Addition of CNC Machining Center Results
in Strategic Shift for Fab Shop
This article originally appeared in Fabricating and Metalworking Magazine and was written by Rachel Duran, Editor.
All-Steel Fabricating experiences huge gains in manufacturing flexibility, and slashes time to market because it can take on and deliver projects other shops can’t touch.
All-Steel Fabricating Inc. located in Grafton, Mass. found themselves in a position all too familiar to metal fabricating manufacturers — beholden to extended lead times due to outsourcing machining work or turning work away because they lacked certain equipment to fulfill a project’s requirements.
In order to expand its capacities and open the door to additional projects, the manufacturer invested in a CNC machining center built for fabricators, the FlexCNC G-Series, a gantry-style CNC capable of efficiently machining large parts in a single setup. The machining center features a monobloc welded steel frame and a comprehensive motion control system.
The large open bed supports the production of large parts such as long tubes, structural materials, weldments and plates that don’t fit in a normal-sized mill. The open bed, compared to smaller mills with enclosed doors makes it easy to load parts with a forklift or overhead crane, for example, in a single set up.
Thanks to the bed size on the CNC, All-Steel Fabricating can run smaller projects alongside larger projects.
Effectively Overcoming Impediments to Growth
What started in 1969 by Jim Magill, Sr. as a two-person, 1,600- square-foot welding shop, All-Steel Fabricating is today operating from a 30,000-square-foot facility, with plans for the addition of 8,000 square feet.
Jim Sr.’s sons, Kevin and Jim, Jr., joined the business in the 1990s. Today, All-Steel Fabricating operates as a family-owned, one-stop metal fabrication, machining and finish processing organization. The manufacturer employs 26 people, with plans to add another five team members in the near future.
Kevin, left, and Jim Magill of All-Steel Fabricating in Grafton, Mass. Image courtesy of All-Steel Fabricating.
Ready to overcome challenges to their growth and expansion, brothers Kevin and Jim Magill took the risk and increased their manufacturing capacities by investing in a FlexCNC G-Series machining center, which was installed in February 2025. The leap of faith has resulted in a major positive adjustment to the manufacturer’s bottom line.
“We had manual machines that were dated back to the 1960s and we knew we needed to upgrade our capabilities,” said Kevin Magill, president and owner of All-Steel Fabricating. “The purchase of the FlexCNC G-Series allowed us to go after more work that we were not previously competitive at because we would have had to sub out the machining,” Magill said. “And now with the FlexCNC we have control over the manufacture, the lead time and the cost.”
The addition of the FlexCNC has enabled All-Steel Fabricating to realize an astounding strategic transformation. “We will use this new technology to accelerate the vertical integration of our existing operation with more capabilities,” Magill said. “By keeping more work in-house, we will improve lead times and increase our ability to be more responsive to our customers. In addition, this new equipment will allow us to add to our customer base.”
The addition of the Flex CNC has allowed All-Steel Fabricating to bring work in-house that was previously subcontracted. In addition to reducing production lead times, All-Steel Fabricating has realized a cost savings of 38%.
Magill said that All-Steel Fabricating has increased its volume so much that the company requires the installation of another CNC from Flex Machine Tools. (In addition to the G-Series, Flex Machine Tools also manufactures the FlexCNC C-Series, waterjet solutions, profile drilling centers, and tapping arms.)
New Possibilities and Frontiers
All-Steel Fabricating manufactures the framework, shells and bases, for machinery OEMs that create a variety of machinery for activities such as solid waste to energy generation.
Other industries include:
- Water and sewer treatment plants
- Plast extrusion machinery
- Biomass recovery systems
- Robotics and automation
- Glass Recycling Systems
- Food waste to animal feed recycling
- Border security x-ray equipment
A FlexCNC G-Series at the All-Steel Fabricating facility in Grafton, Mass. The addition of the Flex CNC has allowed the fab shop to bring work in-house that was previously subcontracted. In addition to reducing production lead times, the manufacturer has realized a cost savings of 38%. Image courtesy of All-Steel Fabricating.
All-Steel Fabricating’s expansion plans are supported by the addition of the FlexCNC, which offers several advantages when bidding on projects. Regarding subbing out machining work, “When you work with other machine shops you’re adding four-to-six weeks to the lead time to do maybe 20 hours to 30 hours’ worth of work,” Magill said. “So, right now we can we have the flexibility to do that work in house and cut the lead time down drastically. We’re not paying that markup to get it done outside so we’re controlling our costs there. It’s made us more profitable while being more competitive with our customers.”
The installation process of the CNC machine tool was straightforward and went quickly. All-Steel Fabricating’s team built a foundation to the support the weight of the machine to ensure it operated true and square, while Flex Machine Tool’s built the FlexCNC machine. The machine was delivered with instructions of how the riggers should set the machine, which only took a day to set up. Technicians from Flex Machine Tools then spent a week setting up the machine.
