(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Justin Mobilian, HGR’s sales & marketing summer intern)

Additive manufacturing (better known as 3D printing) has been around for years – longer than I’ve been alive – but the industry has only gained popularity in recent years. Prior to my marketing research class at The University of Akron, I had no interest in 3D printing. So, Dr. Coleman. Who is he? Full-time marketing genius. Part-time marketing professor. Part-time marketing consulting firm owner. Because of him, my interest for 3D printing grew immensely. For our term project, he gave us a real-life client from his firm who couldn’t afford his services (for privacy purposes, we’ll say his name is Bob). The project’s topic? Yep, you guessed it. 3D printing.

Our task was to determine if Bob should enter the 3D printer market and whether or not it would be lucrative for him to buy one (Although, I still question to this day why Bob was interested in purchasing a 3D printer when he couldn’t afford the firm’s services). After hours of research, hosting focus groups, distributing surveys, and analyzing results, we came to the conclusion that purchasing a 3D printer wouldn’t be a worthy investment (unless it’s a large manufacturing/engineering company that’s interested). That was two years ago; a lot can happen in two years.

Thanks to Dave Pierson, senior mechanical design engineer for Manufacturing Advocacy & Growth Network (MAGNET) and an expert on additive manufacturing, I was able to sit down with him to discuss the future of 3D printing.

So, you’ve been with MAGNET for almost 23 years. Can you tell me a little about what MAGNET does?

We offer consulting services to companies to help them achieve efficiencies through programs that focus on increasing productivity and process improvement. In turn, these efficiencies improve sales through a variety of new product development and business growth strategies – a great example being additive manufacturing.

How will 3D printing impact manufacturing companies? I know it’s used for rapid prototyping, but do you think companies will incorporate additive manufacturing to create parts used in the final product?

It’s not rapid prototyping anymore. For some companies, it’s not even prototyping. For example, Tesla and BMW already have begun printing parts that will be used in their final product. It’s evolutionary. Pretty soon, you’ll see more and more companies using additive manufacturing to print parts and pieces that will go into their finished product.

Do you see 3D printing as a technology solution or is it becoming more of a business solution?

It’s not necessarily a technology or business solution – it’s a manufacturing solution. We’ve found a way to cut costs and increase efficiencies for companies by implementing additive manufacturing. With one of our most recent successes, we helped a company implement a product that cost $0.09 to make, compared to the $44 they were originally paying.

When will we hear about the next generation of 3D printers? At CES 2017, the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, or do you think earlier?

Not too much at CES 2017. You’ll definitely see something big at AMUG’s (Additive Manufacturing Users Group) Annual Conference, which is in early April 2017. Keep an eye out for something soon. I bet several new printers will roll out within the next six months, if not sooner. HP, for example, came out with a new generation a few months ago and is already in the process of building a better one.

You mentioned in your email that additive manufacturing is “growing at a very crazy rate.” Where do you see it five years from now?

It’s hard to say what the future of 3D printers will be in five years because everything is happening so fast. I couldn’t tell you. As far as the product lifecycle, it’s sitting on the growth stage. This is just the beginning. I spoke at a conference recently, and one of the speakers said there will soon be a generation of humans that will never die because we’ll be able to print body parts – here’s a 3D-printed aorta. Who knows? Maybe that generation will be yours. We haven’t seen anything yet. It’s fascinating.

There you have it. Additive manufacturing can do it all.

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Tiffany Moore, HGR Industrial Surplus’ 2016 S.T.E.M. Scholarship)

Science, technology, engineering and math (S.T.E.M.) fields interest me because I like to be challenged. The challenges we face occur mainly because we have to adapt to always-changing technology. When working in some form of S.T.E.M. career, nothing stays the same. One moment you’re building a machine by hand, and the next day a robot could be building it for you. Or, one day you could be configuring an update for the iPhone 6, and a couple of weeks later they come out with an iPhone 7. The possibilities are endless!

That is why I chose to go down the S.T.E.M. path; so, I can later work for some of the top companies or start my own. Also, I would like to make a significant increase in the number of women working in technology. My goal is to raise awareness, through media, about how important it is for women to be involved in the field of computer technology.

In this decade, technology plays a huge role in our everyday lives, and it is essential that we have a solid understanding of how it all works; however, I will need to first further my education by going to college. I am so thankful HGR chose me as its 2016 scholarship recipient. I will be putting the money toward the tuition of the college I’ll be attending in the fall — Ohio Wesleyan.

Thus far, I completed two years of Cisco Academy with Euclid High School. Through this program, I was able to obtain my Microsoft certification. Also, I had an opportunity to visit a Cisco facility and talk to girls about pursuing a S.T.E.M. career path. During the summer, I was fortunate to be a part of an organization called IndeedWeCode. This was a program specifically for African-American females interested in IT. Through this program, I learned how to code and later was able to build an official website for IndeedWeCode. This experience inspired me to encourage more women to get familiar with all aspects of S.T.E.M.

I’ve also had a chance to visit HGR and eat lunch with some of the employees. It was a great feeling seeing that women were very involved with the company. For example, they had their own work stations and specific tasks that were vital to how the company worked. I was inspired to continue my passion for S.T.E.M. and thankful for all the possibilities and opportunities it has shown me over the past two years.

Sometimes, words and photos don’t tell the whole story. And, there are lots of stories to tell at HGR.

The HGR Video Library provides a closer look at the products, processes and people that have made HGR the leading destination for used industrial equipment, manufacturing machinery, surplus and MRO items.

Every week, we add new product videos that give you a closeup look at some of the items we have for sale.

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Matt Williams, HGR’s CMO and Euclid Chamber of Commerce board member)

Last fall, I was approached by the Euclid Chamber of Commerce and asked if I would be willing to serve on the chamber’s board of directors. I had previously had the pleasure of interacting with several members of the chamber’s board in the lead-up to the dedication of Nickel Plate Station, the industrial park owned by the ownership group of HGR Industrial Surplus and the home of HGR’s business for the past 18 years. I was honored to be asked to serve on the board, and I readily agreed.

As chief marketing officer at HGR, we have just recently completed a redesign of our website using the WordPress content management system platform. Word got out about my Web development background, and I offered to redevelop the chamber’s website at www.euclidchamber.com. One of the key considerations in deciding to use WordPress was the platform’s massive user platform and the fact that it is so highly extensible, meaning that there are thousands of readily available plugins and extensions for nearly every conceivable purpose to enhance the functionality of the site. It also is accessible to non-programmers, which was attractive to Sheila Gibbons, the chamber’s very capable executive director.

Several features of the new website include the integration of a member management plugin, an event calendar, the ability to accept online payment for chamber events, and an online blog. The chamber is optimistic that a more professional online presence will signal to prospective new members that the Euclid Chamber is active in the community and working hard in pursuit of the interests of local businesses. A strong chamber of commerce is critical to business growth and success in the community, and the strength of the chamber depends upon a robust and active membership.

HGR is proud to be a member of the Euclid Chamber of Commerce, and I am honored to serve on the chamber’s board of directors. I am optimistic that this new website will help lead to an expansion of our membership as we work hard to support Euclid’s business community.

Mac Stephens. If you meet him, you will never forget him. At 6’3”, he’s a big guy. Yep, he looks like a football player. And, he is. But, what really strikes you is his serenity, gentleness and kindness. He’s motivational and inspirational. And, he loves kids. This man works around the clock in the service of athletes and non-athletes in his THREE jobs as director of recreation for The City of Euclid, head football coach for Cleveland Heights High School, and business owner of Mac’s Speed, Power and Fitness.

When asked how his love of sports began, he replies, “I had a brother seven years older, and I always tagged along. He threw me in there with the older kids, and I’d take my bumps and bruises. My mom was the one who required me to play organized sports, but dad wanted me to go to school. I was hyperactive, probably ADD or ADHD and on medication. I got into sports to burn some energy. In sports, I could easily see myself progress, while in school I was made fun of because I was tall, awkward and stuttered badly. One day, my mom came home to find me on the roof of our Colonial house throwing rocks at cars. Sports helped me to redirect my energy.” And, “redirect” he did! He excelled at basketball, football, track and boxing.

Stephens played professional football for three years with the Toronto Argonauts, New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings until he broke his fifth vertebrae. After recovering, he was offered a contract by the Detroit Lions but made the heart-rending decision to retire from pro ball to avoid breaking his back again. Since then, he has had 25 operations due to his years of playing football.

He took some time away from football before getting into coaching in order to get perspective and learn that everyone has different motives for playing, from being driven to play for the NFL to reasons that include playing because it’s what their friends doing to playing to enhance their popularity. Although playing football is a small portion of who he is, it gives him a platform through which to speak to youth about being a business owner; working for the government, nonprofits and large corporations; and volunteering, mentoring and giving back to the community.

Eventually, he made his way to the public sector. In 1999, he ran for city council but lost. Former Mayor Bill Cervenik encouraged him to stay involved. He joined the recreation advisory board for tackle football and coached soccer and football as a volunteer for three or four years. Then, Cervenik called him regarding some recreation department openings. Now, 13 years later, in his capacity as director of recreation, Stephens oversees 35 recreation programs, senior programs and the golf course.

At Mac’s Gym, started 5-6 years ago in the former Euclid Sports Plant, he originally offered specialized training for young athletes who wanted to be bigger, stronger and faster. Assistant Coach Germaine Smith became a partner, and they began to train the moms and dads of the athletes, which morphed the business into its current capacity as a full-service gym that offers personal training to all ages.

Kids continue to train at the gym from schools all over Northeast Ohio up to three times per week. And, although they come for speed and strength training and to work out, they end up talking about life lessons, such as respecting women, having goals, achieving in and out of sports, and considering career options.

He picks up the torch from a line of coaches who helped him. He says, “I can name every coach I ever had because they impacted me that much. I feel obligated to do what I do because had I not had similar coaches, I’m afraid to think of where I’d be. Utilized the right way, sports can change or impact any kid.” But, he says that there are kids who work out with him who have no athletic aspirations. Beyond athletics, he teaches kids to build self-confidence. He overcame his own stuttering challenge when he became more confident and has seen the same results in others who he has mentored. His goal is not to make a profit but to use athletic training as a tool to impact kids in other areas of their lives, such as making them job ready or helping them communicate better.

Stephens says, “I tell my kids, follow the blueprint and things will happen for you, whether that is getting into college or finding a decent job. Socially, do the right thing. Academically, do the best that you can. In sports, allow yourself to be coached.” This is advice that all of us can take to heart and apply in our lives. Thanks, Coach!

  The ongoing debate continues as to whether graffiti is art or vandalism, but either way, anyone who works in a manufacturing environment probably has seen the brightly colored spray paint on the walls of the buildings where you work.

Whether a form of expression, a political statement or an indicator of gang-related activity, people have been scribbling and scratching on the walls for centuries, including Stone Age cave paintings and Egyptian temple hieroglyphics.

We at HGR wanted to share some of the graffiti on the walls in its showroom at Nickel Plate Station where there used to be a paintball tenant. The owners were artists. They and their friends covered the walls in the offices and basement paintball arena with graffiti.

HGR currently is renovating this area and plans to preserve most or all of the original graffiti as part of the building’s history.

Show us your graffiti! What adorns the walls of your facility? What are your thoughts about graffiti as art or vandalism?

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Justin Mobilian, HGR’s sales & marketing summer intern)

So, it’s June 27, and I have the first week of my internship under my belt. I was nervous coming in to a new organization. I had no idea who anybody was, did not know what my responsibilities were going to include, and I had a million other thoughts running through my head; however, the first week of my internship literally could not have gone any better.

My first day at HGR was spent with my team – getting to know one another and how each role plays into the marketing team. Each member was friendly and made me feel like I was already a part of the team (I felt like a huge rock was lifted from my back). Once noon hit, Matt took me to Harry Buffalo for lunch (my first time there and definitely not my last). I got back to the office and familiarized myself with marketing strategies, SEO and email marketing. Not bad for a first day.

I thought my first day went really well. Little did I know my second day would be even better; I was going to the Cleveland Cavaliers championship parade! I was excited for this for two reasons:

1. I missed Game 7 of the NBA Finals due to E.coli and sleeping through the game. This once-in-a-lifetime chance (because, let’s be honest, it’s Cleveland) was missed completely because I was sleeping. I was supposed to meet up with friends in Cleveland at 4 p.m. I woke from my “nap” at 8 a.m. the next day with 32 missed calls and texts, and a “Cleveland Cavaliers are World Champs!” headline on CNN. GREAT.
2. My friends, family members, and strangers called off work to go to this parade. I, however got to attend the parade FOR WORK.

I may have missed the game, but at least I get to celebrate in the land with my team. Not only do I get to celebrate it, but I get to celebrate it while working. Incredible.

My third day at HGR I met with each team throughout the organization and got to talk about what each person does. This was really helpful, as I was easily able to understand how each team helps one another complete business objectives. After lunch (Matt took me out AGAIN; now I’m certain I picked the right company to work for), I wrote an interview-like blog about myself and edited product videos for our graphic designer/videographer/photographer.

My fourth day, and last day of my first week, I began the day by meeting with the inventory team and working with them for a few hours – great group of guys who I enjoyed talking with (Tristan likes Kanye West and Jay Z; so, we became immediate friends). After lunch I completed research for the marketing communications specialist two blog interviews taking place the following week.

To top everything off, before heading home I received two FREE tickets to Cedar Point WITH parking AND food. This company is awesome! I’ve only been here for a week, but they’re treating me just like one of their permanent employees instead of an intern – I love it! It must’ve been too good to be true because I couldn’t go to Cedar Point due to trip to the ER on Saturday night with another health scare from the past weekend. First, I missed the Cavs championship game and now I missed a day at the best amusement park in the world with HGR. Did I make someone mad in a previous life?? Possibly.

Overall, my first week here has been awesome. The team is great and I’m excited for what this experience holds for me.

HGR Industrial Surplus’ Call Center makes more than 1,500 calls to per day to find equipment and supplies for our buyers to bid. That’s how we get all the great stuff in our showroom and on our website. Check out this short video to learn more and meet some of our Call Center folks who make it all happen.

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Justin Mobilian, HGR sales & marketing summer intern)

If you didn’t know, Ohio has a regional search and rescue team. This team of elite responders are the ones who we call as our last line of defense in times of a disaster. Curious about what they do, I wandered over to ask a few questions while they used one of HGR’s empty buildings as a training facility.

The Ohio Region 2 Search and Rescue Team is the product of a rescue program that was started in 1990 to train responders on rescue procedures in the event of a building collapse or emergency situation that is beyond the ability of a local fire department or rescue team. The regional team was created as a result of 9/11 to increase the nation’s preparedness for disasters, both natural and man-made, and serves Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake and Lorain Counties. The disciplines taught to its members include rope rescue, confined space rescue, search and locate, vehicle and machinery rescue, structural collapse rescue, and trench rescue. They do it all.

So, what was this team doing at HGR? Training. Lots of training. With the exception of a lunch break, Ohio Region 2 Collapse Search and Rescue team trained 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on building stabilization, collapse, breaching, breaking, lifting debris and moving heavy equipment. Sound like a challenge you might be interested in? All you need are a few hundred hours of training, followed by another thousand or so hours (I get tired from walking from my desk to the car; so, count me out).

When asked what he wants his team to walk away with once training is over, Team Leader Brian Harting says, “I never focus on how we do our job, but on why. There’s two things: One, it’s all about math and physics. Once you understand that, you’ll be successful. It’s very important. Second, we care about the lives of others.” We thank them for their bravery and service.

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Adam DeAnseris, regional buyer, HGR Industrial Surplus)

I started in a territory where there was only one buyer for 18 years and have been the New England buyer for three years now. The market was saturated due to the prior buyer’s hard work; so, I picked up where he left off and started to create my own relationships, too. We have had only two buyers serving the same customers who have been loyal for 18 years. When they call me, I almost know for sure we will buy their surplus.

People want to buy from or sell to people they like. It’s a reciprocal relationship. I make sure to describe the process to them, schedule a meeting, take a few pictures, and get an offer back quickly. Our competitive advantage is that we can be a big resource to small, medium and large companies. We get everything out in one fell swoop and don’t pick and choose what to buy!
I work with facilities managers and operations managers. They know that we do what we say, while many companies don’t. For example, the call center cold called a potential customer that had equipment to sell. I went to bid on a lot and saw some other stuff that I wanted to make an offer on. The manager said another company was under contract to buy it, but it was supposed to be moved the prior week.

I purchased the equipment that I came to see (half a semi load) and left the other lot for the surplus buyer who was under contract. About four months later, our call center followed up with the customer to see if it had additional surplus for sale. That original lot was still sitting in their plant. They tore up the bid contract with that buyer for failing to follow through on the contract due to lack of financial resources, and we took it (a packed semi load). We picked it up on time and payed immediately. The equipment was already loaded into a trailer but the prior buyer did not have the assets to pay for it. We have 12 buyers in the country who can buy as much surplus as they want and average $55,000 per month per person. That’s $660,000 per month or almost $8 million per year.

It’s all about customer service. We sell a service, because the manufacturer can sell equipment to anyone. But they get burned by people who don’t do what they say they’re going to do. They’ve invested in new equipment and need the old to go because the new is coming in. It costs time and money if what they sold is not out of there on time. With our customer service and financial backing, we pick up within 24 hours or less in order to meet our customers’ needs.

On Monday, July 4, our showroom and office are closed to observe Independence Day.

We will be closed on Monday, July 4, in observance of Independence Day.

And, in case you missed the blog post last month, as of July, HGR only will be open on weekends for one Saturday per month on the second Saturday of each month. The dates for the rest of the year are:

• July 9
• August 13
• September 10
• October 8
• November 12
• December 10

So, we are not open this month on Saturday, July 2, 16, 23 or 30.

On our June 6 blog, we ran some “before” photos of the interior construction underway at HGR for new offices, conference rooms, kitchen and restrooms. In less than one month, look at the progress Turner Construction, Special Projects Division has made.

According to Josh Stein, Turner’s project manager, they are on target to finish 99 percent of the work by the end of July. They will need to leave one bay door open to fit air handling unit through that currently is on order to be delivered in August. In mid-August, they will install the air handler and frame in the door for use as a people door for access to the offices. At that time, the construction will be complete, and HGR will be able to put in office furniture and appliances for a September relocation of its executives and administrative staff. Sales and marketing will remain in the front offices to greet customers.

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Brian Krueger, CEO, HGR Industrial Surplus)

Nope, HGR Industrial Surplus is not getting into the used car business, but DriveTime, a new national automotive tenant, will be joining HGR Industrial Surplus and NEO Sports Complex at Nickel Plate Station, 20001 Euclid Avenue, Euclid, Ohio, in September.

The company is based out of Arizona and sells used cars. It currently has 139 dealerships throughout the country and is planning to open 10 more by the end of the year. Its geographic region started in the west and is expanding to the East Coast.  It employees more than 1,000 people. The company’s largest competitor in the area is CarMax.

The facility in Euclid will be used as an inspection and distribution center. DriveTime will buy used cars and ship them into Euclid for service and detailing. From there, they will be sent to one of its retail locations for sale.  The inspection center will have more than 20 car lifts, mechanics area, spray booths, wash stations, and other car service features.  The center will be its largest in the country, eventually feeding at least 11 retail locations.  The retail locations will stretch from Detroit to Erie, Pennsylvania.

The inspection center will process approximately 56 vehicles per day.  It will utilize the large parking lot for unfinished and finished cars. The center will employee between 85 to 100 people.  The company will be conducting a fit out for new offices and bathrooms within the facility and will be investing more than $2 million into its operation.

Rob Marrott, a photographer and owner of RPM Images, contacted me to see about using HGR’s showroom in a photo shoot for safety products manufacturer Brass Knuckle.

He said they wanted to simulate a manufacturing facility and show models working around industrial equipment. This was a pretty cool opportunity for both Marrott and HGR. He has been here before conducting shoots for other industrial clients. So, on June 15, Marrott and his assistant, two reps from Brass Knuckle’s advertising agency and four models came in to shoot some photos.

Not only do our customers need used industrial surplus to keep their businesses running, but other types of businesses in the community, such as schools, bloggers and photographers, value what we do and can make use of our showroom.

