COLUMBIA FORGE AND STEEL IN PORTLAND - CLOSES - HUGE MACHINES

[Richard King]

I hope this is where I should post this. Hunter Hightowers Dad and Garwood who live in Portland told me they were closing. It is a shame as they forged huge chains used in Mining and Car Crushers. I taught 3 classes there over the years and saw HUGE planners, VTL's, HBM, Heat treat rooms as big as 4 car garages. They have a railroad track going into them to load the chains. They had there own foundry. It is a shame they are closing. I just hope the buyers are not in Asia as those huge machine are irreplaceable.

Maynards Industries USA LLC | Day #2 - Columbia Steel Casting lots

Bid Live at Maynards Industries USA LLC's Day #2 - Columbia Steel Casting auction

www.bidspotter.com

 

[Salem Straub]

I was quite forlorn about that place closing, as I perused the auction catalog the day of the auction... the great majority of it was stuff that, while amazing and huge, wouldn't have a place in my shop. But there were some gems too, such as the 20" 60 series monarch lathe, the Cincy mill, etc. I'd hoped they might have more small/medium forging machinery such as power hammers below 1000 weight, but really what I saw was only huge hydraulic presses. Nevertheless it was a seriously impressive facility in its day.

 

[sfriedberg]

A few other threads (one quite recent, and one with photos) about Columbia Steel Casting:
Photos start here, more on next page
Some dupicate photos here, but a few new
Bringing us back around to the auction

 

[reggie_obe]

I taught 3 classes there over the years and saw HUGE planners, VTL's, HBM, Heat treat rooms as big as 4 car garages. They have a railroad track going into them to load the chains. They had there own foundry. It is a shame they are closing. I just hope the buyers are not in Asia as those huge machine are irreplaceable.

Sellers can put restrictions into the auction, no exports to: china; etc.
A large manufacturer of furniture and lighting in Northern NJ specified, "No exports of any polishing equipment to India."

 

[Milland]

Sellers can put restrictions into the auction, no exports to: china; etc.
A large manufacturer of furniture and lighting in Northern NJ specified, "No exports of any polishing equipment to India."

I imagine that's awfully hard to enforce, especially after it's paid for. Unless there's a US embargo on the country, so Russia and maybe China might be banned. If the cargo leaves the docks it's easy to redirect to another country.

 

[jmm03]

another loss to American manufacturing. Probably became redundant from competition supported by subsidies or just plain obsolete production methods. Either way, our industrial capacity is further diminished, probably irretrievably. Jim

 

[sfriedberg]

just plain obsolete production methods

I was sort of impressed by the chain molding/casting shop they took us through. They were set up for chain with about a 2" link cross section at the time. A couple of small induction furnaces with decent instrumentation, including real-time metallurgy. Auto- and semi-auto mulling, filling, packing and flipping equipment for the sand and flasks. IIRC, the whole shop was about 2400-3000 square feet, pretty much self-contained, and very tidy for a molding shop.

 

[reggie_obe]

I imagine that's awfully hard to enforce, especially after it's paid for. Unless there's a US embargo on the country, so Russia and maybe China might be banned. If the cargo leaves the docks it's easy to redirect to another country.

Demand that the bidders be vetted in the auction contract, don't allow freight forwarding....
Machines not for export.
Where there's a will, there's a way.

 

[jmm03]

it unfortunately appears that we seldom have the will to look past the quarterly profit margin, and everything is for sale in this country, no matter what the long term effects may be.

 

[rj1939]

I am on several auction lists, the number of notifications I get are depressing...................some are just reductions of equipment, but too many are liquidations.

 

[standardparts]

I am on several auction lists, the number of notifications I get are depressing...................some are just reductions of equipment, but too many are liquidations.

Liquidation may be the only option when the market for a product diminishes to the point it is no longer profitable to continue. Or in many cases the value of the real estate far exceeds the ROI of the business.
How many chain factories can fit inside a Tesla factory?

 

[Riderusty]

Here is additional information on the closure: https://www.recyclingtoday.com/news/wear-parts-provider-columbia-steel-closing/

Columbia name and intellectual property apparently purchased by this company: https://www.cmscepcor.com/us/home/

Tom B.

 

[standardparts]

Here is additional information on the closure: https://www.recyclingtoday.com/news/wear-parts-provider-columbia-steel-closing/

Columbia name and intellectual property apparently purchased by this company: https://www.cmscepcor.com/us/home/

Tom B.

(from link in above post)
"effects of offshore competition that often is government subsidized, supply chain disruptions, COVID-related restrictions on sales travel, increased state and local environmental regulations and fees on energy-intensive industries and the inability to hire and retain sufficient employees"

Not all of the reasons no doubt but enough to break the camel's back...so to speak. Know of one operation local to me that found itself liquidating and retiring earlier than planned.

 

[Richard King]

Same thing happened to Bush Precision of Milwaukee a few years back. It was a family owned company and when the younger generation began to run the plant they saw the investment in millions of dollars of machine tools and they weren't as interested in continuing to operate the company so they sold the machine tools and their company name and products. Bush still is operating, but it was bought by another company that changed their name to Bush.

I met the CEO daughter of who owned Columbia and I bet as she got older and her kids didn't want to takeover the company, she said...lets liquidate the company.

I saw a list a few weeks ago about how so many companies are now owned by foreign companies. so Sad..........

 

[Garwood]

I didn't watch the auction. I didn't want to accidently buy anything.

I did carefully look through the 3 catalogs though and was surprised to see only a few CNC's in the entire plant.

By the looks of the equipment the vertical lathes were the backbone of their machining. Everything else- All the HBM's, lathes and planers looked pretty out of date and neglected.

Looked to me like it had been a long time since that company was trying to do more than just exist.