The FlexCNC C-Series from Flex Machine Tools is a cantilever style machining center with unique features designed for flexibility and utility.
Magill said his operators can’t believe how quickly jobs are performed on the Flex machine, reduced to minutes for production, where the circa 1960s manual CNC we had would take hours of manufacturing time. “It’s literally taken hours out of our manufacturing time,” he said.
Three employees have been trained to operate the Flex machine, both from programming to the physical operation. The employees received program training through classes at Mastercam. “Flex offers tremendous customer support,” Magill said. “We can call them anytime and they help us out with programming questions or different parameters with the machine that need to be set for ongoing projects. They’ve been a tremendous resource for us.”
Favorable and Prosperous Future
As part of its expansion strategy, All-Steel Fabricators has earned an American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC) Simple Bridge certification to take on department of transportation related projects.
The manufacturer has also completed an audit and is in the process to become a certified vendor for General Dynamics Electric Boat, which is based in Groton, Conn., and which designs, builds, repairs and modernizes nuclear submarines for the U.S. Navy.
All-Steel Fabricating is also looking forward to keeping its FlexCNC machine busy for the next several months (as well as into the future), for example, increasing output for one customer from single quantities of machine frames for the robotics industry to more than 25, with plans to increase to quantities of 750.
At the end of the day, the most important thing is a satisfied customer. All-Steel Fabricating’s addition of the Flex CNC machine opened the door to jobs they were unable to provide. Thanks to the flexibility to conduct work in house, as well as accelerating the speed to market, All-Steel Fabricating is unlocking new opportunities.
The FlexCNC C-Series from Flex Machine Tools is a cantilever style machining center with unique features designed for flexibility and utility.
Versatile Machine Tools Help Fabricators Earn New Business
For All-Steel Fabricating of Grafton, Mass., the addition of a large, open bed CNC machine to their production processes not only increased their capacities to take on new lines of work but also allowed them to take on work no one else could.
At FABTECH 2024, the manufacturer met with Flex Machine Tools of Wapakoneta, Ohio, at their booth to learn about the advantages of the FlexCNC machines. Flex offers two machine series in their FlexCNC lineup.
“They didn’t know if they could justify it [the purchase of an additional machine], and then they see a 20-foot-by-6-foot bed, and they realized all the things they could run on it,” said Logan Skelly, sales manager, Flex Machine Tools.
All-Steel Fabricating noticed the benefits immediately. They were able to take on a project that required 30-foot parts. In the past, they would have had to outsource the work. After running different repositions on the FlexCNC to test the ability to handle the long parts, “they made it work,” Skelly said. “And as a result, they were able to take on work others turned down due to their lack of capabilities. So now they are looking at [adding] another machine to expand their capabilities.”
Logan Skelly, sales manager, Flex Machine Tools.
Skelly added that it was the first large mill for All-Steel Fabricating. “They took a risk, you know, and obviously it’s a perfect example of how that pays off.”
The FlexCNC vertical machining centers are capable of drilling, tapping, milling, and other functions. The C-Series is a cantilever style machining center with features designed for flexibility and utility. The G-Series is a gantry-style CNC. Both series of CNCs feature monobloc welded steel frames and a comprehensive motion control system.
Different Approaches Result in Fresh Prospects
Skelly noted that when it comes to the addition of CNC machine tools to a fabrication shop, his team shares how the machine can assist the fabricator in taking different approaches to what they are doing now, or what they can add, capability wise, to the facility that will increase efficiencies, speed to market — and ultimately, make more money. Fully automated cuts are more accurate than what is humanly possible, resulting in a machine that pays for itself repeatedly for fabrication shop operators.
Regarding product options, Flex Machine Tools doesn’t really have a size limitation regarding the FlexCNC products. “Currently, the largest machine we have out in the field is 50-feet long, but we could go longer,” Skelly said. “We could also build 10-feet or 12-feet wide.” The manufacturer builds machine tool sizes based on what the applications require.
The FlexCNC is a versatile machine and is well suited to the needs of the oil and gas industry, aerospace, and general fabricators. “We also serve a lot of OEMs, many of which use the machine to process long parts for a variety of automation solutions, such as packaging or material handling,” Skelly said.
The FlexCNC also supports structural tube, structural beam and channel projects. While there are machines on the market that specialize in processing structural projects, Skelly noted FlexCNC machines enable fabricators to perform multiple processes on one machine that others are unable to perform. CNC machines are one way metal fabricators can differentiate themselves and increase capabilities and capacities in the process.
Read the article on Fabricating and Metalworking Here!
