tools made in China didn’t work.”

Six years into business ownership, Stephen says, “Business is very good, and we continue to grow.”  He admits life is simplified today versus initial start up of the business, as he and Michael typically work 10 hours a day, far less than their early days of 16 hour workdays. ​

Molding Solutions produces about a dozen new molds each year, repairs ~ 100 molds in a given year, and Stephen says their ratio of new tooling to replacement tooling is about 75:25.  They build tools for prototyping to production.  Using such software tools as Solidworks for 3D modeling and MasterCAM, they often are tasked with building the tooling for injection mold companies.  Not only are they expert at mold repair and rebuild, they additionally offer wire, sinker and small hole EDM; prototype machining and mold making; part design for moldability; and production and prototype injection molding. ​

In 2010 when Michael and Stephen bought out Sorenson Mold’s assets for pennies on the dollar, they inherited a number of machine tools. After a few years of profitability, Michael says, “It was time to replace some of our older equipment acquired with the business.”

​Stephen says, “We asked around in the industry when we were making our new machine tool purchase evaluations. We knew that one thing we had to have was local sales and service.  One of our machinists knew Smith Machinery well from his prior experience, and he highly recommended them.  Other machine shop owners in Utah also highly recommended Smith Machinery.”  For their Vertical Machining Center purchase, the team at Molding Solutions, Inc. purchased the Mazak Nexus 510C. Michael says, “The Mazak is a workhorse for us.  It has been so reliable, and the service we get from Smith Machinery is outstanding.”

​Molding Solutions’ most recent machine tool acquisition was the MC Machinery Diamond Cut TV-500, which is a combination Mill/Drill/Tap machine.  The team worked with their Smith Machinery Sales Engineer, Klaus Lassig, in the purchase. Michael says, ​“Klaus is a machinist by background, and he talks like a machinist.  We respect his background — he isn’t a typical sales guy or a new machine tool sales guy who can’t answer your questions.  During our decision making phase in the machine tool buying process, Klaus brought us into other machine shops so that we could hear directly from other owners’ about their experience with specific machines.”

​​Klaus says, “Mold makers often use a vacuum system to extract the graphite dust from their environment, and the environment can be quite dusty through the process.  We introduced Molding Solutions to a methodology that would allow them to machine ‘graphite wet’.” Stephen says, “We were very leery, but we did a test burn, and machining ‘graphite wet’ not only was a much cleaner process, but the finished product was outstanding.”

Michael says, “Since we purchased our MC Machinery Diamond Cut TV-500 from Smith Machinery, we’ve been very pleased overall.  The installation took 2 days before we were up and running (not months, as we have previously experienced), and the training (1 week at our site) we received from MC Machinery was just a great experience.”

Call Molding Solutions, Inc. if you need the most
complex molds built or repaired, or if your require
production or prototype injection molding.
They can be reached at 801-858-1467 or
contact Stephen at smackert@msislc.com
​
​Article courtesy of A2Z Metalworking

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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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