Local foundry remains open despite nearby fire | News

Bluefield, Virginia. — A major fire that destroyed much of a Bluefield, Va., building failed to stop a foundry business located near the site of a former foundry that opened in 1898.

Eastern Steel & Foundry, which opened in 2019, is in the same location on Virginia Avenue as the former Thistle Foundry & Machine Company. The buildings on the site still bear the Thistle Foundry name, but the location is now the new company's headquarters.

A fire burned a structure that once housed the former Bluefield Casket Company building, located next to the former Thistle Foundry property, on May 20, but that fire did not reach the foundry currently located there. activity.

“It was the old Thistle smelter,” said Teddy Taylor, owner of Eastern Steel. “We reopened it. We buy scrap metal, melt it down and make castings for other companies. They are mainly intended for the mining industry. We make it for other people.

The castings manufactured by the company are sold to various customers.

“For different types of industries,” said director Dwayne Johnson. “We have some that are used in power plants. We can do a little bit of everything. We can cast up to 1,000 pounds and we can do it down to 1 pound. This is a customer request. If you have something to make, come here, we have 3D printing, we can create your model, we can do the full 9 meters – from engineering to final casting.

The May 20 fire occurred near Eastern Steel's offices and machine shop, but did not seriously damage them, Taylor and Johnson said.

“We're evaluating everything right now, but we're not stopped,” Johnson said. “Were open.”

Taylor said Eastern Steel's machine shop closed after the fire, but is operating again.

“Actually today we’re machining,” Johnson said Thursday.

The nearby fire did not reach the building where the foundry itself is located.

“From Monday until this morning, we were unable to work in that building, but the foundry is separate from that building,” Johnson said at the office Thursday. “The only thing that has been allocated for this purpose is the offices and the machine shop. »

Eastern Steel employs about 12 people and recycles the materials it uses.

“Here, we recycle everything 100%. Our metal, our sand. We clean our own sand and everything else,” Johnson said.

The company hopes to expand in the future.

“We need to expand our mold line production and make it more operational,” Taylor said. “We are trying to expand our machine shop and install new equipment.”

“We would like to expand the capabilities we currently have,” Johnson said. “Right now we have one machine running full time and we would like to do more than that. We have possibilities to get the job. We just need to work out the bugs.

Like many other businesses today, the foundry faces the challenge of finding qualified employees.

“Skilled labor. That's the problem. You have to have competent people,” Johnson said. “It takes time to train someone for this kind of work and it's not easy. »

Contact Greg Jordan at [email protected]