In the heart of the Collinwood neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio, I was sitting on a sofa in Twelve Literary and Performance Arts Incubator chatting with Poet Daniel Gray-Kontar about manufacturing and poetry. In our conversation, I brought up the poetic words of Erin O’Brien, editor of Fresh Water Cleveland, from her blog post “Tears and steel:”

I mourned for the Bridgeport milling machines as they carved a jagged skyline over this splendorous field of iron and steel. I mourned for the lathes waiting by patiently. I mourned for the stoic presses, so many silent soldiers. Clients browsing grinders and cutters eyed me curiously, then looked away when I set my camera upon the bed of a 20,000-pound press brake, removed my glasses and wiped my eyes with my sleeve. I mourned for all of it, but mostly I mourned for the men who wore heavy boots and carried their midday supper in a brown paper sack. They drank Carling’s Black Label at Joe’s Bar after a day spent machining things to a thousandth or better.

Daniel and I were brainstorming the idea of hosting a poetry event at his venue that showcases Cleveland’s history, old and new. In his words, “Cleveland history is all but gone. There’s the old Cleveland and the new Cleveland. There’s a new zeitgeist. Let’s launch the conversation between the post-industrial poets and the post-modern poets.”

The next challenge: How to find the post-industrial blue-collar workers who may not even identify as poets? There are a number of local poets who are known on the scene and who write about manufacturing and industry in The Rust Belt, including Larry Smith, Ray McNiece, Michael Salinger, Dave Snodgrass, Milenko Budimir, Mark Kuhar and Maj Ragain.

But, I mentioned that years ago I had seen some steel-mill poets read out at The James Wright Poetry Festival at The Martin’s Ferry Public Library on the border of Ohio and West Virginia. These weren’t well-known, published poets. These were salt-of-the-earth guys who worked in the steel mills, or used to work in the defunct steel mills. They wrote poems of grit and grime, hard work, family, loyalty, their roots, their teams, and the women who took care of them.

That’s in stark contrast to Generations Y and Z who are self-inventors, open to possibility, constantly reinventing themselves, technologically driven and have a compulsion for change and agility, and often are accused of an attitude of self-entitlement.

We talked about how to start a poetic conversation in Cleveland between these groups and about what unifies both post-industrial and post-modern writers, where they intersect and cross-pollinate, what their commonalities are. These are different people facing the same challenges with similar goals.

Daniel mentioned a great musical illustration: hip hop. According to him, “It’s the music of recycled sounds.” You take music that’s already there and repurpose it to find a unifying sound. What unifies these poets? Their voices. The importance of what they do. Their part in Cleveland’s history. The issue of uncertainty.

Then, a light bulb went off. What is Collinwood? What is the Waterloo Arts District? An old, residential area that housed factory workers and is in the process of reinventing itself as a modern arts district full of makers.

We’re looking for the machinists, welders, engineers and technicians who go to work every day then come home to write about it. We know you’re out there. If you’re interested in being part of a poetry event in Euclid where we have an intimate poetry reading then a panel discussion, give a shout out. If you aren’t able to make it, are shy or not in the area, feel free to share your poem here. Keep it clean, since this is a company blog!

Starting in July, HGR Industrial Surplus will be open only one Saturday per month instead of on every Saturday  as in the past to give employees more time to spend with their families.  Store hours will be 7:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. on the 2^nd Saturday of each month.

We still will be open Saturday, June  25. Our only open Saturday in July will be July 9; so, mark your calendar!

From chatting with him a few times, it is clear that Dennis Althar, president and CEO of Althar Audio (www.altharaudio.com), is one part Renaissance Man, one part self-professed Maker, one part technology fiend with a dash of philosopher thrown in. He is a people person and storyteller extraordinaire with a variety of interests and passions that revolve around technology and electronics.

You have been involved with FIRST Robotics for 13 years. Tell us about your work with them.

I had a friend who was a mentor to one of the schools involved. I found out that they needed someone to inspect the robots to make sure they met specifications. As an inspector, you need experience in electronics or technology. Then, in the last two years, I have worked as a judge. It’s not as technical because you are judging professionalism, interaction, how the team helps other teams, community involvement, the team’s Web page, the safety of its booth, documentation, and its video presentation.

It costs about $25,000 to do a robot. The students have to find mentors and sponsors. Each robot is built from the same basic kit and software but the students write their own code; so, there is opportunity for innovation in the traction system and performance of the robot, and the uniqueness of the idea.

“For inspiration and recognition of science and technology” is what FIRST stands for. Our country graduates about 70,000 engineers per year as compared with 350,000 in India and 600,000 in China (Cse.msu.edu). We need to close that gap.

What is your opinion of STEM versus STEAM programs? 

Art is integral to design. Some things may work and do the same job but the artistry is important and what distinguishes one product from another. For example, there is a difference between one website and another. How does it look and interact with the user? Some design elements to think about that could use improvement:

• Elevators have the button on the wrong side. Now, there are kiosks with smart technology so that you push the floor button before you get on the elevator. The technology brings the correct elevator that is going up and to that floor.
• If you turn on the windshield wipers, your car’s headlights should go on.
• If you only have one printer, it should print immediately when you click “print” instead of having you click to print on the right printer.
• When you put a CD in the CD player, it should start playing without having to hit “play.”
• Why are the controls for a shower under the spray head where you need to reach through the freezing or scalding water instead of on the other wall or the side of the shower?

User experience is the art part.

What other student-mentoring opportunities are you involved with? 

I speak at Cuyahoga Community College, Case Western Reserve University and Youth for Christ about careers and electronics since I’ve been doing technology since Apple II’s in the late 70s and electronics since I was five.

Tell us about when your love for technology started.

At age 5, I read books on electronics and science fiction at the library to get away from my home life. I started repairing stereos at about age 6 but never just repaired them; I modified them and improved them. The tubes took time to warm up; so, I would put a solid-state diode across the power switch to make them instant on.

Record players used to have 30 watts with one channel driven and only 20 with both driven. I would take the cartridge and flip one channel’s wires so that one was positive and one negative to change the polarity then flip the wires on one speaker. That way, I was able to get 30 watts per channel with both channels driven rather than 20 basically increasing the power by flipping two wires on each end, one pushing and both pulling back. Technology is about understanding what things do.

Then, I drove a car as a teenager with a knocking rod. This usually blows up within an hour. I pulled the spark plug wire so it wasn’t firing, took off the valve cover, removed the push rods from the intake valves and took the spark plug out so it didn’t suck fuel. The car ran on seven cylinders instead of eight and missed a little on the freeway but I drove it like this for months. I had a broken tie rod end and drove the car backward to get home to get it off the road. You can’t push it forward. Again, it’s knowing how things operate. Going back to the previous question, that’s what STEAM and STEM are: understanding the basic principles of how things work. To design, a person has to have a basic understanding of servicing things and the ability to look at the product as a complete system during its whole lifetime. They have to be able to service it, whether a robot or a TV, to see how things integrate.

How did you get involved in your current line of work, and what did you do in the past? 

I left home when I was 14. A high school guidance counselor turned me onto Upward Bound where I went to college in the summer to be away from my bad home conditions. II was paid a $7 per week stipend and got to live in the dorms in the summertime. I just kept on going from there. I stayed with friends the rest of the time and was emancipated when I was 17. I slept in cars and anywhere I could, and I finished high school.

I also was in a foster home at 8 for about a year. There, I saw a different kind of life and could see possibilities. I was told I would never amount to anything or drive a nice car. I have owned Jaguars, Porsches and a limo. What doesn’t kill you motivates you; it gave me a heart for mentoring and foster programs. Although I knew electronics, I joined the Air Force so others would believe it, and I went through 2.5 years of training in eight weeks.

Out of the Air Force, I got involved with medical equipment and large-system computer equipment repair. Then I started my own business doing graphics systems for Bobbie Brooks; laser equipment for Richmond Brothers; research equipment for General Tire, BFGoodrich and all the rubber companies; and medical electronics repair and sales, Including the first ultrasound machines and heart stress testing. We then went into manufacturing.

I beefed up VCRs to work in cardiac cath labs to take in non-standard video and play it back on the monitors. After working with that ultrasound technology for years, I used it to apply to sound systems.

Tell us how that came about. How are they being used and where? 

I had a separate business selling high-end home theater and laser discs in the 1990s.  After 911, I let the medical stuff go as it went to big network PAC systems moving away from film. I went full time into sound system technology based upon medical technology. I basically retired after 911 and hung out and did fun stuff until three to four years ago.

But I would still repair the things I built and support my customer base. I never want satisfied customers. Satisfied customers go to McDonalds, pay the buck, get a hamburger and are satisfied. They also would buy from Burger King. Loyal customers go to Rally’s, not anywhere else, because they are excited and are evangelists.

Our current markets are churches, gyms, warehouses, factories, football fields and auditoriums. The systems are being used by St. Edwards, Central Catholic, Independence High School, Notre Dame, Gilmour Academy, Beachwood, Warrensville, Ursuline, St. Thomas Aquinas, Western Reserve Academy, Toledo, Riverside High School, Lear Romec Crane, AkzoNobel, Musicians Alex Bevan and Dan Bode, and on mobile billboards as the trucks drive around sporting and political events.

Communications are about getting what’s from my mind to your mind with as little destruction as possible, which you know well if you are married. You need a universal translator from Star Trek so that what goes out of someone’s mouth and into the other person’s ears is in synch. Our mission is to make intelligibility in communications, whether visual or aural. Your brain tries to make things fit to its experience. You can seldom have lossless transfer of ideas.

As an HGR customer, how did you hear about HGR? What do you come here to purchase and why? 

For the deals and because it’s a one-stop shop. If you’re building a maker’s space like Dan Moore at Team Wendy and need a drill press, lathe, vacuum, etc., you can get it all in one place, save money, and keep items from going to landfills and scrapyards. HGR is full of more than just metal; they’ve made it so people can compete who couldn’t afford to buy a $200,000 spray booth. Companies may go out of business but something is still left in the ashes.

I was a customer of HGR’s founder’s prior company. I did work with Reliance Electric. One of its locations was across from that company, and I saw sign about surplus, which is my middle name. This was before the Web, and I wouldn’t have known it existed. It was serendipity, then I found out about HGR from word of mouth. We have bought electronics, lighting, lockers, carts, power supplies boxes, containers, a wire stripper, test equipment for our engineering lab, and material handling equipment. The place is full of too many cool things. For instance, I bought three skids of hardcover foam-lined cases made for ultrasound probes and found a use for them. I bought an ultrasound machine and donated it to The Cleveland Pregnancy Center. Sometimes, I buy an item because it looks cool then find a use for it later on. I seldom buy things that don’t work but if they don’t you can return them. What you guys get is eclectic; it’s like you say, you do sell everything.

In the United States, education reform has been underway since the 1990s to prepare our youth to be more globally competitive in their careers by integrating science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subject areas in the curriculum. It was felt that the U.S. has fallen behind its global counterparts in the classroom and that fewer students had been focusing on careers in these fields. As a result, the National Science Foundation coined the STEM acronym and began encouraging an implementation program in the schools, and in 2009 President Obama’s administration announced the “Educate to Innovate” campaign to inspire students to excel in STEM subjects and teachers to educate in these subjects in order to move American students from the middle of the pack to the top of the international arena. (1)

There also is an effort to attract women and minorities to STEM careers. This website has audio files of women who work in President Obama’s administration talking about their personal female heroes from STEM fields in order to encourage young women to pursue a career in the sciences.

(1) Horn, Elaine. “What is STEM education?” Livescience.com. Web. 19 April, 2016.

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Allison Lukacsy, community projects manager, City of Euclid)

On a gorgeous late spring afternoon on June 9, 2016, the City of Euclid and the Euclid Landmarks Commission dedicated an Ohio Historical Marker at the Euclid Police Mini-Station on HGR Industrial Surplus’ property at 20001 Euclid Avenue, Euclid, Ohio, to formally recognize the site at the center of the U.S. Supreme Court case The Village of Euclid vs. Ambler Realty Co. (1926).  

Euclid v Ambler Realty is known nationally for establishing the constitutionality of zoning and land-use regulations throughout the country. The subject property consisted of roughly 68 acres of land located between Euclid Avenue and the Nickel Plate Rail Line. The site ultimately was developed for industrial purposes during World War II.

Today, the historic property is owned by HGR Industrial Surplus, which operates an industrial supply showroom and distribution center at the site. The Cuyahoga County Land Bank helped facilitate HGR’s purchase of the property through foreclosure, and now the site has a bright future, with HGR investing millions and attracting major new tenants. The site also is home to the NEO Sports Plant and the Euclid Police Mini-Station.

The dedication featured a keynote address by Paul Oyaski, former mayor of the City of Euclid, and remarks by Ohio House District 8 Representative Kent Smith and Ohio Senate District 25 Senator Kenny Yuko. In his address, Oyaski painted a picture of Northeast Ohio circa 1926 and made fascinating the details of both the local and Supreme Court cases.

In her welcome address, Mayor Kirsten Holzheimer Gail commended the Euclid Planning Commission for continuing the legacy of thoughtful planning in Euclid as well as the Landmarks Commission that helped prepare the marker application.

A representative from the Ohio History Connection delivered a proclamation to kick off the ribbon cutting by city officials, council and committee members, and representatives from the American Planning Association.

The marker purchase and dedication event were made possible through the generous support of the Ohio Chapter of the American Planning Association, the Cleveland Section of the American Planning Association, Calfee, Halter & Griswold LLP and a grant from the Ohio History Connection – Historical Markers Program.

The Euclid Historical Society and Museum, 21129 North Street, Euclid, Ohio, is a great place to visit and learn more about the Euclid v Ambler Realty case and the rich history of the City of Euclid.

Marker text:

By 1922, the Ambler Realty Company of Cleveland owned this site along with 68 acres of land between Euclid Avenue and the Nickel Plate rail line. Upon learning of the company’s plans for industrial development, the Euclid Village Council enacted a zoning code based on New York City’s building restrictions. Represented by Newton D. Baker, former Cleveland mayor and U.S. Secretary of War under Woodrow Wilson, Ambler sued the village claiming a loss of property value. In 1926, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Euclid and upheld the constitutionality of zoning and land-use regulations by local governments. The federal government eventually acquired the Ambler site during World War II to build a factory to make aircraft engines and landing gear. From 1948 to 1992, the site was used as a production facility by the Fisher Body Division of General Motors.

On June 8, 36 baseball (and Euclid Chamber of Commerce) fans attended the chamber’s luncheon at Classic Park, 35300 Vine Street, Eastlake, Ohio, to root on the Lake County Captains. A good time was had by all as we watched them bring home a victory at 14-12 against the Lancing Lugnuts. The Captains have been a minor-league Class A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians as part of the Midwest League since 2009.

On May 9, Turner Construction, Special Projects Division, broke ground on an interior fit out of 13,000 square feet in the back of HGR Industrial Surplus’ showroom for future use as executive and administrative offices, conference rooms, a kitchen, and restrooms with locker room and shower facilities. Included in the buildout is a new sprinkler system, HVAC system, interior finishes, corridor to connect with the showroom, and a back entrance for business guests. The architectural drawings were designed by Vocon; and construction is targeted for completion in August.

According to Jason Spieth, superintendent with Turner SPD, “The biggest challenge thus far was the coordination of the air handler in the mezzanine area because the lead time for it is 10-12 weeks, which is almost the same duration as the project. Also, it’s location is in the middle of the building; so, we would’ve needed a massive crane to set it through the roof, which would have cost a substantial amount. We elected to drive it into the building and lift it into place, instead. The downside here is that until it is set, we can’t complete some of the finishes in the kitchen area. Other than that, we haven’t had too much trouble.”

The area housed prior tenant, Paintball City. Due to a truss that was collapsing, a new steel beam was installed in the roof. Prior to HGR purchasing the building, the city was talking about closing the building due to a concern that the truss would crush a gas line. HGR purchased the building in 2014, shored up the truss and has replaced it, as can be seen in the photo below.

When it’s finished, we will be sure to show you the “after” photos!

In 2015, HGR’s Austin office entered two teams that placed fifth in the Fittest Companies Micro category, qualifying for the Wall of Champions, and came in second in the Fittest Professionals, Course 3, Level 1. There were 400 participants from 30 companies. Each team consists of three to four members who compete in a three-course fitness challenge.

Once again, the Austin office is up for the challenge and six people have begun twice-per-week group training, with a current focus on strength training, for the Sept. 10 event to take place at Zilker Park (Barton Jaycee Complex). The strength training consists of doing burpees, situps, pushups and mountain climbers each for one minute, rotating nonstop for 20 minutes. Each participant also is encouraged to walk or run on his or her own time for four to six miles per week. The number of reps and time per training will increase every four weeks. That’s dedication!

If you plan to be in Austin, please root them on! We’ll keep you posted on the results.

You are invited to The City of Euclid’s Ohio historical marker dedication on June 9 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at HGR Industrial Surplus, 20001 Euclid Ave., Euclid, Ohio. This event commemorates the 90^th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the landmark case of The Village of Euclid vs. Ambler Realty Co.

According to an article on Wikipedia, “It was the first significant case regarding the relatively new practice of zoning, and served to substantially bolster zoning ordinances in towns nationwide in The United States and in other countries.”

This tract of land remained undeveloped for 20 years until the construction of an aircraft plant during World War II and, later, a GM Fisher Body plant. This site now is the home of HGR Industrial Surplus.

A reception with light refreshments will follow. Please register at:

www.ohioplanning.org/euclidvamblerdedication

The 60,000-square-foot NEO Sports Plant (www.neosportsplant.com), owned by Rodger Smith, opened May 1 in the site of the former Euclid Sports Plant at 20001 Euclid Avenue in the Nickel Plate Station building behind HGR Industrial Surplus. Smith already has begun renovations, including painting and carpeting the office, cleaning the entire facility, and renovating the bathrooms and locker rooms. He will host a grand reopening in September.

In the meantime, the facility remains open during the summer for youth and adult clinics, camps, tournaments, and private or group lessons on six indoor volleyball courts and four indoor basketball courts. The courts are available for rental to organizations, for business/corporate events, and for private parties and events on a year-round basis.

Smith says that a group of friends or coworkers can form a six-person volleyball team and play for a nine-week session plus two-week playoffs for a around $200 per team plus ref fees. There will be fall, winter and spring leagues. He also plans to start a girls’ J.O. volleyball club where, he says, “Students and parents can get to meet people they never would have met and develop new friendships.” In addition, he would like to see corporate sponsorships of a youth program or individual sponsorships of an underprivileged youth.

The facility also has a weight room for athletic training and conditioning run by Mac Stephens, former NFL linebacker with the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings and Cleveland Heights head football coach. His team works out here, and college talent scouts have frequented the facility.

There are major improvements in the works. In Phase II, Smith plans to convert the existing baseball area into four indoor sand volleyball courts in time for the grand re-opening. The closest place to play indoor sand volleyball is in Columbus. NEO will be the third facility in Ohio, including Columbus and Cincinnati, but the only one to offer both indoor volleyball and sand volleyball at one facility.

Smith is seeking a grant to dress up the storefront and working to get a liquor license in order to open a bar and grill for participants.

When asked about his lifelong love of sports, he says, “My parents said I would shoot a basket in my crib, and when it would fall out I would start crying.” He played basketball in junior high and high school and football in high school. He got involved with volleyball as a senior in high school and, according to him, “It became an addiction.”

From 2003-2014 he worked in many roles with a facility in Eastlake. In the beginning it was Club Ultimate. When he started with Club Ultimate there were only four outdoor sand courts and about 60 teams. By 2009, he was able to put four indoor courts to go along with the sand courts. In 2010, One Wellness Sports and Health took over the facility. Smith started as an employee and eventually leased space from them to start his own business. From 2010-2014 indoor leagues grew from 60 to 180 teams, and they added two outdoor sand courts. In February 2014, Force Sports bought the business from One Wellness, and Smith became their employee. During the next year and a half he worked with Force to implement their programs. After building the adult volleyball program to 250 indoor teams and more than 300 sand teams, they parted ways. That’s where HGR came into play.

