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ur last newsletter covered the Administrative side of Benton Foundry. Phase 2 is focused on Pattern Engineering, Pattern Shop and Production Control.

Our Tooling Engineer Brock Smith graduated from Penn College of Technology with a four-year bachelor’s degree in computer-aided Product Design. Brock reviews all quotations; he also designs many of our jobs in SolidWorks. These models are then submitted to our pattern makers for the CNC machining of this tooling. These models include the tooling details required for setting up this equipment to run on our machines. Brock also operates our Magma software running trials in Magma parameters for solidification purposes. He is highly involved in these jobs from the quotation to sample approval. Brock is a fifteen-year employee, previously working in our pattern shop as the foreman.

Jason Karcher is our pattern shop foreman, and he graduated from Penn College. Jason has a bachelor’s degree in Manufacturing Engineering Technology and an associate’s degree in Automated Manufacturing. Jason oversees the setup of all new jobs coming in from both our pattern makers and our customers. He makes sure these jobs are gated, rigged and ready for sampling. He also handles any items that require a gating change and/or adjustment, and any inhouse changes to patterns or core boxes. The following is a list of personnel that work with Jason to accomplish this. Jason has worked at the foundry in various positions since 1996, including working in the melt department during the first part of his career.

Teo Grigas is our assistant pattern shop foreman, working with Jason to complete the above listed tasks. In addition to handling many other tasks including filling in for molders on the molding line through breaks or vacation as needed. Teo has a two-year associate’s degree from Penn College of Applied Science in Engineering CAD Technology. Teo has also worked in various positions since 1993. Teo refines jobs for efficiency by following the production of high scrap, low efficiency through all facets of robotic grinding. His insights from both his education and working in the foundry are invaluable. If he were a baseball player, he could play all the field positions.

Nathan Foust is a long-term employee working in the pattern shop for over 35 years. Prior to working in our pattern shop Nathan worked on our charging crew for the cupola. He moved to the pattern shop once we installed the first electric furnaces. Nathan had wood-working and mechanical experience from high school. He is a very talented, conscientious craftsman, and he has used his ingenuity to reverse-engineer many things over the years. He was featured in a recent newsletter for his ability to produce new legs for a vintage stove.

Dave Eveland is another long-term employee working in the pattern shop for over 38 years. Dave is also an amazing craftsman with both artistic and mechanical abilities. Dave enjoys auto-body as well and has restored several antique and vintage automobiles over the years. Both Dave and Nate are talented welders. They have worked on thousands of patterns over their careers and their talent and experience is invaluable.

Colin Jandrasitz has worked at the foundry since 2006 in various positions, previously assisting in the core room. He has attended several classes at Penn College. Colin works on setting up and rigging core boxes in the pattern shop. He is the primary operator for any CNC machining in the pattern shop.

Justin Boyer works in the pattern setup, previously working in our core room. He has worked at the foundry for several years.

Boane Berg started working in our maintenance department in 2021 refurbishing our air tools. He did a good job and then moved on to our pattern shop to learn various jobs there.

Joe Vanderlick, Jr. came to us with a construction background and is one of the newest members of our pattern shop team, learning various jobs.

John Andrews works between molding, automatic pattern setup, and the pattern shop. John has been employed since 1995; he is a forklift driver and previously worked in our grinding room and on shakeout.

Our Production Manager Tamara Mabus came to us from Fed-Ex. She was a long-time Fed-Ex employee filling various roles there. Tamara has a Paralegal associate’s degree from Penn College, and she started at the foundry in 2022. Tamara completed a rotation throughout the foundry working in all the departments including the production office, before taking over for Aaron McHenry who moved on to the plant superintendent position. She oversees scheduling of product from order acknowledgement to final shipment.

Theresa Kubasek has many years of experience, previously working in our core room. Theresa has worked in the production office for several years wearing a few hats, currently helping with the scheduling of outgoing shipments on both our trucks and common carriers, along with the scheduling of backhauls.

Jim Lamoreaux started at the foundry in 2023 working in the core room as a forklift operator. Jim was a truck driver prior to coming to work with us. Jim handles the core room scheduling and working with the scheduling of our outside subcontracted vendors.

The production office balances our production needs, schedules in a manner to be as efficient as possible while maintaining respectable lead times and on-time delivery in meeting the needs of the customer.

The next article will cover “Outside Sales.”

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he man who invented history’s most iconic electric guitar couldn’t play or even tune it. But when Clarence Leonidas “Leo” Fender’s eponymous company released the Fender Stratocaster 70 years ago, it forever changed popular music.

Fender, born in 1909, began tinkering with radios as a teenager. After college, he built sound systems for a local dance hall in California and started his own company, Fender Radio Service. He also began working with musicians to amplify acoustic guitars, just as electrified sound was becoming the fashion at concerts. Primitive solid-body electric guitars had been around since the 1930s, but Fender envisioned a mass-produced, affordable model that would be easier to hold, tune and play. In 1950 Fender released his first guitar, the Esquire, and the following year rolled out his famous design for the Telecaster.

