Author Archives: atmdst

KC & St. Louis NTMA Members visit Officials in Washington

The Kansas City and St. Louis Chapters of the NTMA were well represented in Washington DC by a team of members who made the trip to attend the NTMA/PMA “One Voice” legislative conference May 8th and 9th.

Those making the trip were: Dick & Rick Schwind of Continental Tool, Craig Schroer of Unitech Inc, Greg Carr of Deco Tool Supply & Tom Goodpasture of Pride Manufacturing. The group joined with Herb Homeyer of Homeyer Tool & Mike Mittler of Mittler Bro. from the St. Louis Chapter to make visits to both Kansas & Missouri Representatives.

During the-two day event the group visited three US Senators and eight US House Representatives. Issues discussed focused on the serious condition of the trained skilled workers for our industry.

Currently manufacturing suffers with a 600,000 skilled worker shortage nationally with 2.7 million expected to retire in the next 10 years. Taxation and regulation that burdens American manufacturers and makes the US the most expensive place in the world to operate was also discussed. The EPA’s current discussion and consideration of nickel as a hazardous substance was also a hot topic. The team came back feeling that they had a number of good conversations. Manufacturing and the machining industry is being looked to as a solution to create jobs and being welcomed by both sides of the aisle to discuss the possibilities unlike many past years.

Connecting the Technologies

“Imagine it,” says Herb Homeyer, president of Homeyer Tool and Die Company. “The technician loads the feeder with bars and goes home. We have provided him with internet access, and at 8:30 or 9 p.m., he can fire it up and log onto his machine to make sure everything is still good.” As his excitement grows, he says, “We’re not fully there yet, but these are our goals.” Achieving goals is one of his specialties. Read More »

From Fixtures to Forceps

Herb Homeyer can still remember the first job that his company, Homeyer Tool and Die, handled back in May 1990 when it was just getting off the ground.

“It was a fixture for the Binkley Company, which is now SAF Holland,” Homeyer recalled.

Sitting at his desk in the company’s Marthasville location, Homeyer held up one of the products Homeyer Tool and Die makes today, 20 years later.

“These are forceps for cauterizing blood vessels during neurosurgery,” he said.

Homeyer Tool and Die offers concept to assembly work in precision machining, tool and die, specialty machines, EDM (electronic discharge machine) and engineering between its two facilities, in Marthasville and Union. Read More »