He knew Ron Tiedman, HGR’s chief production operations officer and co-owner, who was a member at One Wellness and whose daughter played for the J.O. volleyball club that practiced there. Smith also was a customer of HGR. Tiedman called him after HGR bought its building to see if Force wanted to expand into the area. It did not.

In April 2016, Smith decided to branch out onto his own, Tiedman put him in touch with the owner of Euclid Sports Plant. Smith bought the business, changed the name, invested in the facility and is committed to bringing volleyball and basketball to youth and adults in the region. He says, “I put people and the game before business without hurting the business.” Smith and his team plan to put in the same work ethic as he did to build the previous business and is excited and thankful for the opportunity to do it again.

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Alan Maslar, co-owner, Railside Creations)

Railside Creations, opened in early 2016 by friends Alan Maslar and Chuck Schilling, makes unique furniture pieces and home accessories using wood and metal. Their inspiration comes from classic and modern designs, as well as the natural beauty in wood itself. Maslar had previously been a woodworker for local custom shops where he made a wide variety of furniture, cabinets, and millwork for luxury residences. Exotic woods, veneers, and radius work are some of his specialties. Schilling was employed by the City of Mentor to make exhibits and displays for fairs and Mentor CityFest, while building musical instruments as a hobby on the side. The lack of their individual creativity in their previous jobs motivated them to move and start on their own.

Their vision and approach leads the duo to brainstorming sessions and some design-on-the-fly situations. Many of their pieces are created utilizing re-purposed equipment from HGR Industrial Surplus. Newer technologies, such as AutoCAD and CNC machining also are used by Railside. For several years, their thought process has naturally been aligned with those individuals who have been a part of the Makers Movement, whether Alan and Chuck knew it or not. Using parts and processes different than their intent definitely drives both of these guys in a lot of what they do. In addition to their in-house designed pieces, they also work with customers to help bring their visions to reality.

Maslar and Schilling make sure a trip to HGR is at minimum a monthly excursion. The items they purchase are not usually what you would expect from a couple of woodworkers. “The stock is constantly changing and some pieces just jump out at you as great platforms to build ideas around. We bought an old riveting machine and components from it were the foundation for several pieces of furniture we’ve made. The vast rotating inventory and low prices keep us coming back.” HGR is a great place to outfit most any manufacturing facility; the guys at Railside see it as a place for materials and inspiration.

To view and purchase items made by Railside Creations, visit www.railsidecreations.com, or visit them on Facebook.

Although we are closed on Memorial Day to remember those who died while serving in our armed forces, we will be open on Saturday, May 28 during our normal business hours of 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Please have a safe Memorial Day Weekend.

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Jennifer Ristic, vice president, content, Point To Point)

Industrial manufacturers often discuss the need to use marketing to help increase sales, yet most never pull the trigger.

Gone are the days of winning business strictly through personal relationships or using traditional marketing tactics like high-priced advertisements in trade publications to capture the attention of prospective customers. Today, buyers are in control more than ever, which requires manufacturers to engage with them on the buyers’ terms.

As a B2B marketing agency focused on industrial manufacturing, we’ve found that taking an inbound marketing approach is the most effective ways for a manufacturer to generate qualified sales leads.

According to HubSpot, inbound marketing “focuses on creating quality content that pulls people toward your company and product, where they naturally want to be. By aligning the content you publish with your customer’s interests, you naturally attract inbound traffic that you can then convert, close and delight over time.”

It’s all about ensuring your business can be found easily online, which is accomplished through a blend of content marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), social media, and marketing automation. These efforts, when used in the right way, will turn website traffic into leads and qualified leads into customers.

Here are the top three reasons manufacturers should use inbound marketing:

1. Your prospective customers already are online researching solutions for their business problems every day. If you’re not there, your competitors are.
2. There’s no better way to build your credibility and thought leadership than by showcasing what you know. Doing so will earn your audience’s trust while naturally positioning your company’s products as best-in-class.
3. Qualified leads coming from your website have a higher likelihood to close and become new customers than having your sales team “smile and dial” down a list of purchased contacts.

Because inbound marketing is about attracting – not interrupting – your target market, the more valuable the content, the more engaged your audience will be and the more they will share their information. Building great content, disseminating it via the right mix of marketing communications vehicles and measuring the impact via marketing automation tools will drive real business results for manufacturers who understand the power of marketing.

Point To Point is a premier B2B digital marketing agency focused on accelerating growth through more intelligent customer interactions driven by deep customer insights and data. As a trusted advisor to clients, the company’s cross-functional team brings a unique combination of strategic guidance, creative brilliance, technology innovation and delivery excellence to manage the change and resources to achieve success. For more information, visit www.PointToPoint.com.

They all played the accordion! And, so do many folks in Cleveland. What style of music often comes to mind when you think of an accordion? Yep, polka. But, not everyone plays polka on the instrument. It can be used for folk music, classical, and even jazz and blues. We talked to Brian Slosarik of Valley City who not only plays the accordion but he is a collector and is well known for accordion repairs.

How did you get involved with accordions?

I work fulltime in HVAC, worked for a heating company for five years and was a builder prior to that for 10 years. My grandfather played the accordion, and I remember hearing him play when I was younger. I lived in California when I was growing up, and my parents pushed us kids into playing a musical instrument. I chose the accordion at the age of nine. I was taught using the Palmer-Hughes Accordion Course, Book 1-12, and additional sheet music, including classical and overtures. After one year of taking lessons I was entered into accordion competition. I did pretty well, collecting several small trophies and many ribbons during the next few years. I quit at 13 after my parents moved to Connecticut because I couldn’t find a teacher who I felt comfortable with in the area. In 2004, I had an accident working on my house. I was on a scaffold painting gutters, stepped off the side of the scaffold and took 15-foot fall. I broke my left foot and right wrist. Recovery was about four months. My hand was still a problem. I still had my original accordion that my dad bought me in 1960. I picked it up for therapy to be able to get my fingers working again, move my wrist and use my hand. That’s all it took. I got hooked again and started buying them. Most needed repairs; so, I took them all the way to the east side to get repaired. To save money and time, I started reading everything I could find on accordion repairs. With the help of a new accordion friend, I began repairing my own. People found out I could do this, and it snowballed. There are usually six to 10 accordions waiting to be repaired in my second-floor shop. I probably work on more than 100 per year. People drive from Michigan, Pennsylavania and southern Ohio to drop them off and send them via UPS from as far away as California. There aren’t many people in this country doing repairs. I am doing my part to try and keep the instruments going. Accordions really are very fragile and need someone to look after them. I do some traveling to accordion events around the country. My favorite is the Cotati accordion Festival in Cotati, California, in August. I enjoy repairing accordions and meeting all the passionate, nutty enthusiasts. It has become a very enjoyable hobby.

What is your favorite style of music to play?

In this area, most players love and play polkas, waltzes and dance I personally like and play jazz-type music from the 40s on my accordion. Friends in California got me involved in jazz. I was playing my old music when I restarted and got hooked up with Frank Marocco’s arrangements and bought up everything he had produced. His music was my influence, and I play some of his arrangements of French and Italian music jazzed up, blues and tangos.

What is your favorite accordion? What makes it so special?

My favorite accordion that I play is a Sano double-tone chamber from the 1950s. The Sano brand was imported into the East Coast. The sound is what makes it special to me. The interior is all made from Mahogany wood. Mahogany has a lot to do with the appealing tonal quality. Jazz boxes are mellower with a deeper bassoon. They have a richer tone that is a bit quitter. Not everyone likes this; therefore, they prefer a brighter, livelier, louder accordion.

How are accordions and/or polka music an important part of Cleveland’s history?

Yankovic started here. The Detroit and Pittsburgh areas also have a big polka following, as does the whole Great Lakes area due to the Slavic people who settled this region.

What words of wisdom do you have for the next generation of aspiring musicians?

I know several younger people who love and play the accordion but who are exclusively playing polkas for entertainment. I encourage them to diversify if they want to continue to play because as their audience ages, they need to appeal to other audiences. Some students who visit me from Oberlin College are playing Irish and Scottish mixed with jazz. In Europe the accordion is very popular. You see people playing on street corners. It is a big part of their heritage. The accordion is showing up in popular bands like Bruce Springsteen’s. And with Paul McCartney, I remember from a few years ago seeing an accordion sitting in the corner of a stage during a New Year’s Eve celebration. The accordion is out there. I feel that as younger people discover it, the accordion will be made to do new and different things.

What kind of tools do you use to repair your accordion?

Small files for tuning, custom-made tools for getting in tight places for adjustments, screwdrivers of all sizes, power tools, a table saw, belt sanders, acetones for celluloid work, sanders, polishers, X-Acto knives, glues. Being a former builder, remodeler and cabinet maker, I’ve always been into tools. Many of my tools show their age from many years of use.

What are some of the problems accordions have that cause them to need repair?

From accidents, bass buttons collapse just from knocking it over on the floor. The more you play, the bellows wear out and need to be replaced or retaped. Scratches and dings. Straps wear out, keyboards get out of adjustment and start getting too much play. Humidity and temperature are terrible on accordions. If they are stored on the floor in a basement they can mold inside. Attics with humidity and heat disintegrate the wax causing the reeds to fall out. Accordions like the same atmosphere and living conditions that people like: 70-75 degrees F. As with most things, accordions can just wear out. If it is a good brand, something special or sentimental, an accordion can be rebuilt to like-new condition. I have restored several during the past 10 years, including some for myself.

How long does it take to repair one? How costly is the repair?

I have repaired as many as five in one weekend if they require minor repairs like a stuck or broken reed or a key is hooked and bent. It can take up to 50 hours of work for a major restoration I find most repairs are in the $100-500 range.

How much do accordions cost, and where do people buy them?

A new, small, Chinese accordion runs $500-600 up to $12,000-15,000 for a top-of-the-line Italian accordion. A new full-sized, standard accordion runs $3,000-5,000, and you can get a good used one for $1,000. There are a few stores on the East and West Coasts and in Michigan that sell new ones. There’s nothing in Ohio that I know of. I can order them new through my connections, and I have almost 200 used accordions in my shop with 30-40 ready to sell at any time. I have four in my personal collection: my grandfather’s last accordion, the one from my childhood, my Sano, and one that is believed to have been owned by Myron Floren from the Lawrence Welk Show. I think picking an accordion is very personal. Everyone has different preferences and taste in how it should feel and sound.

How do you tune an accordion?

There are hundreds of reeds inside, and each reed has two reed tongues. When you pull out and push in the bellows the reed should make the same sound. To change the pitch on a reed you scratch or file the tongue in specific places to raise or lower the pitch. I use, in combination, a computer tuning program and Peterson strobe tuner. It can take up to 12 hours to tune a full-sized accordion; therefore, it is expensive — $500 or more. It is difficult to tune an accordion right to get a proper sound when you are done. It’s an art. What makes it more interesting is the different types of tunings there are: dry or concert tuning, polka, Irish, French, Italian and many more. Without proper training and experience a set of reeds can be ruined real fast in the wrong hands. Most accordions only need to be tuned about every five years if they are played regularly. Your better accordions tend to have better quality reeds. The higher quality reeds will hold a tune longer.

At the Wednesday, May 18, state-of-the-schools address and luncheon at Euclid High School, Euclid City Schools’ Assistant Superintendent Charlie Smialek introduced two Euclid High School juniors who sang “Glory” by John Legend. Both have GPAs of 3.6 or higher and are part of the College Credit Plus (CCP) program. Through CCP, they each have already earned 15-20 hours of credits toward college.

Smialek then presented what he calls, “a story of inspiration and bonding together as a community to ensure that we continue to remain a viable educational choice.”
Phase I of that program includes:
• Fiscal responsibility (closing Forest Park to consolidate three schools into two due to structural issues and declining enrollment)
• Student achievement
• Credibility in the community (partnerships with organizations such as Lincoln Electric for a welding lab and HGR Industrial Surplus for a robotics program and scholarship)

He mentioned that a career tech program will be added in 2017 to address the three-million manufacturing jobs that will be open in the next 10 years. It is anticipated that 2 million of those will go unfilled. With the creation of the program, the school hopes to meet the needs of its students, their families and employers looking for a skilled workforce. According to a statistic in his presentation, there’s a 92-percent graduation rate for students who participate in career tech programs versus the 70-percent current Euclid High School graduation rate. The school also plans to work with HGR on its STEM learning lab since half of all STEM jobs do not require a degree and pay an average salary of $53,000.

Phase II revolves around campus achievement, which depends upon an 8-mill, $96.3-million bond issue to create a secondary campus housing grades 6-8 and 9-12 on one site, turn the Forest Park site into an Early Learning Village for ages 3-4 and grade K, make stadium improvements, move the culinary arts program to the secondary campus, and repurpose the Central site as a metropark. If passed, potentially on the November 2016 ballot, this work would take place 2017-2019.

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Liz Fox, marketing associate, MAGNET: The Manufacturing Advocacy & Growth Network)

In the world of manufacturing, the term “thought leadership” is an ever-present buzzword that transcends industry. People perceived as thought leaders often speak at conferences, maintain blogs, and write extensively on topics pertinent to their audience. More importantly, thought leaders engage in the sharing and discussion of ideas that influence the thoughts of others and help people achieve success.

But what does it really take to transform yourself into a thought leader? While you might not become the next Seth Godin or Jim Tompkins, it’s definitely possible to drive conversation and influence key people in your industry. The following characteristics can help you not only be perceived as a thought leader, but engage with others on multiple levels that can propel your ideas forward.

Enhanced Storytelling: Stories are the first step to connecting with your audience on a personal level. Begin with a hook, then dive into details to which you feel they’ll respond. Anecdotes from your own life often serve as great backdrops, descriptors, and metaphors for the larger message you may be trying to convey.

Quality Curating: Thought leaders know great content when they see it, and many have the impulse to share it with others. Think about what topics are important to you, then research different aspects of them. Determine which publications and sources are the most relevant or credible, then put them out there for the world to see – it will only add to your credibility.

Leveraged Networks: While your expertise alone may be important in some areas, becoming a thought leader is also about who you know. It’s crucial to stay connected to key figures inside (and outside) of your industry, as there are some who can help you tell your story and share your ideas in a meaningful way. After all, this is why LinkedIn and other social media platforms have been so successful for existing thought leaders!

Individualism and Credibility: The value of a unique and trusted voice cannot be understated in the world of thought leadership. No matter your audience, location, or enterprise, conveying your competence plays a vital role in growing your support base. Tone also matters; so, it is recommended that you find a balance between being relatable and being an expert with all the answers.

Developing these qualities requires a huge commitment and may not come easily to some; however, turning yourself into a thought leader in your industry can empower you and ultimately take your company to new heights of success. For example, MAGNET’s intimate event series, [M]anufacturing Matters, is a new part of our strategy that has driven leads and kept manufacturers informed of present and future trends. Our passion for the region is reflected in our eagerness to share important information with others, and such a trait is crucial in training yourself to become an expert in thought leadership.

Want to know how MAGNET can help your business? Call Linda Barita at 216.600.1022 or email [email protected].

On May 18 from 12 to 1:15 p.m., Euclid City Schools will present its annual state-of-the-schools address during a luncheon at Euclid High School. The fee for Euclid Chamber of Commerce members is $25 and $32 for nonmembers.

On. Thursday, May 12, at Senior Awards Night at the Euclid High School auditorium, HGR Industrial Surplus’ Human Resources Manager Tina Dick presented a $2,000 scholarship to Tiffany Moore for her scholastic and personal achievements, as well as for her interest in pursuing her education in a STEM-related field, which encompasses science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The requirements for this year’s scholarship included:

• active or interested in STEM
• in good academic standing
• enrolled as a senior at Euclid High School
• applied to an institution of higher education or a trade or technical school for the next academic year
• demonstrated financial need

In addition to the application, students provided an autobiographical essay, a need statement and one to three letters of reference.

Moore is an honors student and has taken college courses since the eighth grade. She applied to seven universities with the intent to major in computer networking. During her time at EHS, she has participated in the girls’ varsity soccer, basketball and track teams and was selected to participate in the school’s “Stand Up” ambassador’s committee, a group of students who demonstrate leadership skills and are willing to encourage others to do the same. The group meets to discuss ways to mediate the violence in schools and travelled to the elementary schools in the district to model ways to stand up to bullying. She also is enrolled in the school’s Cisco Academy where she obtained her Microsoft certifications.

Outside of school, she is heavily involved with her community. She volunteers at a nursing home, provides meals to families at the Ronald McDonald House, supplies young mothers with the items they need to take care of their newborns through Stork’s Nest and walks in the March for Babies and Relay for Life. In the future, her goal is to own her own electronic media company and increase the number of women working in the technology field. To that end, has participated in and created a website for IndeedWeCode, a program for African-American women interested in information technology.

Congratulations, Tiffany! HGR Industrial Surplus is proud of you and of the other talented applicants. You and your classmates will make a significant impact on science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields and the manufacturing industry. Good luck and keep us posted on how you do.

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Odell Coleman, partner at ColemanWick, a Northeast Ohio research and analytics firm)

You probably know that many of the world’s most famous and widely used brands became successful by accident. Slinky, Silly Putty, potato chips, penicillin, microwave ovens — the list goes on and on. These items were all either by-products of efforts to make something else, or were simply attempts to solve one problem, yet turned out to solve everyday problems around the world.

WD-40 was supposed to just be a solvent for the aerospace industry. It’s now in about four out of five American households. The most amazing thing is its multitude of uses — making bird feeder poles too slippery for squirrels, for example.

Which proves that you never know all the ways a product might be useful beyond its intended purpose.

As a research firm, ColemanWick is in a unique position to observe and become learned across a variety of businesses and industries. Over the years, one of the most interesting things we’ve learned is that there are re-uses for machines and parts beyond sending them to scrap. You might be surprised at how often pieces of equipment, large and small, can be valued by other operations within and without a particular industry.

For instance, we were hired by a nuts and bolts manufacturer to survey its customers and markets in order to help the company gain a better understanding of its B2B buyers. Lo and behold, our work revealed a B2C market that the manufacturer had no idea existed. I don’t have to tell you how thrilled they were to find a new revenue stream.

This case represents good news for anyone with the problem of outdated or irrelevant equipment and the challenge of asset recovery: invest some research bucks to find out who else might put it to good use.

The lesson learned by the nuts and bolts company was that it benefitted from a perspective outside of its own. Companies tend to focus so much on their own operation that they’re blind to opportunities all around them.

In truth, there are many successful companies that recognize that adhering to best practices includes having a dedicated budget for annual research. They know that research experts are bound to uncover surprising data that benefits their enterprise.

A few examples include:

• Spotting budding industry trends
• Making informed decisions on markets
• Understanding your competition

Unlike WD-40, this blog has only one use – to help you understand how, with market research, you can take advantage of other markets, implement new product lines, understand your competition or use existing resources in different ways. These are just some of the many ways research uncovers data that pays for itself many times over.

For more information, contact Odell at [email protected] or 216.991.4504.

From this past Saturday, Apr. 30, go Untouchables!

On Apr. 30, 28 high school teams from Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake and Summit counties competed at Lakeland Community College’s Athletic and Fitness Center. The sixth-annual regional robotics combat robotics competition was presented by the Alliance for Working Together Foundation and sanctioned by the National Robotics League.

Sparks and metal flew as the bots’ weapons collided in a Lexan cage during three-minute, double-elimination rounds until the last bot standing belonged to “Atech Machinists” from Ashtabula County Technical and Career Center with last year’s champs “Dreadnaught” from Madison High School in second place and “Beaumonsters” from Beaumont School in third place.

Each team was paired with a local manufacturing sponsor that provided financial support and technical advice to its team. And, for the first time, 27 middle-school teams competed in the 1.5-minute, single-elimination Junior Bots Competition with mini robot kits that they assembled and drove. “Team Bombers” from Kenston Middle School took first place.

Congrats to all the teams, especially HGR’s “Untouchables” from Euclid High School! Euclid High’s team, coached by Jason Coleman and Bob Torrelli, included students Alex Bowman, Ethan Clark, Eddie Conger, Corbin Gray, Dan Hercik, Connor Hoffman, Luke Johnson, Peter Powell, Joshua Ritchey and Dayna Shirer.