But it was the next design, released in 1954, that would establish Fender as one of the biggest names in guitars. He began designing the Stratocaster, a model that would improve on the Telecaster both electronically and aesthetically, adding a third pickup – the gizmo that turns string vibrations into electrical impulses that can be amplified. This addition allowed players to generate a wider and richer sound palette (think Jimi Hendrix’s incendiary performance of the national anthem at Woodstock). Fender also designed a contoured body that was more balanced and comfortable to play – and looked like something from the future.

The Stratocaster “was really well designed, in some ways a decade ahead of its time,” says Andy Leach, a senior director at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. “It had a lot of design features that became industry standard. And it basically has not changed in 70 years, which shows what a genius Leo Fender was.”

The Stratocaster also had timing on its side. It came out amid two other transformative innovations: television and rock ‘n’ roll. Sales picked up once Buddy Holly showcased a Strat on the “Ed Sullivan Show” in 1957. For the American and English kids who came of age in the ‘60s – Hendrix, Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, the electrified Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival – the guitar’s look was as groundbreaking as its sound. “Cool” depends more on appearance than on wiring, and the Strat’s double-cut profile (producing two “wings” at the top) and sensuous body lines were mind-blowing. It looked, one early ‘60s British pop musician recalled, like “the equivalent of a bullet-finned ‘59 Cadillac.”

Today, the Fender Strat continues to define the look and sound of rock ‘n’ roll. If you’re a guitarist, you either own one or you desperately want one. For everyone else, whenever you’re shredding an air guitar solo to “Free Bird” or “Layla,” you’re shredding a classic Strat.

~ SMITHSONIAN/Sept-Oct 2024

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single cigarette takes an average of 19.5 minutes off your life, according to a new health study. Researchers at University College of London determined women lose 22 minutes and men 17 minutes for every cigarette they smoke. But there is good news: Quitting at any age can make a difference in your lifespan. Giving up a 10-smokes-a-day habit today means that in 8 days, you can prevent losing a whole day of your life.

The research commissioned by the UK’s Dept of Health and Social Care, offers a starker picture for smokers than before. Previous estimates were that each cigarette shaved 11 minutes off a lifetime. The new research indicates that smoking one pack of 20 cigarettes shortens a life by nearly 7 hours.

Even a single cigarette a day has a major impact. Smoking just once daily for 10 years can shorten a man’s life by 2,050 minutes or 43 days. For women, life is shortened 80,300 minutes, or nearly 56 days. The math works out that quitting can buy back hours, days and even weeks of life.

The evidence suggests people lose, on average, around 20 minutes of life for each cigarette they smoke. The sooner a persons stops smoking, the longer they live. “Quitting at any age substantially improves health and the benefits start almost immediately,” Sarah Jackson, principal research fellow, UCI Alcohol and Tobacco Research Group, said.

HURTS HEALTH & WALLET

Dr. Sarah Jarvis said smoking also contributes to health issues including heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, dementia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). And the authors of the study, which will be published in the Journal of Addiction, said this means not only a shortened life, but a shorter span of time with good quality of life.

“Thus smoking primarily eats into the relatively healthy middle years rather than shortening the period at the end of life, which is often marked by chronic illness or disability. So a 60-year-old smoker will typically have the health profile of a 70-year-old nonsmoker,” they said.

One 2022 study found that quitting smoking is as effective as taking heart attack prevention drugs for lowering heart disease risk.
In addition to impacting health, smoking also puts a big dent in your wallet: WalletHub’s 2019 report “The Real Cost of Smoking by State Report” found that New Yorkers spend $226,000 on tobacco products in a lifetime.

~Carly Stern
~New York Post, December 31, 2024

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ongratulations to Theresa Kubasek (above), Benton Foundry’s 1st Shift Employee of the Quarter. Theresa has worked at the Foundry for over 10 years. She currently works in the Production Office and previously worked in the core room in assembly. Theresa is a diligent worker and she is doing a great job with her extra responsibilities. She was nominated for this honor by multiple supervisors and has received this award in the past. Theresa lives in Benton with her husband Al and their children. Her daughter, Isabella is also a Benton Foundry employee. Theresa enjoys being outside and spending time with her family when she isn’t working.

Good Job!

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ongratulations to Boyd Lore (below), Benton Foundry’s 2nd Shift Employee of the Quarter. Boyd has been employed at the Foundry for nearly 25 years. He works in our Melt Department as a Furnace Operator. Boyd is a dedicated and dependable worker. He was nominated by multiple supervisors and has received this award in the past. He lives in Benton with his wife Penny. His son, Boyd Jr. is also a Benton Foundry employee. Boyd enjoys hunting, fishing, camping and spending quality time with his wife and family when he is not at work.

Congratulations!

~Source: Self Financial
Note: January 2025 survey of 1,048 American adults

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or some couples, money is treacherous territory. In close to one third of couples, one partner pays for most expenses while a slightly smaller share split everything proportionally, according to a survey conducted by Self Financial. The remaining respondents either split everything equally regardless of income or take turns covering different expenses. But that’s not a key to happiness. Nearly half say their partner is creating a negative financial impact or that their partner was a bad influence on their spending and saving habits. A similar share said they would or would be more likely to, break up with their partner if it would have no financial impact, or in other words, they can’t afford to break up. One-in-six say they have broken up with someone for financial reasons in the past.

~Alex Tanzi