Here are our tweets — and one from AWT Robobots — sharing the Untouchables’ progress.

What an unbelievable turnout here at the AWT Annual RoboBots competition! pic.twitter.com/ldQNEUqxJy

— AWT RoboBots (@AWTRoboBots) April 30, 2016

We’re at @AWTRobobot competition to cheer for @euclidschools team The Untouchables pic.twitter.com/9gwUqDp85e

— HGR Ind Surplus (@hgrindustrial) April 30, 2016

@Euclid_HS team “The Untouchables” gets ready for second round @AWTRoboBots competition @LakelandCommCol pic.twitter.com/RzQPIgL4xU

— HGR Ind Surplus (@hgrindustrial) April 30, 2016

@Euclid_HS battlebot in the ring @AWTRoboBots @LakelandCommCol pic.twitter.com/GLzdKvS0Vo

— HGR Ind Surplus (@hgrindustrial) April 30, 2016

@Euclid_HS Untouchables out in 2nd round of @AWTRoboBots @LakelandCommCol. Now they get ready for the grudge round pic.twitter.com/UnncJy9P1L

— HGR Ind Surplus (@hgrindustrial) April 30, 2016

Euclid_HS learned lessons for next year @AWTRoboBots competition @LakelandCommCol today. See you in ’17! pic.twitter.com/p0OatufPx1

— HGR Ind Surplus (@hgrindustrial) April 30, 2016

Stay tuned for results from @AWTRoboBots to see who wins these. HGR wishes everyone the best of luck! pic.twitter.com/FI9ub81hmk

— HGR Ind Surplus (@hgrindustrial) April 30, 2016

On Apr. 28, HGR held an anniversary sale that included a complimentary lunch from The Nosh Box, a demo by Euclid High School’s “The Untouchables” Robotics Team of its competition battle robot and a demo by Tim Willis of his 15-foot-tall transformer and robotic dog. During the course of the day, about 150 customers visited the showroom, and more than 1,220 items were sold.

Erin O’Brien was deep in her career as a project engineer with BP America. She says it was a lucrative and great career, but all of that changed when her brother, Novelist John O’Brien, known for Leaving Las Vegas, committed suicide. This caused Erin to re-evaluate her life. BP was leaning staff and offered a buyout. Erin says “I didn’t want to sit in an office looking at designs for panel boards for the rest of my life.” In 1995, an author was born.

With no formal training, she tried her hand at fiction and nonfiction but found her calling by working as a journalist. She advises young writers: “Sit in a room and write and write and write.” For her, this philosophy resulted in her first published clip in 2000. She was paid $5 by Ohio Writer Magazine for a 900-word book review. She went on to freelance, including writing features for Fresh Water since its second or third issue in 2010. During that time, she covered brick-and-mortar news and penned profiles for other area magazines on many area manufacturing companies, including Vitamix, OsteoSymbionics, Excelas, Nestle, Ohio Awning and Manufacturing, and Quasar Energy Group. As she talks about how her technical background has helped her as a writer, she relates her experience writing about an anaerobic ingestor that turns organic waste into compressed natural gas, “We have to be a translator and distill technical information into readable, engaging prose. These people work hard and want to tell their stories.”

With an ongoing interest in manufacturing and industry, in 2013, O’Brien visited HGR Industrial Surplus’ showroom where she was profoundly moved because her dad, who died in 2002, was a machinist. In response, she wrote a blog post about HGR that came to the attention of Tina Dick, HGR’s human resources manager. Dick hired O’Brien to put together a timeline of the company’s historical site for its dedication ceremony. O’Brien also included HGR in a story about upcycling resources for local industrial artists. And, she covered HGR’s dedication ceremony for Fresh Water. She says, “HGR is one of my favorite places in Northeast Ohio. It houses machines that represent the Rust Belt. It’s just poetry.”

After working as a feature writer and development news writer with Fresh Water, she recently was promoted to managing editor and has put her freelance activities on hold to focus on the weekly e-magazine. She shares that the magazine’s perspective “is about what’s fresh and new in Cleveland that The Plain Dealer or Cleveland.com are not covering, or about covering those stories from a new angle.” The magazine’s focus is on arts and culture, innovation, human-interest stories. Her vision is “to re-energize the magazine as we travel through 2016, with a keen awareness of the elephants headed this way and that all eyes will be on us this summer. Let’s look gorgeous while everyone is looking at Cleveland, Ohio, and showcase its diversity,” she states.

She sums up with her thoughts on Cleveland’s manufacturing future: “One sector that can’t be denied in Northeast Ohio is the medical sector. We also have housing stock that is affordable. There is a Renaissance that has resulted in low vacancy rates downtown. A lot is percolating. We may not be the blue-collar town that we once were, but I’m excited to see what Cleveland will look like in the next 10 years.”

Join HGR Industrial Surplus on Saturday, Apr. 30 as we root on Euclid High School’s Untouchables Robotics Team in their battle robot competition against other local high schools at Lakeland Community College starting at 8:30 a.m. (doors open at 8 a.m.).

Here they are practicing for their match:

And, if you can’t make it in person, you can watch the competition live via streaming video on YouTube:

We are pleased to announce that after several months of planning and development, we launched our enhanced website this weekend.

This redesign comes on the heels of our last update one year ago. We received feedback via a customer survey and decided to make additional enhancements to the user experience.

Here are some of the new features that you will see:

• A more accurate search function
• Less white space and more products per page
• The ability to click a product and expand it through quicklook without leaving the page
• Color-coded items (new arrival, markdown, last chance) for easy identification
• The ability to toggle between list view and a grid or tile view
• Enhanced print templating for ease of printing items of interest
• Enhanced sales inquiry form
• Blog incorporated into the website
• Display of “Trust” logos that show our affiliations with important organizations
• Favorites function that allows customers to quickly assemble a list of items, then add any or all of those items to their shopping cart
• Enhanced product images: This is being phased-in, but our inventory clerks will begin loading images at higher resolution. It will take several months for lower-resolution images to work their way through inventory, but down the road all of the images should be about twice the size that they were on the prior version of the website.
• A zoom image feature to take a closer look at photo details

As always, we welcome your feedback and hope these changes enhance your shopping experience.

On Apr. 20, HGR Industrial Surplus partnered with Cincinnati Industrial Auctioneers to host a public auction of all of the tools and equipment at the former Ohio Camshaft/OC Industries site in Twinsburg, Ohio, due to the plant’s closure. The parking lot was full at 9:30 a.m. with many pickup trucks full of dollies and pallets, and the auction of 642 lots began at 10 a.m. with 69 onsite and 96 online bidders from 22 states, Canada, Peru and Turkey. Everything was lined up nicely and tagged for display in the plant. Two machinists were available to demonstrate the equipment and provide information. The auction started with small tabletop items with the large equipment being sold around lunchtime.

Jeff Luggen, vice president and principal auctioneer at CIA, and his brother, Jerome, have been in the business for 35 years, and his father and mother started the company in 1961. Jeff’s sons Jeffrey and Joseph joined the company in the early 2000s, and Jerome’s son, Ryan, joined in 2013. That’s three generations of Luggen expertise! Speaking of experts, about six rigging companies from all over the country, including New Jersey, North Carolina and Ohio, were available to help customers haul their items off premises.

The top five items that sold were:

• $100,000.00 – 42” x 192” Clausing Model CL45200 Flat Bed CNC Lathe (2006)
• $48,000.00 – 60” Summit Model 60-VBM Vertical Boring Mill
• $42,500.00 – 43” x 315” Hankook Model Proturn 100 Flat Bed CNC Lathe (1997)
• $40,000.00 – 26” x 240” Norton OD Cylindrical Grinder
• $30,000.00 – 32” x 144” Berco Type RTM-425A Crankshaft Grinder

The auction was advertised by brochure mailer, CIA and HGR email blasts, Bidspotter email blast, AuctionZip and signage to attract drive-by customers.

The partnership with HGR began when Rick Affrica, HGR’s chief purchasing officer and partner, began attending CIA auctions in 1998. He says, “I have attended their auctions, and it’s been a great fit. They’ve been very responsive and timely and treated our customers the way we want them to be treated by answering their questions, providing alternatives and finding ways to meet the customers’ goals. That’s why we have continued to work with them during the past few years. We partner with other auction houses, as well, to meet our customers’ needs.”

According to the Society of Manufacturing Engineers’ Workforce Imperative: A Manufacturing Education Strategy, “Manufacturing is a key component of modern society, enabling people to build the goods and products they need to eat, live, entertain and protect themselves.” But, recently, the industry has faced two challenges — an aging-out/retiring workforce and the lack of younger talent to fill positions — which both are contributing to up to 600,000 unfilled manufacturing jobs in the United States.

This shortage of available, qualified workers to keep domestic manufacturers competitive is due, in part, to a deficit in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills being taught in schools. And, according to Manpower, “The nature of manufacturing jobs has changed dramatically over recent decades because of new technologies. Many manufacturing technologies are all heavily computer-based. These are complex technologies, and programmers and operators of them require substantial technical training.”

With these career opportunities, it’s important for students and workers at the stage of choosing a career or training to consider a career in manufacturing due to:

• The availability of jobs
• The opportunity to apply creativity and innovation
• Financial rewards (average starting salaries: $24/hour with associate’s and $57,000/year with bachelor’s according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• An under-representation of women and minorities

There are a variety of openings in production, maintenance and repair, transportation/logistics, product development, engineering, sales, management and administration that require critical thinking and problem solving skills, which can be learned through hands-on technical programs, industry certifications, or two- and four-year degree programs.

Click here for a list of colleges in Ohio that offer two- and four-year degree programs in manufacturing technology. The Ohio Department of Higher Education also offers manufacturing education resources. Two organizations with websites that supply additional information are: The Manufacturing Institute of the National Association of Manufacturers and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.

Here’s the Euclid High School Robotics Team practicing for their match!

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Derek Dixon, reporter for The Real Deal Press)

The picture painted by Euclid Mayor Kirsten Holzheimer Gail in her February “State of the City” address was an undeniable account of how committed small business owners, skilled laborers, concerned citizens, and public officials, are to the lakefront city’s restoration.

The spirit of cooperation that many municipalities seek between their councils, school boards and chambers of commerce has reached a measurable degree of fruition in Euclid. The agenda items at any one of their regular meetings often include references to the endeavors of the other agencies. Euclid’s stakeholders have not only achieved, but shown a willingness to sustain, civic growth ahead of individual promotion. Perhaps it also is what so clearly justifies the operations of an outfit like HGR Industrial Surplus.

The commonalities between the industrial surplus giant and the city it calls home go beyond evident. They border on mutually essential.

Mayor Gail acknowledged that the city is facing a 2016 where the city’s plans to maintain growth outpace its budgetary readiness to support it; however, she followed that statement with kudos to HGR and other anchor companies for making timely reinvestment efforts. One needs to look no further than HGR’s plan to provide six figures of square footage to a used car company in the near future. The newcomer will fix and eventually resell vehicles on a scale reflective of HGR’s own business. The resulting tax revenue will only bolster what HGR already generates through its efficient warehouse-style model.

Euclid’s small business community also has expanded in the past year with new eateries, grocers, and a brewery, among others. The infrastructures of buildings that house such operations rely on dependable industrial appliances—electric generators, furnaces and boilers, air conditioning units, compressors, water pumps, etc. Quality customer service also requires cash registers, computers, supply cabinets, vacuum cleaners, water coolers or fountains, and dishwashing units to name a few. Once again, HGR has the flexibility and variety of inventory to address each need.

That city that can galvanize three branches into an emerging vision of civic rebirth is unique. Not so unique are the limitations of financial and material access in pursuit of it. Almost non-existent is an entity like HGR that is prepared from all facets — business model, partnership outreach, and product availability — to provide solutions.

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Windom Ratchford, video freelancer and proprietor, Creative Gold Media)

Today’s manufacturing operations are innovative masterpieces. Engineers and machinists are working together to make manufacturing shops clean, well-lighted environments brimming with advances in modern tooling and design. These advances include CNC machining technology, 3D printing, computer-assisted design, and the video camera. The VIDEO CAMERA?

Yes, the video camera! Specifically, “video communications.” While it will never be confused with a 5-axis milling machine or an injection molding machine, video is a tool that holds its own with regard to adding value within a manufacturing operation. It is a communications tool that is primed to deliver key messages to staff and customers. Here are three areas where I have found video communications to be beneficial for manufacturers:

Training

If you have staff, you have a need for training and continuous improvement. That training is likely best handled through “hands-on” instruction. When such instruction is not possible for reasons such as limited availability of training staff, an effective alternative is video-based training. Video-based training can be used as a self-serve resource that can be shared online, through a company’s intranet or even through DVDs. Such a resource can be used for primary training or when workers need a refresher on a process.

Innovation

As impressive and as cool as your manufacturing operation is, who knows about it outside of your company? A brief customer-facing video highlighting how your innovations make for a better product may serve as a big advantage over competitors! When customers visit your website, reward them with a peek into the innovations you have put in place to benefit them.

Safety

From machine safety to fire and alarm safety, there are crucial messages that must be communicated to every worker in the shop or office. Creating a safety video can be an easy and effective way to educate staff on proper procedures related to their well-being. Videos of this type can be used when on-boarding new workers or when new policies are developed. Such videos also can help support state and federal government safety regulations.

If your organization is interested in communicating through video, I encourage you to touch base with a professional for initial guidance on leveraging this powerful resource. With a video camera, editing equipment, and knowledge, video communications may become the most versatile tool in your operation next to that automated 5-axis mill.

Windom Ratchford is available for video production and consultation services at (440) 789-5400 or [email protected].

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Tina Dick, human resources manager, HGR Industrial Surplus)

The premise of HGR’s values program was to implement a company culture that would result in HGR:

• Becoming a standout company in our field
• Having high morale resulting in satisfied employees
• Being values driven in our hiring, promotion and performance
• Having our values transcend our market

A committee of leaders within HGR was formed to discuss and determine specifically what values were currently in place, which needed to be tweaked and which values were believed to have a need to become more prevalent in order to develop the company culture HGR was seeking.

Through several though-provoking meetings and conversations the following values were determined to be most important:

• Ethical in all of our business activities
• Support each other with openness, honesty, trust and respect while working as a team to achieve our common goals
• Accountable in making and fulfilling our commitments to each other, our customers and our community
• Create exceptional customer relationships by enhancing awareness and expectations of outstanding service with every interaction
• Personal dedication to continuous improvement in creating employee and company success

HGR then needed to ensure that these values became a part of our everyday operations and conversation. We had to live them.

To help develop this culture a two-year program was born to encourage employees, management and officers to acknowledge and be aware of those individuals who represented our company’s values on a daily basis by nominating them for recognition.

To date, 321 awards have been presented to employees for representing those values. Many have been nominated more than once. This past year, the theme for nominating employees was to “bust” them living our values.

Several time per month, the Values Committee with either Brian Krueger or Ron Tiedman march through the office with the “Bad Boys” theme song from the television show “Cops” and “bust” an employee who was nominated by a peer.

Stay tuned next month for the third blog in our series “What type of employer is HGR?” You will get to meet some employees and hear about why HGR is special to them.

A $2,000 science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) scholarship is being offered to one senior at Euclid High School who meets the eligibility criteria in this application and submits his or her materials by the deadline. And, as if that’s not enough good news, we’ve extended the application deadline from Apr. 15 to Apr. 29. The scholarship will be presented and the winner notified on May 5 at the high school’s Academic Achievement Banquet at Tizzano’s Party Center. Good luck!

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Andrew Glicker, account executive, Edgecliff Technology Innovators, LLC)

Think about the company you work for now. What do they do, and how do they do it? When you look up a file or transaction, is it on paper or in a file cabinet? When you get a new customer or client do they have to fill out a paper form? Do you or other employees have to fill out paper forms? What if there were no paper forms to fill out? What if there was an easier way?

You can use a preconfigured mobile application as a template and tailor it to meet your specific needs or start from scratch and design it. Some of the options include barcode reading, RFID tags, taking pictures, talk to text, capture signatures, and many more.

Going mobile is the direction a lot of companies are heading, and the ones that have done so have had great results. Instead of giving a customer a form to fill out they hand them a phone or tablet that will upload the data as soon as it’s submitted. This eliminates having to give the form to an employee who would have to enter the information into the computer, which in turn saves a lot of time. The same works for employees who currently use a clipboard with paper forms attached. Going mobile saves a lot of time and money while also allowing employees to be much more productive.

Step 1 is simply looking at and examining your current everyday business process. Maybe your current process works just fine the way it is, or maybe there is room for improvement. Some of the best practices for building a mobile strategy are:

1. Organize your IT mobility team for success
2. Identify which partners best align with your mobility strategy.
3. Implement an IT self-service model.
4. Leverage both cloud-based and on-premises solutions.
5. Consider mobility to be a platform for innovation.

For additional information or questions visit our website at www.edgeclifftech.com or give us a call at 1-844-769-1769. We specialize in mobile business solutions to help companies with their everyday business process and make that process as simple, efficient, and productive as possible using mobile technology.

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Craig Schmidt, CADD Engineering Technology teacher, Excel TECC, Mayfield City School District)

The engineering and manufacturing fields have seen incredible advancements in technology over the last 30 years. We moved from board drafting to computer-aided drafting, and then to modeling parts on-screen. Manufacturing processes continue to be automated and improved. We often hear of another technology – 3D printing. What is 3D printing, and how has it impacted a high school engineering program?

The process begins with a digital “model,” which can be created using several different methods. These models can be created with software applications, scanned using 3D scanners or may be scanned using a smartphone camera in conjunction with IOS or Android applications.  Once the model is completed, it must be prepared for printing. The model is then prepared using a “slicing” application, which converts the model into thin layers and creates code to communicate with the printer.

In traditional machining processes, also known as “subtractive” manufacturing, a piece of raw material is cut in various ways to create a part. In the 3D printing process, also known as “additive” manufacturing, we begin with a computer model, and the 3D printer builds the part layer by layer until it is complete. Plastic filament, 1.75 mm in diameter, is fed through a moving heated extruder, which compresses the filament. The heated filament is deposited on a moving build plate, typically in 0.02 mm thick layers. Print times can range from a few minutes, for an extremely tiny part, to a day or more for larger parts.

3D printing has significantly changed our CADD Engineering Technology program at the Mayfield Innovation Center on the Mayfield High School campus. In November 2014, I applied for and received a grant from the Mayfield Business Alliance to purchase our first 3D printer. Students have seen their ideas “come to life” through various engineering and architectural 3D-printed projects.

Our program is a two-year college tech prop program and is part of Excel TECC (Technical Education Career Consortium). The Mayfield Innovation Center also is home to Mayfield High School STEM2M (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine) programs. This year, freshman students were offered biomedical science and engineering courses. Additional courses will be offered each year. The center also hosts visits from the district’s elementary and middle school students. The facility is state-of-the-art, and includes a fabrication lab, amphitheater, numerous collaboration spaces and a café.

Last fall, Gina Burich, a French teacher at Mayfield High School, circulated a French video showing a child using a 3D-printed prosthetic hand. I was intrigued by the video and showed it to our class. Using downloaded files, our student team printed and built a test hand, which was submitted to e-NABLE, a world-wide network of prosthetic device makers. We became an approved e-NABLE maker in December. A local family, whose son was in need of a prosthetic hand, passed through CADD student Emily Pietrantone’s checkout lane at Target. She connected the family with our program, and their son will be our first prosthetic hand recipient in late April! Our students exhibited the prototype prosthetic hands at National Manufacturing Day, the Ohio School Boards Association Student Achievement Fair and at the Mayfield Science Showcase. Our students, and the prosthetic hands, have been featured on Fox 8 television and on cleveland.com.   This project – which first began via an email and then a chance encounter in a checkout lane – is not only a great hands-on class project using 3D printing technology, but has given our students an opportunity to change lives.

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Dennis Kappos, VP-Sales, Erieview Metal Treating, www.erieviewmetal.com)

President and General Manager Alex Kappos, VP-Sales Dennis Kappos and Comptroller George Kappos are brothers and second-generation owners of Erieview Metal Treating, 4465 Johnston Parkway, Cleveland, Ohio. The company was founded by their father, George Kappos, Sr. and their uncle, John Kappos. So, the company began with two brothers and is now owned and operated by three brothers.

The founders grew up in Wheeling, West Virginia, and both travelled to Cleveland for college. They attended John Carroll University and Fenn College (known today as Cleveland State University). Both brothers played basketball, sometimes against each other on their respective teams. They both met their future wives while living in Cleveland and stayed here after they received their college diplomas to start their careers.

The company was founded in 1961 with the help of the Mandel brothers, the owners of Premier Industrial Corp., now part of Premier Farnell. The Mandel brothers funded the start-up of Erieview with a 10 -year interest free loan. There was no contract, just two families looking each other in the eye while they shook hands — something that would never happen today.

Erieview started out as a small metal finishing shop doing two finishes, zinc and cad plating, with six employees. Premier was their largest customer for many years. Today, the company has expanded to 85 employees, more than 25 finishes and hundreds of customers.

Some of the industries served are:

• Automotive
• Truck and Trailer
• Construction
• Marine
• Electrical
• Aerospace
• Appliance
• Military Defense

For a company that specializes in bulk finishing for a wide range of industries and is witness to several downturns, including the most recent hard-hitting recession, Erieview has managed to celebrate 55 years in Cleveland. It has not always been smooth sailing and the city has changed a lot during the years, from a manufacturing perspective. Dennis recalls driving the company truck in the late 60s and into the 70s and being in awe of all the manufacturing in Cleveland. He says, “I remember driving through The Flats and seeing barbed wire as far as the eye could see. All the nails in the entire world were made here at that time. People don’t know this, but Cleveland was the fastener capital of the world in those days.” Alex says, “The great majority of fastener manufacturing from our hometown is now in Taiwan and China.”

The company has had to make changes to survive in that changing world. What made it work took effort, but it really is a pretty simple philosophy: We have the best people in the industry working here that are dedicated to providing the best service to the customer and a company philosophy of sticking to what we do best. We also use that same philosophy when working with our suppliers. HGR Industrial Surplus is a great example of that. You will find our head of maintenance and our plant manager visiting HGR many times throughout the month. We are a service company, and they are a great resource to help us maintain our plant operations.

Mitch Opalich, president of Indelco Custom Products, Inc., is the third generation of Opaliches to steer the business that has been in existence since 1965. The company originally was founded by Opalich’s father, George, and grandfather, Stephen, both engineers, as Cleveland Plastic Fabricators & Suppliers, Inc., when they were asked by a national manufacturing customer of their metalworking company to fabricate and machine plastics.

Since the family lived in Collinwood and Richmond Heights, Opalich says, “It made sense to locate the business in Euclid due to its proximity to a high concentration of manufacturing and OEM companies,” and it has remained here even though the Opaliches sold the business to their employees in the early 1970s. In 1994, Mitch Opalich bought the business back after finishing graduate school and working in the financial industry. He sold the company in 2008 to a Minneapolis-based plastics distributor, and the name changed to Indelco in 2014. Though he no longer owns the company, he remains president, and the company remains family owned by the Dore brothers. Opalich sold the business to leverage the buying power, infrastructure and capital of the third-largest player in the industry. He met the owners through his membership in the International Association of Plastics Distribution. Indelco Cleveland currently has more than 250 customers, 50 percent of which are in Northeast Ohio.

Opalich says, “We’re an industrial plastic distributor and fabricator specializing in fluid process control.” What does that mean? Well, some of the cool items that they have fabricated include:

• a Simona® Eco-Ice® plastic surface made of ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene that is used as an ice skating rink (Yes, you skate ON the plastic with no water or ice, and there’s one in our backyard that University Circle Inc. had installed.)
• clear acrylic poker chip carriers used by casinos
• the plastic plating barrels used by mints to plate coins (Indelco’s are being used in China.)
• an acrylic humidor for Opalich’s and his friends’ cigars
• a training tool for surgeons to practice threading screws into titanium replacement parts and fractures
• retrofitting a fire truck into a 5,000-gallon brine spreader to salt the roads
• and reverse osmosis water purification tanks and piping.

Indelco works with an original-equipment manufacturer that requisitions the plastic material or part, many of which are Cleveland-based, and is responsible for machining, assembling, welding and bending the items they fabricate.

Another interesting project is one that the company did for Eveready Battery Company’s Westlake, Ohio, research-and-development facility. Indelco helped Eveready convert its stainless-steel anode mixing system to plastic and standardize it throughout all of their facilities. The mixture was improved by using polyethylene tanks that did not interact with or contaminate the mix, making it cleaner and more uniform. Indelco also teamed with a process control manufacturer to fabricate double-walled tanks to hold hydrochloric acid for cleaning aerospace engine parts for Rolls-Royce that had to meet seismic specifications due to the customer’s location in California. Interestingly enough, you can hold acids in plastic, and some of them are impervious to acids that will eat through stainless steel.

Plastic is machined and welded in a process similar to metal. Indelco hires skilled metal-industry welders and machinists then trains them on plastic techniques. Because the industry is young in the United States, since the 1960s, few trade schools teach plastic techniques, and most machinists are self-taught. The company has 20 employees in Euclid and 200 more at its corporate office and 14 other facilities.

Opalich’s connection to HGR predates the existence of HGR. He went to Mayfield High School with HGR’s founder, Paul Betori, and they remain friends. Opalich says he buys and repairs tanks from HGR when a customer specifies the need, and he has bought shop equipment for his facility from HGR.

Can you guess what Hose Master makes? Yup. Hose! But not of the garden variety. Hose Master manufactures ¼-inch to 20-inch-in-diameter metal hoses with expansion joints to transport liquids and gasses for industrial applications where rubber hose won’t work because the environment is too hot (think, steel mill), too cold, or where there is a concern that something could permeate the hose (think, chemical plants and refineries), such as in the transport of chlorine. As consumers, we have encountered their hoses in three places: the metal hose that connected the receiver to the box in a pay-phone booth in the good old days, the hose on a handheld showerhead and the hose that we can’t see beneath the dispenser at a gas station, which pumps the gas up from the underground tank.

The company got its start 34 years ago when Sam Foti, Sr., who ran a small hose company, sent his son Sammy to college for a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at The University of Michigan, said “Let’s start a company,” and used the family’s savings to buy tool room equipment. Hose Master was born in a 17,000-square-foot building in Euclid, Ohio, then expanded to its current quarter-mile-long headquarters at 1233 E. 222^nd Street because, according to Sammy, his dad “got a great price on the facility, and the City of Euclid was great to work with.”

Sammy says, “My father is a tool and die maker with a knack for building machines. He’s not educated as an engineer but is the best engineer I’ve known.” Sammy went on to get his M.B.A. at Case Western Reserve University and spends 80 percent of his work day doing research and development. Not only do Hose Master’s engineers design products, but they design and build the equipment to make the products, and they train machinists and welders to fabricate them. Sammy’s sister and brother manage marketing and legal activities, respectively, for the company. Sam and Sammy both work on the shop floor side by side with their employees, which include 400 people in four locations (Cleveland, Atlanta, Houston, Reno).

The Fotis have a vested interest in the state of U.S. manufacturing. Sammy says, “When I think altruistically, I want to help the U.S. develop more engineers and a manufacturing base. I am distressed at the movement toward a service orientation and away from manufacturing. Manufacturing is stressed and challenged, with the exception of the automotive industry. This is deteriorating the foundation and base of our economy. Manufacturing is the base that feeds everything. Although the field of engineering has become more popular, which I am happy to see, we aren’t doing a good job of developing people for other skilled positions, especially machinists and welders. Because of this, Hose Master has had to invent ways to develop a skilled workforce.”

The company has created a manufacturing apprenticeship program. Since it can’t find and hire enough skilled machinists, it train its own, and it hires in general labor employees then gauges who might want to learn welding. He advises, “To have adequate staffing, we must commit ourselves to training. We can’t be casual about developing future generations to replace the aging-out workforce. And, we need to keep production domestic rather than sourcing overseas products.” Because of this investment in building the manufacturing workforce, Hose Master was recognized with a 2016 Evolution of Manufacturing Award by Smart Business Magazine.

Due to their proximity to HGR and ability to tweak machines for their own application, Hose Master’s engineers have purchased a large quantity of equipment from HGR through the years for research and development purposes.

(Courtesy of Guest Bloggers Alyson Scott, president, and Roger Sustar, CEO, Fredon Corporation)

Oftentimes, when describing the youth manufacturing programs we at Fredon and the Alliance for Working Together (AWT) Foundation are involved with, we are faced with the same question: “How much is this going to cost?”

Well, fellow manufacturers, if you are asking that question, you have completely missed the purpose of being involved in promoting manufacturing to our young people. The question you should be asking is, “How much is it going to cost me if I don’t get involved?” It will cost you the successful integration of the next generation of machinists, engineers, welders, inspectors, etc. You will be faced with the harsh reality that is the dreaded “skills gap.”

Do we have a litany of statistics and reports to support this allegation? No. Do we have signs lining the street that say, “Machinists Wanted?” No. Fredon Corporation has never been at risk of a skills gap. Why? Because more than 20 years ago we saw the value of offering youth manufacturing programs in our facility. We have put countless hours of our time – our top machinists’ time – and too many dollars to worry about into promoting careers in manufacturing. From the birth of our Cannons of Fredon program in 1992 to creating, organizing, facilitating and promoting our AWT RoboBots program (since 2010), we have talked the talk and walked the walk.

We recognize that not every young person we work with will become a machinist (or other manufacturing-centric career seeker) and that’s okay with us! What many business owners don’t consider is this: The future growth of our industry is inarguably dependent on having a highly skilled workforce. Inarguably. But aren’t we also dependent on a well-educated consumer who knows the value behind the phrase “Made in America?”

Every dollar and every hour that is offered up to support the education and cultivation of our future employees is priceless. Do we see the return on our investment on our balance sheet? No. Do we see it in our bottom line? Absolutely!

The reward for our efforts is an amazing group of 100 employees – skilled machinists who produce precision machined products for our customers in the aerospace, defense, locomotive, nuclear energy and transportation industries. We are generationally diverse; we are made up of an equal amount of “Millennials” and “Baby Boomers.” More than 38 percent of our employees are ages 40 and under. Skills gap? Not at Fredon.

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Bob Torrelli, Science Department Chair and Robotics Team Coach, Euclid High School)

As we have been getting closer the competition date, all of our energy has been devoted to the robot. This is a picture of the current robot’s status in preparation for the AWT RoboBots Competition on Apr. 30 at Lakeland Community College. Last weekend, we worked to assemble the robot and get it running. It was a very exciting weekend for the kids.

Most of the students who were interested in the Robotics Club have signed up for our new Lego™ robotics class that is going to be offered next year. Thanks to HGR for getting us the kits! A counselor told me that the students seemed sparked by the Robotics Club to enroll in the class, and word has spread throughout the school; so our combined efforts are already making a difference in the lives of our students and providing them with an opportunity that would not have been available otherwise. This model partnership that we share is allowing us to shape/hone students’ skills for the 21st century. We are thankful for everything that HGR has done for us, and if we could increase the number of partnerships between community and school, then the sky would be the limit.

The Lake Erie Monsters, along with their NHL affiliate, the Columbus Blue Jackets, signed Robert Gibson, son of HGR employee Chris Gibson, to a one-day contract on Mar. 18 to fulfill Robert’s wish through the A Special Wish Foundation.

He was born via emergency C-section that resulted in irreversible damage to his kidneys and the death of his twin brother, Michael Charles. On the fourth day of his life, he underwent the first of 14 surgeries to date. After an unsuccessful kidney transplant and additional complications stemming from a rare form of pneumonia, he spent seven months in and out of the hospital. To this day, his immune system is challenged, and he must be monitored to ensure his day-to-day renal function.

While Gibson’s medical challenges have been profound and numerous, they are not what defines him. He is an energetic, excitable four-year-old with a passion for life. He is compassionate, loving and kind, and he loves the Lake Erie Monsters and playing and watching hockey. His wish was to become a “Lake Erie Monsters Player for a Day.” The Monsters and Blue Jackets, in conjunction with the A Special Wish Foundation, made Robert’s wish come true.

“We are so grateful and proud to be working with the Lake Erie Monsters. When they heard about Rob’s wish to be a ‘Monster,’ the entire organization really stepped up and took his wish to an entire new level,” says Jason Beudert, co-founder of the Cleveland Chapter of the A Special Wish Foundation.

Robert’s exciting weekend began on Mar. 16 when Gibson and his family met Monsters Captain Ryan Craig at 3:30 p.m. at Dick’s Sporting Goods in Crocker Park to get geared up for the big day. Craig helped outfit Gibson with new skates, equipment and a stick to make sure he was all set for his pro-hockey adventure.

Friday morning, Gibson arrived at Quicken Loans Arena at 10 a.m. for morning skate with the team and suited up for practice where he fired some shots on goal.

“Robert is as brave a kid as there is, and the determination and heart he’s shown to battle through the obstacles he’s faced is inspiring to me and to our team,” says Monsters Head Coach Jared Bednar.

After morning skate, Gibson’s signing was formally announced to local media during his 11:15 a.m. press conference with Blue Jackets Assistant General Manager Bill Zito, where he signed his one-day NHL contract. This exciting moment was streamed live on the Monsters’ Facebook page.

“We’re extremely excited to welcome Robert to our team,” says Columbus Blue Jackets Assistant General Manager Bill Zito. “He’s a courageous young man who has displayed great determination and strength, and those attributes help make him a great addition to our organization.”

When Gibson returned to The Q for Friday’s game, he entered the Lake Erie dressing room as an official Monsters player. He suited up in his own stall in the team’s locker room and prepared alongside his teammates to take the ice for player introductions and the in-arena announcement of the team’s starting lineup. Gibson then watched the game with his family.

“We are so grateful to A Special Wish and the Lake Erie Monsters for making our son smile bigger than we could have ever hoped for,” says Beth Gibson, Robert’s mother. “While he has been through a lot in his short life, we know this experience will be something he will treasure forever. We can’t say “thank you” enough, and I don’t think we will ever be able to truly articulate what this means to us and him. For him to feel this special is a parent’s dream come true.”

As a kid, Tim Willis, 57, rode dirt bikes then entered motocross events. This interest quickly evolved from competing with dirt bikes into motorcycles, cars, demolition derbies and trucks. He started taking home parts from a junkyard more than 36 years ago and building a car in his living room because he didn’t have a garage. This set Willis on a trajectory that led to making monster trucks then into robots because he says, “Trucks were trendy. I wanted to work on something that gets better over time with no expiration date, something no one else is doing. Robots are high-tech, and I want to get a jumpstart on technology that can go anywhere.” His friend Pete had made a Transformer out of wood. Willis told him they should make one out of metal. He watched “The Transformers” and “Real Steel” then bought a toy Transformer at Toys “R” Us in order to visualize it. He gave the toy to a kid and began making his first robot. He works organically, only making a “kiddy sketch” for proportion then starts building.

He built a 16-foot-tall, 4,000-pound Transformer robot that can walk down the street and a 12-foot-tall robotic dog. He currently is working on a two-headed dragon that is on wheels and can be towed behind a truck. It has a 20-foot wingspan (made from rack shelving bought at HGR Industrial Surplus), a body 28-feet long and a 12-foot tail. Each robot costs about $120,000 in materials plus the labor and takes six months to build. He works on them from October through March for 18 hours per day, seven days per week.

For his livelihood, he has worked in a machine shop and owned Tim’s Wild Creations, a high-tech handyman company that would put together things that a customer bought and dreamed of building. For 23 years, he freestyled as the “clown” at Monster Truck shows to keep the crowd revved up. He did 43-44 shows per six-month season in the 1980s. He was paid $5,000 per show, and that’s where his capital came from. In addition, up until four years ago, he would enter his monster trucks into races where all competitors would put in a $500 entry fee, and the winner takes all. He says, “People spend money before they’ve got it. I put money away, don’t go out, live simply and don’t waste a thing.”

Now, he only woks on robots and is demonstrates his “hobby that went wild,” at many area events, including educational seminars, MOCA Cleveland’s Everything All at Once exhibition, St. Patrick’s Day parades, the Puerto Rican Festival, the Feast of the Assumption in Little Italy, the Cuyahoga County Fair, IngenuityFest and even a demonstration in front of St. Adalbert on E. 83^rd St. to keep the parish open.

Willis considers himself a self-taught mechanical engineer and a fulltime showman. He works out of a fix-it shop on wheels that he takes to his shows and a shop in his garage. He shares that he is a vegetarian, does not eat sweets, smoke, drink or gamble. He says, “Life is about constant self-discipline for total control over my mind. Everything I do, I give it my all.” To that end, he is focused to the exclusion of all else on gaining more knowledge. He explains that he will work on a robot or truck and have a problem to fix that he can’t solve; so, he will go jogging or work on something else until the solution presents itself.

To date, he has invested more than $4 million in his hobby and passion and has made 28 monster trucks and robots. He still has 19 of them. For parts, he goes to auctions and HGR Industrial Surplus. He found HGR when a friend brought him to the showroom 15 years ago. Willis was so captivated that when his friend wanted to leave, he said to go ahead that he’d find a ride home. Willis says, “I love HGR. You can get everything there. I save here. A lot of times they have new stuff that you can get for ¼ the price.” He has bought the ramps to load his robots onto the trailer and all of the electrical circuit breakers and boxes for his shop from HGR.

If you meet Willis, his happiness is infectious. He has learned through hard lessons to do what he loves. His father, two sisters and brother died at young ages from a rare heart condition attributed to Marfan Syndrome. His step father was killed in a street shooting. That’s where the name of his monster truck team came from: The Homicide Team. But, he is sensitive to the message he puts out to youth. He clarifies that The Homicide Team is mechanical science in motion and that it was named in 1994 in honor of the Cleveland Police Homicide Unit for their thorough investigations and devotion to solving his step-father’s case and to inspire students to get a good education and become business- and career-oriented so they won’t be tempted to step into the streets. He quotes Albert Einstein, “I never teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.” And, because he worries about the message he puts out in the world, he got rid of the homicide reference on his trucks. He also spent $10,000 repainting them from their trademark yellow, orange and red shades of dripping blood to shades of green for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Today, he has two robots, the Transformer and the dog, and two trucks in the parade.

2016 HGR Industrial Surplus STEM Scholarship

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Alan Green, adjunct professor at Cuyahoga Community College)

I’ve been a customer of HGR for several years. I‘ve bought several pieces of equipment for my wood shop. Your outlet is one of my favorite places to go to for outfitting my shop. I used to own a handyman business for several years. For the past several years, I’ve been teaching humanities at Tri-C. Woodworking is now a hobby for me. I repair my own house and build objects for my house and for my family when we need something.

We’re starting a monthly series to let you know what it’s like to work at HGR. The first post in our series is about HGR’s benefits, which include:

• Profit sharing: eligible after 90 days qualifying employees are eligible to share a portion of 5 percent of company profits put into a pool
• Medical, dental and vision: effective after 90 days and premiums paid 100% by the company for employees
• Paid time off
• Life insurance: $25,000 at no cost to the employee
• 401(k) retirement plan: eligible after one year
• Voluntary short-term and long-term disability coverage
• Training
• Uniforms provided
• Free lunch every Wednesday
• Holiday party, bonus, gift card and raffle
• Summer outing at Cedar Point, including four admission tickets per employee and lunch

Here’s what four new employees in the Marketing Department have to say about what it’s like to work at HGR:

Paula Maggio, public relations specialist, started June 2015 and says, “It’s the people who make HGR a great place to work. Everyone is valued and treated with respect. And, everyone cares about doing a great job in order to make things work well for four customers and for our coworkers. HGR’s management provides so many perks for its employees — from gift cards at Thanksgiving to a company picnic at Cedar Point. Those things let us know how much we are appreciated and ensure our loyalty.”

Joe Powell, graphic designer, started August 2015 and says, “I’m doing exactly what I want to do in my life. It’s nice to get a job doing what you love for great company. With my mechanical background I like to work in an industrial and manufacturing setting and have an understanding of the people in this field since I worked in a blue-collar role for the last 10 years.”

Beth Hietanen, email marketing data analyst, started August 2015 and says, “I like working here because I like the concept of what HGR’s doing. They’re taking something that’s old and bringing it back into life. People might throw these items out, but instead they’re being reused. Since I was a kid, I recycled things. I was always getting hand-me-downs because I was the youngest in my family. I am used to using what is used, and working for a company that sells these things makes sense to me.”

Gina Tabasso, marketing communications specialist, started September 2015 and says, “I couldn’t be more blessed than to work for HGR. I not only love what I do but I care deeply about the company and the people I work with and for. It’s a family. Everyone is quick to praise and support one another in an environment of mutual respect. It’s great to go to work and work hard but laugh, smile and be allowed to be human while you’re doing it.”

Next month, look for a post on our values and how they are embodied by our employees in service of our customers and community.

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger David Spasic, co-owner of Superelectric LLC)

Most people know Superelectric Pinball Parlor, 6500 Detroit Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio, by our new storefront that opened in December in Gordon Square where we sell pinball machines, vintage games, and screen-printed apparel and merchandise. The roots of Superelectric, however, date back to 2003 when Ben Haehn, Nathaniel Murray, and I met in Bowling Green while studying art. Each of us had a different focus in college. Screen printing, digital art, and ceramics were our respective emphases; however, one common thread among us is our love for using recycled or found objects in our artwork.

We have been visiting HGR Industrial Surplus for years to find materials to use in our art and to generate inspiration for future pieces. Also, while working in the film industry we would often look to HGR for props and set decorations for movies and commercials. Having such a wonderful resource at your fingertips is amazing.

Last summer, when we began working on our storefront location, we would visit HGR regularly to find building materials and items that we could upcycle. On one visit I brought my uncle, a former machinist, and my father, the person who first told me about HGR. Together, we dug through the building looking for materials that could be repurposed into railing for our storefront. My uncle had never been to HGR and was in awe of the size and diversity of the goods available, as well as the low prices.

Eventually, my father stumbled on a pallet of aluminum frames. “What about these?” he called out. I came over to take a closer look and realized that it was a pallet of industrial screen printing frames. How perfect! Superelectric started as a screen printing company back in 2007 before pinball became our main focus. Reusing screen printing frames in our store would be a great homage to our roots. Explaining our purpose and limited budget, we were able to work with the staff at HGR to get a great price on the frames. After a night of playing with different orientations for the frames we landed on the current set up. The railing turned out great, and we have people ask about it all the time. It wouldn’t be possible without the friendly staff, huge selection of goods, and great prices at HGR. Thanks!

The National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame, 605 E. 222^nd St., Euclid, Ohio, is housed in a beautiful, elegant, historic building that functioned as the former city hall. Within its walls are rooms full of polka memorabilia, including lifetime achievement awards and photos, interactive audio displays with historical information, and a video viewing area. The highlight of the collection is a room dedicated to vintage accordions, many inlaid, which were owned by famous polka kings. You can read about them on wall biographies then browse the gift shop that houses the country’s largest collection of polka CDs, recipe books, records and other souvenirs. If you are interested in live polka events and festivals, there is a rack of information that you can take with you to mark your calendars.

The Polka Hall of Fame was organized in 1986, the same year The Grammy Awards introduced an award for Best Polka Recording that went to the late Euclid resident Frankie Yankovic, and, coincidentally, the same year that Cleveland was selected as the location for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was a big year for music in Cleveland!

What differentiates “Cleveland-style” polka from other kinds of polka music? According to Joseph Valencic, founding trustee, historian and museum director with the Polka Hall of Fame, Cleveland-style was developed about 100 years ago as an American style of dance music based on folk music brought by Slovenian immigrants. The music mainstreamed after World War II when people were looking for feel-good dance music. Its heyday was 1949-1960, but it is experiencing a new boom, as well as an accompanying accordion revival. Valencic attributes this to young musicians rediscovering the music of their grandparents.

The museum is open Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., and admission is free. There currently are 1,300-1,500 global members. Valencic shares that polka is a cult sound in the Netherlands, and the Dutch usually come for its annual Sausage Festival. Busses of Canadian tourists also have visited. As Valencic says, “It’s America’s good-time music, and we’re here to celebrate it.”

But, Cleveland-style polka music obviously has become the world’s good-time music. And, on March 10, it was the music for The Euclid Chamber of Commerce’s Coffee Conversations series. Each month, the chamber has an hour meet-and-greet at a different area business so that members of the chamber and of the community can network at a venue they might otherwise not have known about or had the opportunity to visit.

Take a listen to Yankovic playing Cleveland the Polka Town and have a good time polkaing around the room. It’s as easy as 1-2-3.

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Kazimieras “Kazy” Urbonavicius)

To start, I began my military career in the U.S. Marine Corps on active duty. During my time, I guarded the president of the United States. I was stationed in Quantico, Virginia. After I got out, I began working at Home Depot, but I still had a desire to play military; so, I joined the U.S. Army Reserve and began my numerous travels.

My last deployment was 2011 to 2012. It was a fun roller coaster ride. I was shot once and blown up twice during that tour. I am currently going through my retirement process and will be retired from the military at the end of the month. I started building furniture as a coping means. I started off with building end tables and tables out of wood and pipe fittings. Then, I purchased a welder and taught myself how to weld from reading a few books and watching online tutorials. I began to make metal furniture. I have made a series of lamps and other odds and ends.

I found out about HGR through my friend Terry. We were out drinking and eating at Oaks and Embers Tavern in Chesterland, Ohio, with our mutual friend Mark when he told me about HGR. He let me know that he purchased a huge vice from them and that it was the best thing he has ever found in his many years of finding tools. I came in one day after work, and the rest is history. This is a brilliant-minds toy store.

I currently work on the railroad as a full-time job and build furniture on the side. Eventually, I hope that I can move into a warehouse and keep building my tool collection so that I can expand my capabilities of building more intricate furniture. My company is called Tortured Creations. I hope, in the future, that I can make a non-profit company where veterans can come and have a place where they can have the tools and supplies to build their own furniture. To be able to begin a project from raw material and create a piece of work has been one of the most fulfilling accomplishments on my road in dealing with PTSD.

Dan T. Moore, CEO and chairman of Dan T. Moore Co. that holds 19 companies, is an ageless entrepreneur and inventor who is full of ideas and vitality. He skis and motorcycles the world, which you can read about on his blog; starts successful business after business; holds about 30 patents; and currently is hobbling about on crutches and in a cast after having bones in his ankle fused from a ski accident. His plans? To ski again! And, to continue to innovate and create successful startup companies in Collinwood.

His Cleveland Industrial Innovation Center (CiiC) at 17000 St. Clair Avenue, a former airport used by Curtiss Wright of Wright Brothers’ fame, houses nine established and startup manufacturing companies that employ approximately 350 people: Team Wendy, Soundwich, CiiC, Gem Tool, Ecowise, Metal Matrix Innovations, Rooftop Green, NatGasCar and Petfiber. The property also has available tenant space that Moore markets to encourage minority business enterprises.

While it’s easy to focus on Team Wendy, his original company which manufactures military helmets that stop high-velocity bullets for militaries and special forces around the world and which got its start as a ski-helmet manufacturer in 1997 at the intersection of Coit Road and Kirby Avenue after the skiing death of Moore’s daughter Wendy due to a traumatic brain injury, Moore is passionate about his startups. He says, “We hire people skilled in chemistry, engineering and business. We determined that focusing on starting companies is more profitable than buying them. And, I like to tinker.” The question he always seeks to answer is, “Where is there an unmet need?”

His startups include Metal Matrix Innovations that makes disc brakes out of aluminum instead of cast iron. They are lighter and ride better. Moore says they are made from a silicon carbide sponge into which they shoot aluminum. Rooftop Green manufactures “a tray that holds earth like a coffee filter,” Moore explains. “When there is a heavy rain, the soil doesn’t roll out onto the roof, and it’s less expensive for customers to purchase than traditional trays. The trays are made from recycled materials and are recyclable. They also can be used residentially on patios.” NatGasCar converts automobiles from petroleum-based gasoline into natural gas engines. Petfiber recycles Coca Cola bottles, made from polyester terephthalate (PET). They are melted and spun like cotton candy into a fiber for use in the automotive industry. All of these companies are sustainable, and Moore says he intends to run them until someone else can do a better job then he will sell them. Of his process, he says, “We get an idea, patent it, find the right people who can do it and run it.”

With all these startups, Dan needs to outfit them with the proper equipment. When asked where he gets much of it, he says, “I shop at HGR Industrial Surplus’ showroom in Euclid at least once per month. HGR is great because if I need something quick, I can grab it and plug it in by the afternoon.” He has purchased cranes; machine tools; welders; milling machines; a variety of mixing, coating and extruding equipment; lathes; an ironworker; and other machine tools. Some of these purchases also are being used in a “makers space” called “FAB Lab” that the company has created for employees to use in their leisure time on their hobby and side projects. Moore truly is an advocate of innovation.

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Paula Maggio, PR specialist with HGR Industrial Surplus)

News of Cleveland entrepreneurship has traveled to Vietnam. It has also spread to Namibia and Turkey and Greece – and to 186 other countries, too.

Michael Goldberg, assistant professor of design and innovation at the Weatherhead School of Management, brought that story back home to Cleveland at COSE’s annual meeting Feb. 24.

He told a full house at the Near West Theatre in the heart of Gordon Square how he taught students at the National Economics University in Hanoi about entrepreneurship in Cleveland. The students he met were eager for the lesson.

“The hunger for what we’re doing here in Cleveland is really strong,” he says, as he flipped through slides that pictured some of the students he met – either in person or remotely – in Vietnam.  “People are hungry to learn what we are doing.”

Goldberg says two factors combined to make Cleveland fertile ground for entrepreneurship. Ohio’s Third Frontier Program, which promotes the growth of startup technology companies and became an international model, jumpstarted the effort. Next came recruiting donors to support the economic development that resulted.

Goldberg, a Fulbright fellow, turned the course into a massive open online course (MOOC) that has attracted more than 100,000 students from all over the world and is the top offering on Coursera in terms of video translations. The MOOC, which consists of nine, 12-minute videos, has been translated into 13 languages.

Recognizing leadership

Before Goldberg’s keynote presentation at COSE’s annual meeting, the organization recognized outgoing Chair Rion Safier of Rion Safier Accounting and welcomed new Chair Mike Stanek of Hunt Imaging, LLC.

It also acknowledged outgoing board and executive committee members Darrin Feming, Stratavant; James Harmon, Dawson Companies; Lisa Logan, Logan Clutch Corp.; and Jim McSherry, McSherry & Co., LPA.

Toby Heintzelman of the Driftwood Restaurant Group won the volunteer service award. COSE staffer Adina Magda won the staff service award.

Giving career advice

During the networking portion of the event, COSE members had the chance to meet, mingle and share 30 seconds of advice that they would give to their younger selves if they were just now beginning a business career. Matt William, chief marketing officer at HGR, added his perspective.

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Doug Knoop, chief development & communications officer with HELP Foundation, Inc.)

“How’s your day going David?” “Just great, I’ve been working since this morning, and I’m ready to head home and relax!”

This is exactly what I was hoping to hear from David, and he wasn’t just saying that to please me. He’d had a long day working at HELP U Shred and was looking forward to getting home. While not an uncommon experience for most people, this was a great step for David and an indicator of the value and success of the HELP U Shred vocational program. David has lived his life coping with a developmental disability, but that doesn’t mean he is unaware of the world he lives in, or the implications of his disability. In fact David, and most of his peers, know that they’re disabled, know what that means for their lives, and face the world each morning with their own hopes and dreams. Assisting people like David to live their best life is at the heart of HELP Foundation’s mission of service.

Employment is one of the biggest challenges facing people who have a developmental disability. Job training, personal skill development, and bolstering the self-confidence of the individual are keys to employment and are the focus of HELP U Shred. Our vocational training program is a successful business that provides secure document destruction and recycling services to government and commercial customers. Servicing our many contracts means that all 54 HELP U Shred training employees are faced with real-world workplace demands and expectations. They work hard and know that they are valued members of the team. What they also know is that, unlike many other job training programs, they aren’t being paid a sub-minimum or piece-work wage. HELP U Shred pays the full state minimum wage to trainees. That doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it is remarkably rare, and it makes a big difference in the lives of folks like David.

HELP U Shred is only one part of HELP Foundation’s array of services that reach more than 700 people each year through housing, adult day support, and specialized programs for seniors and children. Serving Northeast Ohio since 1965, HELP celebrated its 50^th anniversary in 2015 with the opening of the HELP Administration & Training Campus on Euclid Avenue.

For more information about HELP, such as our May 22 Run for Awareness 5k in Euclid, please visit www.helpfoundationinc.org.

Almost 100 area business and community leaders gathered on Feb. 24 at Tizzano’s Party Center in Euclid, Ohio, for Mayor Kirsten Holzheimer Gail’s state-of-the-city address. After only two months in office, Mayor Gail shared her vision for community safety, business development and growth, infrastructure improvements, programming, and preservation of community assets. Some of these investments include adding police, fire and legal resources; bringing in new business and helping current businesses expand their facilities; making sewer, water, road, parks and recreation improvements; providing additional senior and community-entertainment programming; and preserving the animal shelter, golf course and waterfront.

Chamber leaders conducted a mini networking event at each table prior to the luncheon of salad, rolls, lasagna, zucchini and squash, and spumoni ice cream. Each member of the table gave his or her name, title, company info and one interesting piece of information the others at the table might not know about them. Quickly, strangers became friends and learned how much they had in common. One thing you might not know about HGR’s own Ron Tiedman is that he used to bartend at Tizzano’s. Mike Tizzano was glad to have him visiting as a guest.

Moore Counseling & Mediation Services (MCMS) was started in Euclid, Ohio, in 1999 by Dr. Martina Moore and her husband, Brian Moore, and was relocated in 2007 to its current facility at 22639 Euclid Avenue in order to expand and offer workshops and trainings.

The Moores live in Euclid, and both of their sons attended Euclid High School. They located their business here due to their connection with the city and its central location between the far eastern and far western suburbs. Initially, they provided addiction counseling services to manufacturers throughout Ohio, including drugfree workplace training and policy manual creation, as well as employee assistance programs. They have since opened satellite facilities to serve downtown Cleveland and Elyria and see a total of 500 clients per week between all three locations.

The Moores joined the Euclid Chamber of Commerce 10 years ago to provide services to chamber members and organizations that network with the chamber. Mr. Moore has been a board member since that time. Dr. Moore says, “We enjoy the networking events, working to bring new businesses into the community, and helping those businesses already in the community grow and develop. It makes us feel that we are not an island; we can connect and find support from other business owners.” Currently, the chamber rents space in their facility.

Here are some ways MCMS helps local manufacturers and businesses:

• Employee-to-employee conflict mediation within an organization
• Manager-and-employee communication counseling and plan creation
• Collective bargaining negotiations
• Interventions to assist family or friends to encourage a loved one to seek help
• Outpatient mental health assessment and ongoing care for challenges with drugs, alcohol, and depression
• Domestic violence, anger management and parenting counseling and support services

MCMS helps those individuals with medical insurance or Medicaid and those who cannot afford services through the support of a grant. It also has a doctor on staff who administers an opiate-blocker medication to those with a heroin or prescription drug problem. MCMS recently received a grant to open a home for women involved in trafficking. Dr. Moore believes in taking her practice into the community to make a difference because, as she says, “Everyone knows someone who needs help.”

Q: How and when did you get involved in mixed martial arts (MMA)?

A: I started training when I was a sophomore in college. I had always had an interest in the sport, and my dad has been involved with martial arts for years, but I never pulled the trigger. When I was at Ohio University, I was a journalism major and started covering MMA. I became good friends with a fighter who I started working with while doing Jiu Jitsu down in Athens, Ohio.

Q: What interested you about MMA?

A: I have always been an individual trapped in team sports. I played baseball through high school, but never liked having to rely on people for my success or failure. Even though I have a gym behind me, at the end of the day, if I win or lose, it’s on me.

Q: What are your MMA goals?

A: My goal is turn pro before the end of this year and make my pro debut in 2016, as well. Ohio Athletic Commission rules state that you need five fights and at least a .500 record before going pro. I’m currently undefeated and the Explosive Fight Promotions amateur flyweight champion.

Q: How often do you train and with whom?

A: I train six days per week between GriffonRawl MMA Academy in Mentor and Strong Style in Independence. GriffonRawl is my main gym and home to two Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) veterans, but I have been lucky enough to travel to Strong Style once per week to work with current UFC Fighter Jessica Eye and other smaller-weight-class fighters.

Q: Who taught you?

A: I’ve been taught by everyone and pulled a lot from different people to create my own individual style. My head coach, Jason Dent, has taught me plenty of things both standing and on the ground and been an amazing corner through every fight. Donny Walker has been my head boxing coach and worked on my takedown defense. George Comer has improved my wrestling immensely. Mike Lachina is the Judo instructor, as well as a submission wizard; so, we’ve worked on a lot of things, and Aaron Veverka has helped me with my Muay Thai.

Q: Who is your hero?

A: I have always looked up to my dad, and he’s been a huge influence to me throughout my time fighting. He’s allowed me to take a risk in order to follow my dreams. It’s a struggle, but he’s there each and every day, whether it’s just as support or trying to get me more sponsors. It has been huge to have him here.

Q: What do you want people to know about MMA?

A: The big thing I want people to know, and it’s not as widespread or believed as it once was, is that we’re not all thugs or dropouts that just do this as a final option. I have a college degree. Other fighters I know have master’s degrees. It’s a growing sport and gives college wrestlers an opportunity after college, as well as lifelong martial artists. There are some people who don’t represent it the “right way,” but that’s in every sport. A lot of us are well-educated, hard-working and could do other things, but just happened to choose this for whatever reason.

Q: What advice do you have for others interested in MMA?

A: The best advice that I can give anyone who wants to compete in MMA is to find a good gym. Amateur MMA is like the wild, wild West. You’re going to have people who are dedicated and working hard every day, and you’re also going to have people who just want to say they fight. If someone really wants to take the necessary steps, be prepared to train for at least a year, compete in grappling tournaments, get beat up and be the low man on the totem pole for a while before you get the opportunity to enter a sanctioned fight. You’re going to be the hammer a lot; so, embrace the grind.

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Ethan Karp, president and CEO, Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network)

When you glance at the numbers, it’s not surprising to learn that manufacturing is of critical importance to our region. In addition to boasting $99.8 billion in gross domestic product, Ohio ranks third in the nation in manufacturing employment. On a regional level, 50 percent of all jobs in Northeast Ohio are tied to the sector, and smaller manufacturers have proven to be a driver for our local economy by producing over 40 percent of our local GDP.

But manufacturing as a whole also is plagued with challenges stemming from an evolving work climate. Many companies fear new technologies, and hundreds of Baby Boomers will retire in the next decade, which will create job vacancies and a sense of uncertainty. But instead of fearing the future, our region should view this as an opportunity. In fact, these things – among others – will allow us to head in new directions.

Manufacturers in Northeast Ohio can achieve success through several avenues, including, but not limited to:

• Creating new products or innovating existing ones
• Streamlining operations and emphasizing efficiency in all areas of the business
• Attracting and retaining quality employees
• Developing a well-conceived talent strategy
• Getting acquainted with new technologies, such as additive manufacturing

Each of these has its own benefits: Newer and successful products can lead to company expansion, which generates jobs. Additional positions create a plethora of opportunities for many people, which paves the way for the reestablishment of the middle class. New technologies in manufacturing also can spread to other parts of the community, which allows for stability and prosperity in the region as a whole.

Through in-house resources and a wide variety of partnerships, MAGNET: The Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network is committed to establishing Northeast Ohio as a center for growth in manufacturing. As part of the Ohio Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), our organization strives to empower companies by helping them utilize their full potential through innovation.

Among our biggest and most recent successes is our work with LEFCO Worthington, a Cleveland manufacturer of wood crates, palettes, and other products used to ship and transport products. The company found a new set of challenges accompanied several consecutive years of growth; this led to slowing of operations and high turnover. After connecting with one of our experts, LEFCO was able implement standardized bays and improve company culture through communication and accountability, which led to more consistency, job retention, and strong relationships between employees and upper management. Don’t just take my word for it – watch what CEO Larry Fulton had to say in our LEFCO Worthington success story video.

If you’re a small to mid-size manufacturer in Northeast Ohio, I highly encourage you to reach out to MAGNET. Our team has been helping companies in the region for more than three decades, and our staff offers expertise in several areas, including product and process development, engineering, workforce, and market research. Contact Linda Barita at 216.391.7766 or email [email protected] for a consultation!

Join us at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 24 for the MDNA chapter meeting at HGR Industrial Surplus, 20001 Euclid Avenue. Arrive early and receive $50 of free HGR Bucks for every $500 spent between 2 and 5 p.m.

Surplus equipment is re-usable:

• By other manufacturers who prefer to purchase used equipment
• As parts in the repair of other equipment
• By “makers” in making other products
• As scrap when the equipment is not useable or in demand

If a manufacturer or fabricator no longer can use a piece of equipment and sells it to HGR Industrial Surplus to get capital to reinvest into another piece of equipment or into a product line upgrade, nothing goes to waste and everyone benefits. How?

• The seller earns more for the equipment or surplus than he or she would earn by throwing it out or scrapping it.
• HGR often can resell the equipment to a manufacturer who needs it.
• That manufacturer can save money by purchasing used equipment.
• If the equipment cannot be resold, HGR transports that equipment to our facility, breaks it down and renders it to a scrapyard.
• The scrapyard further strips the equipment then sells it to mills or recyclers.
• They use the recycled material to make new materials.
• Those materials are sold to manufacturers that make new products or equipment.
• The recycled metal is put back into service when a customer buys that new capital equipment.
• The surplus stays out of landfills.

We talked to one large scrapyard that deals only with corporate contracts: Cleveland Wire and Metal Recycling, LLC, owned by Michael Grinshpun, president. With a background in electrical and mechanical engineering and after working for another scrapyard, he opened his doors and has done business with HGR since 1995. He found HGR, first as a customer, when he was looking for the equipment to build a machine that separates copper wire from its insulation, then, in 2003, he began buying our scrap equipment that did not sell. He now hauls any unsold items, as needed, from our facility.

Business was great for a long time, but Grinshpun says the industry hit bottom in 2015 due to the economy. He says that many smelting companies have gone out of business due to low demand, and companies that used to buy from him now are buying overseas more inexpensively due to war-torn countries, desperate for money, that are giving away finished products for the same price for which scrap is selling in the U.S. Scrappers are hoping in 2016 that scrap availability in these countries has been exhausted. Then, buyers will come back to domestic suppliers, and the industry will experience an upswing.

Although steel is commanding the lowest price, other metals also are low. Precious metals, such as gold, platinum and silver, currently are commanding the highest price then come copper and nickel alloys. For February, forecasters are predicting a flat market, which he considers good since prices will not change dramatically. When asked about a solution to this problem, he shares his opinion that some countries impose an embargo on selling scrap overseas. They use everything domestically and don’t rely on other economies, thereby keeping the money in the country which helps to improve that country’s economy. “Everyone in the country gets a piece of the pie,” he states.

Grinshpun gives four reasons as to why manufacturers should sell industrial surplus to a reseller, such as HGR:

1. To get additional capital
2. To free production space and add capacity
3. To contribute to a healthy economy by keeping skilled workers employed
4. To be environmentally responsible

For more information on an industrial scrap contract, Michael Grinshpun can be reached at 216-429-2442 or [email protected].

On Feb. 9, 24 members of the Euclid Chamber of Commerce and the community gathered in the morning at HGR Industrial Surplus’ headquarters in Euclid, Ohio, to network over Starbuck’s coffee and Peace, Love and Little Donuts’ donuts before taking a tour of HGR’s showroom. The showroom is open to the public and includes new and used manufacturing equipment, industrial surplus, tools, machinery, construction supplies, and office equipment and supplies.

HGR buys and sells, literally, anything, and serves as a conduit between customers looking for affordable, used machinery, equipment and supplies and manufacturers hoping to recoup some portion of their initial capital investments.

The chamber’s next event will be the State of the City Address Luncheon on Feb. 24 at noon at Tizzano’s Party Center. Pre-registration is required. Its next “Coffee Connections” will be held on Mar. 8 from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. at the National Cleveland-Style Polka Hall of Fame at 605 E. 222^nd Street and is free and open to the public, although pre-registration through the chamber is appreciated. This monthly event is held at a different Euclid business so that members of the community and the chamber can network while learning about area businesses and what they do.

How it all happens:

1. The inbound lead-generation process to find items to buy starts with the Call Center in Austin, Texas, which makes an average of 155 cold calls per person per day from leads in our database and lists that we purchase. Sometimes, a customer will call HGR’s Buy Department or a lead will come in through our website, a vendor or a referral.
2. The qualified leads go to the buyers who contact the customer to set up an inspection (in person or via photos).
3. The buyer then decides whether to offer a bid to the customer or pass on the item(s).
4. If the buyer decides to offer, he puts the photos and write up into a folder for the Buy Department. That team types up the deal and composes an offer.
5. The bidding supervisor in the Buy Department looks for similar items in our system or online then assigns a retail price and a bid price at 1/3 retail to allow for shipping and profit margin. In addition, this person adds notes with a best- or worst-case retail price range.
6. The buyer can change these numbers based on his knowledge of the customer then completes the bid and sends an email to the customer.
7. Bid negotiations ensue. If the offer is accepted, the Buy Department creates a P.O. The goal is $38,000-40,000/day in P.O.s. Accounting will cut the check the same day and send it out via UPS.
8. The Shipping Department will schedule the transportation of the item to HGR’s showroom.
9. When it arrives, the Receiving Department unloads the trucks, lines up the items, unwraps/unpackages/uncrates the item, cleans it and puts it on a pallet if one is needed. Then, Receiving moves the item to the new arrivals area.
10. The item(s) then go to the Pricing and Inventory group within the Buy Department. That team prices, photographs, tags, labels and gathers information about the item. The information is entered by a clerk and data entry into the website. At this point, the item is live and available for purchase. Some items are purchased online immediately and never make it onto the showroom floor.
11. The Showroom Department organizes the showroom floor and makes room for incoming items then moves the items from the new arrivals area to the proper aisle on the showroom floor. An item usually does not spend more than an average of six months on the floor before being sold or marked for scrap, but it depends on the cost of the item, the specialty/desirability and the current cost of scrap. Showroom also pulls orders and loads the items for the customers or takes them to Shipping after they have been purchased. Showroom also unloads returned items.
12. From the day an item is sold, the customer has 30 days to pay and 45 days to move it. Our Shipping Department also can schedule pickup and delivery of purchased items for the customer.
13. Some items never make it to the showroom, not because they are sold as soon as they are listed, but because HGR’s eBay Department takes the items to list. They sell approximately 45-50 items per day at an average of $120/item. All items are listed with a starting bid of $3.99 and must weigh under 150 pounds. Of the items listed, only about five per week do not sell.
14. Approximately 12 salespeople work in the Sales Department. They are responsible for 85 percent of HGR’s sales. They handle phoned-in inquiries, walk-ins and website purchase requests. For seven days after the item is received, they are not able to discount the item, but they can document an offer and set a task to call the customer back when we are able to meet his/her price. Since we do not have an accounts receivable department, Sales is responsible for collecting payment on sold items. The salespeople continue to follow up with the customer to encourage pickup. Many of our customers are dealers who repair and resell equipment, and 15 to 20 percent of our customers are outside of the U.S.
15. Items from Receiving, Ebay or Showroom that do not sell become the property of the Scrap Department. This team will break them down (aluminum, stainless, gold leaf, sheet metal, copper, circuit boards, etc.), drain the oil and clean the items in order to get more money from the scrapyards. When the items are stripped, they are taken to bins outside the loading bays to await removal.
16. Other individuals and departments support this buy-and-sell pipeline. Through the efforts of Marketing, additional leads are generated, and brand is enhanced. Human Resources brings in and supports the employees who get the work done. Maintenance takes care of the team’s building, grounds and physical needs. Safety ensures we meet federal and state requirements by minimizing the risk of accident and injury to employees and customers. The CFO, controller and finance team handle leases, loans, investments, taxes, ERP Systems, technology, reporting, vendor management and many of the back-office ops that keep us running like a well-oiled machine.

On Feb. 8, HGR Industrial Surplus and The Manufacturing Advocacy & Growth Network (MAGNET) opened a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics) resource center in HGR’s customer lounge at 20001 Euclid Ave., Euclid, Ohio.

The center houses pamphlets, handouts, books and periodicals that provide information about educational and manufacturing opportunities, as well as information about MAGNET’s services and programming. HGR also will create an online center with links to these and other resources.

Some of the organizations that have information available in the center include: Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, International; National Association of Manufacturers; the five Ohio regional representatives of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MAGNET, TechSolve, CIFT, PolymerOhio, APEG and FastLane); local colleges and universities with industrial, technical and manufacturing courses and programs; Ingenuity Cleveland; and the Nickel Plate Historical & Technical Society.

Courtesy of Maurice Kirkland, store manager at Home Depot, 877 E. 200^th Street, Euclid, Ohio, and HGR Industrial Surplus, the Euclid High School Robotics Team now has all the tools it needs to finish building its competition battle robot that will go head to head with other local schools on Apr. 30 at Lakeland Community College. Home Depot donated $75 of community coupons for the team to use toward the purchase of tools in the store; HGR covered the rest.

With the funds, the team has purchased: a cordless drill with drill bits, screwdriver sets, Allen key sets, a toolbox, a reciprocating saw, a center punch, metal files, needle-nose pliers, channellocks, tin snips and locking pliers.

To date, the team has finished the frame and has about 90 percent of the pieces that go inside the robot. The frame is about six pounds, which the team plans to reduce.  The rest of the parts, without the weapon, come to about seven pounds. According to Bob Torrelli, Physics Department chair, “Since there is a 15-pound limit, the robot needs to go on a diet because the weapon is going to be more than two pounds.” SC Industries is machining the weapon, while Fredon machines the frame.

Torrelli says, “The excitement is growing, and the students have set a goal to have the robot fully assembled with the weapon by Mar. 1.  This will allow them almost two months to fine tune the robot before the competition.”

(courtesy of Guest Blogger Matt Williams, chief marketing officer, HGR Industrial Surplus)

Last summer, I was approached by Tina Dick, HGR’s human resources manager, about the possibility of teaching a communications course for a number of our line supervisors. Management felt that improving communications in our back-of-the-house departments could have a positive impact on employee retention and profitability, and Tina saw an opportunity to put my background as an educator to use to further this objective.

As a former college professor and high school teacher, I have taught oral communication, public speaking, and a variety of life-skills courses through the years. Of course, the key in any teaching role is to understand your audience and meet them where they are; so, I spent quite a bit of time during the eight sessions getting to know the guys who were taking the course. We discussed difficulties that they were having with communicating effectively to their subordinates, and I gathered quite a bit of valuable feedback that helped me to shape the course. Topics that we covered during the eight weeks included: active listening, feedback, nonverbal communication, giving direction effectively, and offering respect in anticipation of receiving respect in return.

At the end of the eight sessions, each supervisor received a certificate signifying his completion of the course. It was clear from their involvement and participation that they appreciated being included in this opportunity. It was critical to approach the course as an opportunity for professional development in order to gain buy-in from the supervisors. As professionals, we all have areas where we can improve our performance. Such continuous improvement drives business growth, and it is something that we should all strive for. It was deeply rewarding to see these HGR employees develop as individuals and employees.

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Joe Barbaree, business development specialist, Northeast Shores Development Corporation)

You might know about North Collinwood’s vibrant arts community, but have you met the neighborhood’s makers?

The makers movement is a marriage of art, craft, technology and small-scale entrepreneurship that is redefining the world of start-up companies. During the past decade of Northeast Shores Development Corporation’s creative placemaking and attracting artists to North Collinwood, a considerable number of makers moved to and began working in the neighborhood. Some makers have been here for decades.

From old-world sausage to limited-edition prints to graphic design and even world-renowned sails, there are small businesses making things by hand every day in North Collinwood.

Unfortunately, in the Venn diagram of makers and artists, only those makers who blended into the arts world were really connected with Northeast Shores’ support services and marketing vehicles because of the organization’s heavy engagement with the arts.

Made in Collinwood – the newest program from Northeast Shores – rose out of the realization that the incredible number of makers in the neighborhood went unrecognized and missed opportunities to better brand themselves, connect with resources and scale their enterprises. Made in Collinwood aims to address these issues, revitalize the neighborhood’s commercial corridors, support makers and underscore these unique businesses.

The program is still in the early stages, but initial research is leading to sweeping recommendations that will strengthen North Collinwood’s maker network.

On Thursday, Jan. 21, Northeast Shores hosted a gathering for makers and support partners at the Collinwood Recreation Center to present research results from Consultant Leslie Schaller of the Appalachian Center for Economic Networks. Beginning in November 2015, Schaller interviewed neighborhood makers, retailers and entrepreneurs to gather their marketing insights and small-business challenges. Along the way, local photographer Bridget Caswell photographed makers to accompany the brand campaign and to share professional photographs with them for their own marketing efforts.

Recommendations from the meeting include creating a shared Made in Collinwood brand for makers, building a stronger network between makers and retailers, developing peer-to-peer education events, establishing micro-business trainings, and leveraging financial resources for business start-up and expansion.

Once the final report is completed, Northeast Shores will convene working groups of makers to guide the implementation of these recommendations.

If you are a maker or supporter provider who wants to be involved with Made in Collinwood, please contact Joe Barbaree, business development specialist at Northeast Shores at 216-481-7660 or [email protected].

(photos courtesy of Bridget Caswell Photography)

On Jan. 14, Lt. Governor Mary Taylor assisted the Cuyahoga Valley Career Center (CVCC) Superintendent Dr. Celena Roebuck with the ribbon cutting and grand opening of its state-of-the-art Robotic and Advanced Manufacturing Technology Education Collaborative (RAMTEC) Center. Attendees to the ribbon cutting ceremony and open house entered through the RAMTEC Mobile Training Unit, a 26-foot trailer that the school will use to take its training programs on the road. Business partners were on hand to display their products, including Rockwell Automation, Buckeye Educational Systems, eduFACTOR, GPD Group, Lincoln Electric, Lorain County Community College, MAGNET, Mastercam, Parker Hannifin, RAF Automation, and Swagelok.

The 6,700 square-foot facility will assist CVCC in addressing the advanced manufacturing and engineering skills gap by preparing high school and adult students for careers in these fields. The facility houses robotic arms, automated welders, pneumatic and hydraulic training units, and programmable logic controllers. All of these are part of building a world-class metal fabrication and state-of-the art computer numeric control (CNC) training center. According to CVCC Superintendent Dr. Celena Roebuck, “RAMTEC will benefit high school students and adult education students, will be used to enhance our incumbent workers’ training programs, and also will allow us to expand the career services we provide to our eight associate districts. As part of a statewide initiative focused on advanced manufacturing, we can expand our influence and economic impact beyond the immediate CVCC area. It is exciting to see the resurgence of manufacturing in Northeast Ohio and to know that CVCC continues to play an integral role in that process.”

Recently, the Ohio Means Job website indicated that 357 full-time CNC jobs are vacant within a 30-mile radius of CVCC. When you broaden that search word to “manufacturing” rather than CNC there are more than 3,000 full-time vacancies listed within a 30-mile radius of CVCC.

Cuyahoga Valley Career Center serves the public school districts of Brecksville-Broadview Heights, Cuyahoga Heights, Garfield Heights, Independence, Nordonia Hills, North Royalton, Revere, and Twinsburg. Student workshops and Adult Education courses are open and available to all residents of Northeast Ohio. For more information on training programs in advanced manufacturing, which will prepare graduates for the FANUC Basic Control Certification, and in hydraulic systems call the school at (440) 746-8230 or review the website.

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Todd King, president of King Precision Solutions in Erie, Pennsylvania)

King Precision Solutions designs and builds injection mold plastic parts. We have a couple of product lines that we developed: the Kingpin Shallow Water Anchor and the TV Shield Protective Enclosure.

I found HGR through an older gentleman who took me in under his wing. He was buying machinery for his own shop. I saw the great deals he was getting, and I did the same.

We have been purchasing equipment from HGR for 20 years, and I would say 90 percent of the equipment in our facility is from HGR – from the tile and paint on the floor to the lighting on the ceiling, and, of course, everything in between.

Our growth has been expedited due to the robotics and other high-end equipment that we purchased at a discount of 70 percent lower than new. With this equipment in place, we gained opportunities that we would have never had a chance to procure.

The photos show a CNC machine purchased and in operation and a robot that we integrated for hydro-dipping parts. The overhead door and glass door also are from HGR. The first pic shows our break area. Everything in that pic was bought from HGR and refurbished, including the cabinets, sinks and tile.

For years, Francisco D’Amore worked with his family’s business and specialized in niche markets. At that business, he learned of HGR Industrial Surplus since the company had bought used equipment from HGR since it opened. D’Amore spun off his business, Impormore, and has been buying from HGR for approximately nine years.  He ships three to four, 40-foot-high cube containers per year back to Cuenca, Equador. He purchases mostly metalworking and fabrication equipment that he fixes for resale.

Founded in 1942, Jergens Inc. is a tooling component manufacturer located in Cleveland’s Collinwood Neighborhood. Christy Schron dreamed of having his own machine shop with his son Jack. Christy and Jack first operated the business in a rented a garage on East 152^nd Street. Soon, they outgrew the space, and Jergens’ found a new home on East 163^rd off of St. Clair. In the midst of World War II, business was booming, and it was difficult to find a qualified workforce. Jergens began holding training classes in the shop every evening to keep up production and support the war effort.

 Business continued to grow as Jergens moved to its third Collinwood location on Nottingham Road. In 1999, Jergens had again outgrown its facility and relocated to its current home on South Waterloo on the site of the former Collinwood Yards. The company continues to honor this legacy in its lobby that is decorated with railroad artifacts and antiques.

 Jergens has been led since 1987 by its third generation of Schrons, with Jack Schron, Jr., currently at the helm as president. The family has demonstrated a commitment to keeping Jergens’ facilities in the City of Cleveland and maintaining jobs in Ohio. Jergens’ has even partnered with the Cuyahoga East Vocational Education Consortium (CEVEC) in a pilot program in which high school students use Jergens as their classroom for the entire year. The program has a full-time teacher who works with students at the Jergens’ facility by introducing them to careers in manufacturing and helping prepare them to enter the workforce.

 There currently are six divisions/subsidiaries under the Jergens, Inc. umbrella: Jergens Tooling Component Division (TCD), Jergens Industrial Supply (JIS), Assembly Systems Group (ASG), ACME Industrial Company, Jergens Shanghai, and Jergens India. TCD focuses on lean manufacturing solutions in three areas: work holding solutions, lifting solutions, and specialty fasteners. TCD’s product line-up includes fasteners, hoist rings, Kwik-Lok pins, and Ball-Lock mounting systems. JIS offers a full line of cutting tools, carbide, and other tool inserts, coolants, abrasives, drills, and other industrial supplies. ASG is a supplier of products for threaded fastener assembly, including torque-controlled electric screwdrivers, automation products, and production aides. ACME manufactures threaded inserts and bushings. Jergens’ also has international sales offices in Shanghai, China, and Mumbai, India.

(Courtesy of Guest Blogger Annie Weiss, Ingenuity Cleveland)

Ingenuity formed as an organization in 2004 to create a destination event in Cleveland, IngenuityFest, to showcase our region’s deep artistic and cultural resources and explore the space where humans and technology intersect. Conceived as a “moveable feast,” IngenuityFest transforms underused and unknown spaces into highly visible performance and exhibition venues, sparking renewed interest in these locations and bringing audiences to the city’s core. In 2011, it embarked on a mission to become a year-round organization. Since then, it added two annual programs: Bal Ingénieux and the Cleveland Mini Maker Faire, an ongoing program: IngenuityLabs.

Now, Ingenuity has launched a new series – Agents of Ingenuity – based on the success of the pilot Engines of Ingenuity Summit at the 2014 IngenuityFest. The 2014 summit featured panel conversations around gaming, audience retention, intellectual property, and hacking health, along with a workshop on “the Art of the Pitch.” Agents of Ingenuity is a conversation series that brings together individuals from the creative community, big business, small start-ups, and academia to discuss topics that highlight Cleveland’s unique opportunities as a globally competitive city for innovation and manufacturing. Structured as unlikely conversations between these representatives, our program will continue to grow with evening cocktail discussions, social hacks and a larger Agents of Ingenuity Summit (stay tuned for this one!).

This past November, Ingenuity hosted its first two live conversations at the Bop Stop and featured Jack Schron (Jergens), Ethan Karp (MAGNET), Jeff Epstein (Health-Tech Corridor) and Erika Anthony (Cleveland Neighborhood Progress). The intimate setting allowed for great audience interaction; so, be sure to mark your calendars for the 3rd Thursday of the month as we announce additional live conversations there! Tickets are $15 per conversation and include a drink ticket.

As part of our mission to engender the flow of ideas, we complement our live conversations with recorded podcasts, creating a year-round network of the people driving our region forward. We work in partnership with Design Lab Early College High School, a STEM and project-based learning institution, as part of an emerging program in recording technology for students. The shows feature interviews with innovators based in Northeast Ohio plus ingenious representatives from beyond. Content promotes our sponsors and local businesses and ties our community together through a permanent archive.

To stay up to date on the program, or to check out our current podcasts be sure to visit our website.

(photo courtesy of Michael Lichter Photography)

As a child, Josh Krager of Eye Spy Designs was obsessed with finding out how things worked. He not only disassembled small machinery items, he even put them back together. As a teen, He enjoyed reading parts and tool catalogs when not working at a small engine repair shop. Josh befriended a welder who taught him the trade, and Josh perfected his skill. He is an engineer, welder and fabricator by trade but a Mad Scientist by nature who envisions one-of-a-kind designs by using imagination, engineering and vintage finds to create artistic and useful inventions. He says, “I always look at what something can do, not what it does. Most of my inspiration comes from just thinking that I can do it a better or a different way.”

He has taken a Dodge Durango daily driver and turned it into a 10-wheeled mud truck on a one-ton chassis, built National Hot Rod Association drag car and drag bike chassis from scratch, and the build list goes on and on until we get to his most recent and fantastic creation.

It all started in March 2014, while cleaning his 6,000-square-foot shop. He stood looking at a motor, housed 15 feet up on pallet racking and mixed in with mud truck parts. This wasn’t just any motor. It was a 1968 Mercedes 2.1L diesel power plant with 23,000 actual kilometers. He pulled it down and placed it on his workbench where it sat for four weeks.

He started to think, “What can I do with this engine?” Friends would come over and ask, “What are you going to do with that engine?” After hearing the same question over and over, just to shut his friends up, he said he was going to build a motorcycle. Well, that shut them up, except for one longtime friend. He bet Josh that he couldn’t build a bike with that engine and finish the project for Geneva-On-The-Lake’s, Sept. 3, 2014 Thunder on the Strip Bike Rally. Lesson learned? Don’t bet against Josh. You will lose.

For tech geeks, makers, engineers and other design scientists, here are the specs:

Frame: Fifteen giant ironworker wrenches and round tubing

Front wheel: a Harley Davidson Road King spoked wheel and tire

Rear wheel: a Harley Davidson Reproduction Pie Crust Drag slick

(He fabricated the forks in a girder style that uses two air shocks to raise and lower the front with an air compressor mounted under the seat. The rear end is rigid; so, to maximize ride comfort, a suspension was used under the seat.)

Transmission: Along with the engine came the original ’68 Mercedes manual, four-speed transmission with reverse coupled to an industrial-style, right angle, 1:1 ratio gear box linked with a #50 chain.

Cooling system: Honda Aspencade with electric fan and Ford F350 heater core.

Overflow for the cooling system: a vintage brass fire extinguisher

Front brake: stock Harley Davidson

Rear brake: stock Harley Davidson disc brake

(Braided stainless brake lines tied it all together.)

Clutch: Honda Goldwing master cylinder, Toyota Land Cruiser slave cylinder and stock Mercedes single disc with a nickel copper clutch line

Electrical system: 60-amp screw-in house fuse with vintage cloth-covered wiring leading to vintage knife switches for headlamp, turn signals and air system controls

Front turn signals: 1930’s glass doorknobs

Rear brake and turn signals: vintage Power Pole insulators. All are LED illuminated.

Fuel tank: U.S. military Jerry can that is secured with a manure spreader chain

Fuel lines: custom-formed nickel-copper tubing

Foot boards: vintage 1950’s water skis

Horn and cheesy siren: donated by his best friend

Rear fender: inverted 1950 Ford 8N tractor fenders

Front fender: old-school posthole digger

Chin fairing: an old cultivator plow blade

Handle bars: right-angle ironworker spud wrenches

Rearview mirror: Moon Eyes Peep Mirror

Saddle: vintage horse saddle

Rear rack: an old iron fence

Where did he get all the “stuff” to make this fabulous creation? Garage and barn sales, auctions, antique stores, picking his friends’ and family members’ junk piles, donations left at the shop door, eBay, Craigslist, swap meets, and HGR Industrial Surplus’ showroom. Krager says, “I discovered HGR years ago when I used to shop at a competitor and HGR’s prices were much better. I have been shopping at HGR since the day they opened their doors. I have purchased everything from office furniture to surface grinders and milling machines. I even bought a very large off-road crane. The bike does have some electrical items and a few driveline pieces that I purchased from HGR. I am currently working on another bike similar to this one and three Rat Rod semis for which we’ve already purchased a few items for from HGR.”

The bike took slightly more than four months but less than 250 hours to build, weighs 1,312 pounds, can cruise up to 55 mph and gets 40 mpg. It is a street-legal, titled Ohio motor vehicle. If you see Josh out on the road, make sure to give him a thumbs up.

(photo courtesy of NASA)

Through the years, a number of film set decorators have purchased items from HGR’s showroom for use on the sets of films being shot in Cleveland, including Captain America and The Avengers. One designer stumbled across HGR about four years ago while trying to track down electrical waste (aka computers) for use on a set.

If you carefully watch the 2011 Avengers film, you can see 9,385 pounds of equipment, including a Sercem automation winder, a welding station enclosure, five germfree S/S fume hoods, an air pressure control, an assembly station, and a neat inspection machine purchased from HGR in two memorable scenes:

• At the beginning, Black Widow is fighting off Russian mobsters and tangles one with chain hoists. Yep, the hoists came from HGR. And, the opening scenes were shot at the Space Power Facility at NASA Glenn’s Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio (pictured above)
• In another scene in Loki’s lair, Dr. Erik Selvig, played by Stellan Skarsgard, and his minions are working with machinery on the Tesseract. The machinery, originally from a pill factory, was purchased from HGR. This scene was shot under an unfinished transit bridge in Cleveland.

Ever wonder what happens with the items used on a film set after the movie has been finished? The film company containers it and ships it to Los Angeles then keeps it in storage for six months to a year in case it needs to reshoot scenes. After that, it is scrapped, sold to a company such as HGR, or the film company has a huge studio sale, often advertised on Craigslist. Who’s up for a trip to L.A.? If not, you always can come to HGR’s showroom to see the stuff from which science fiction/fantasy films are made.

Collinwood originally was a village within Euclid Township, but it was annexed by the City of Cleveland in 1910. The neighborhood was built so manufacturing and railroad workers could walk home. Now, there are 17,000 people living in North Collinwood with 220 businesses, 195 of which are locally owned.

So, where does a community development corporation (CDC) come into the picture, and what role does it play? A CDC is a not-for-profit organization that promotes and supports community development through community programs, housing and real estate development, and small business support.

Collinwood is lucky enough to have two CDCs serving the neighborhood: Northeast Shores Development Corporation in North Collinwood and Collinwood-Nottingham Development Corporation serving South Collinwood.

Northeast Shores Development Corporation serves North Collinwood, the primarily residential area between East 140^rd Street to the west, East 185^th Street to the northeast, Lake Erie to the north, the Collinwood Railroad Yards and tracks to the south. A few facts about North Collinwood:

• In the Waterloo Arts District, there was a 45-percent vacancy a few years ago with only four vacancies now due in large part to the Welcome to Collinwood initiative.
• There’s a new effort to attract makers to East 185^th through the Made in Collinwood initiative being unveiled in 2016 (stay tuned for further information). The CDC currently is interviewing 44 makers in the area and will do a public presentation of the interview report results in the first quarter.
• There are 20-25 makers currently on East 185^th Street, including a salsa producer, a soap maker, a vintner, an audio engineering production company, a hat maker, a dressmaker, an awards and trophies company, a newspaper publisher, and a digital designer.
• A new video and music production facility is being built in the former LaSalle Theater with a scheduled early 2016 groundbreaking.
• The CDC has a desire to connect makers with manufacturing facilities who can manufacture or package the items being created by the makers or for job opportunities for skilled production people.
• Northeast Shores is funded through taxes, real estate transactions and philanthropy.

Collinwood-Nottingham Development Corporation serves South Collinwood, the primarily industrial area between East 134^th Street on the west, Euclid Creek to the east, the Collinwood Railroad Yards and tracks to the north, and Woodworth Avenue to the southwest and Roseland Avenue to the Southeast.

How many of you remember the 1980s Van Halen song “Unchained?” David Lee Roth sang, “Change. Nothing stays the same. Unchained. Yeah, you hit the ground running.” Believe it or not, that’s how HGR Industrial Surplus in Euclid, Ohio, got its name. Founder Paul Betori had left his previous employer with a vision for a new business model. As he sat in his living room listening to Van Halen, Paul decided to hit the ground running (HGR) and formed HGR Industrial Surplus in 1998 with 13 employees.

Since then, the company has grown to more than 110 employees with a showroom of 500,000 square feet and recently purchased and dedicated its Nickel Plate Station building on Euclid Avenue. The mission of the company is to serve as a conduit between customers looking for affordable used machinery and equipment and manufacturers hoping to recoup some portion of their capital investments.

Because of its passion for manufacturing and the growth and development of industry in Northeast Ohio, the company decided to work with John Copic, publisher of The Euclid and Collinwood Observers, to offer this monthly column to showcase the amazing, fun, interesting and cutting edge manufacturing taking place in the region. It’s just another way of connecting customers and industry. There’s so much going on right in your neighborhood that you may not know about, but it affects you directly. Your friends and neighbors work for these companies. You buy their products. Their taxes improve your roads and schools. You have a vested interest in their success because they are contributing to a recovering and, hopefully, stable economy.

And, as the song says, change is inevitable, especially in manufacturing and industry. The economy has been a roller coaster ride for quite a few years. Families and businesses have had to learn to adapt and creatively problem solve to overcome challenges and turn them into opportunities.

In this column, we intend to showcase some of those opportunities and inspire you with success stories. What are local businesses doing in the community? What new development is happening in The Euclid Corridor? Let’s hear firsthand from some local businesses. What are their plans for the area? What tips and tricks do they have for others? What best practices can we apply to our own businesses for success? What weird and wacky manufacturing and product photos can we share?

Speaking of wacky photos, did you know that HGR Industrial Surplus buys and sells everything? Literally! Here is an example of an interesting item that recently became available in its showroom. These GM gears are 19,000 pounds each. Does anyone know how they might have been used? We started the conversation on Facebook.

You also can see this article in our new monthly column “Hit the Ground Running” in the Collinwood Observer and the Euclid Observer.

According to the Machinery Dealers National Association, on Friday, Dec. 18, President Obama signed the $1.8 Spending and Tax Bill into law.  Earlier on Friday, the Senate gave final congressional approval to the bill, which includes nearly $700 billion in tax breaks.

The new permanent Section 179 expensing limit allows a business to take a current year deduction of the full purchase amount up to $500,000 for assets under $2 million.

Example Savings*

Original Equipment Cost:                  $500,000

New Potential Tax Savings:               $175,000

Final Equipment Cost:                       $325,000

Cash Savings on

Equipment Purchase:                        $175,000

*Assuming a 35% tax qualifying purchase

This information does not constitute tax advice, please check with your tax advisor on how this applies to your business.

HGR Industrial Surplus spent months searching for the perfect place for our call center in Austin, Texas. After finding the best location for employees and visitors, the company renovated the space to suit its needs. Last week, employees relocated from downtown Austin at 210 Barton Springs Road and opened shop in North Austin at 1826 Kramer Lane.

At this location, there is free parking, no downtown traffic congestion, and visitors as well as employees can drive up to the front door without a long walk or having to trek through inclement weather conditions.

Our employees in Austin make outgoing calls looking for surplus to buy. It all starts with them!

If you are in the Austin area, pay us a visit!

In partnership with Manufacturing Advocacy & Growth Network (MAGNET), HGR is building the materials to create a manufacturing resource center inside of its customer lounge. The center will house pamphlets, handouts, books and periodicals that provide information about educational and manufacturing opportunities, as well as information about MAGNET’s services and programming. HGR also will create an online center with links to additional resources.

Some of the organizations that will have information available in the center include: Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, International; National Association of Manufacturers; the five Ohio regional representatives of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MAGNET, TechSolve, CIFT, PolymerOhio, APEG and FastLane); local colleges and universities with industrial, technical and manufacturing courses and programs; Ingenuity Cleveland and the Nickel Plate Historical & Technical Society.

Once the resource center is up and running, HGR will make an announcement so that you can stop by to peruse the materials.

HGR loves to partner with other organizations, as well as provide sponsorship, to promote manufacturing in Ohio. This year, we have had the opportunity to work with three groups of folks doing amazing things to stimulate the growth of the area and enhance the life of its residents.

First, the company worked with Bob Torrelli, Euclid High School Science Department chair and physics teacher, and his six-student robotics team to prep for its Apr. 25 Alliance for Working Together (AWT) RoboBot Competition as part of the science, technology, engineering, arts and technology (STEAM) initiative. AWT is a coalition of more than 75 local companies that encourage youth to consider jobs in manufacturing. This year, 35 high schools participated. The team worked for more than six months to create an indestructible, remote-controlled battle robot made from a 15-pound aluminum frame with three motors, heat-treated steel blades and Lexan armor. Its robot faced off in battle with the robots of the other high school teams. Euclid made it to the fourth round of competition, tying for ninth place out of 35 and won the award for best sportsmanship. Several working sessions with breakfast were held at HGR’s office at 20001 Euclid Avenue. The company offered design tips and provided materials and equipment. Members of the team and Torelli will be at HGR’s Oct. 1 dedication ceremony and sale to show off their robot and answer questions, as well as to be recognized by HGR for its efforts. The 2016 team is beginning to organize. Stay tuned for a future blog post on its progress.

Next up, HGR is sponsoring the Sept. 30 [M]Power Manufacturing Assembly put on by The Manufacturing Advocacy and Growth Network, aka MAGNET, at the John S. Knight Center in Akron, Ohio. The event’s purpose is to address the “challenges of today’s changing manufacturing landscape. “The event will explore how attendees can maintain their competitive advantage, tackling essential issues of workforce development, ideation strategy, digital marketing optimization, and operations management,” states MAGNET’s website. This year’s keynote speaker is Sean Stack, CEO of Aleris. HGR has purchased a table for 10 and will have a display table to distribute information. In addition, we partnered with MAGNET to create a manufacturing resource center inside of HGR’s customer lounge. The center will house pamphlets, handouts, books and periodicals that provide information about manufacturing opportunities, as well as information about MAGNET’s services and programming. HGR also will create an online center with links to additional resources.

Last but not least, HGR is sponsoring Ingenuity Cleveland’s eleventh-annual Ingenuity Festival on Oct. 2-4; this year, it’s being held at Voinovich Park. This festival of creativity and innovation celebrates art, music, technology and the maker’s movement. We will have a table at the event and host information on Ingenuity Cleveland in our new resource center. HGR also provided monetary and in-kind contributions for the Iron Architect event, a competition where four teams compete to create a unique seating environment within the festival grounds using an array of materials, $200 at Home Depot and a “secret ingredient” that will be selected from the plethora of items available at HGR’s showroom.

(Photo courtesy of Belt Magazine (http://beltmag.com/train-dreams/)

In anticipation of HGR’s Oct. 1 dedication of its recently purchased building as “Nickel Plate Station,” we wanted to take you on a walk down memory lane to the history of the site from the 1800s to the present day.

• In the 1800s, the Logan Family farmed 68 acres of land along Euclid Avenue in the Village of Euclid then sold the land to a realty company in 1912.
• 1912-1926: The realty company and the Village fought over the land’s usage as commercial versus residential, respectively. In 1926, the Supreme Court found in favor of the Village as the landmark case that enabled fledgling zoning laws.
• 1942-1945: In spite of the residential ruling, The Defense Plant Corporation, part of the U.S. government, built then leased a wartime plant to Cleveland Pneumatic Aerol to manufacture landing gear and rocket shells for the WWII effort.
• 1945: The war ended, and the land became vacant.
• 1946: The structure housed Cleveland Ordinance District offices, surplus goods and federal government offices.
• 1947: Ferguson Tractor bought the property with the intent to create a tractor factory, but that plan never came to fruition; so, the land was sold to The Fisher Body Division of General Motors.
• 1948: Fisher Body began manufacturing bodies for delivery trucks and Chevy and Oldsmobile station wagons then transporting them for assembly via a rail loading bay inside the building that was a stopping point for The Nickel Plate Road, a rail line that connected New York, Chicago and St. Louis since 1881.

• 1958: 100,000 units were produced by 2,900 employees, including bodies for the El Camino.
• 1960: Bodies for convertibles were added to the line.
• 1965: The Euclid plant became the sole producer for two muscle cars, the Oldsmobile Toronado and Buick Riviera.
• 1970: The cost of manufacturing auto bodies and transporting them to final assembly plants became too expensive. GM stopped production and retooled the plant into a sewing center to make interior trim and upholstery.
• 1970-1980: Labor disputes and strikes took place.
• 1972: The plant began to make 100,000 units of GM’s first airbag system for high-end 1974-1976 cars, but stopped when only 10,000 were sold in three years.
• 1982: GM planned to close the plant but UAW workers nationwide negotiated concessions to save the plant, where it continued to make seat covers, door panels, sun shades and other interior parts.
• 1986: The plant received a contract to make boat seats and cushions for Sea Ray Boats.
• 1993: GM closed the plant.
• 1996: GM sold the property to a development company.
• 1998: HGR Industrial Surplus moved into a portion of the building to realize the owner’s vision of an ongoing industrial garage sale.
• 2014: HGR purchased the entire 900,000-square-foot building and property and began improvements.
• Oct. 1, 2015: HGR officially dedicates the property and facility, including tenant space, as “Nickel Plate Station.”

What’s in the future for HGR, Nickel Plate Station and the City of Euclid? Stay tuned!

A team Euclid High School students, under the direction of Bob Torrelli, began preparing for the AWT RoboBots competition months ago, and their work paid off with two wins at the battle robots tournament held Saturday, April 25 at Lakeland Community College.

Check out videos of The Untouchables.

Sponsored by HGR Industrial Surplus and SC Industries, The Untouchables claimed an opening round win over The Gang for Good. In the next round, The Untouchables claimed a decision over The Vikinators.

Next up was a meeting with Dreadnaught, the team that would eventually claim the tournament championship. The Untouchables fell short in that match, and slipped into the consolation bracket to take on Polaris. Again, The Untouchables came up short against on of the tournament’s top teams, ending their run with a 2-2 record and tied for ninth place in the tournament.

The sparks will fly when area high school students square off in the 2015 RoboBots Competition Saturday, April 25 at Lakeland Community College.

Team Euclid, made up of Euclid High School students and sponsored by HGR Industrial Surplus, is one of the teams preparing to put its 15-pound remote control battle robot into the arena.

RoboBots is a program of the Alliance for Working Together, a Cleveland area group of companies focused on advancing manufacturing through training and education, outreach and strategic partnerships and grants.

RoboBots teams began preparing their battle bots back in December. Team Euclid visited HGR and picked up a few items to add to their battle bot. Over the past few months, students have been able to enjoy hands-on experience in manufacturing, working alongside engineers and machinists to create a winning battle robot.

For more information on RoboBots, take a look at the video from the 2014 competition.