Company Profi le
“What Ifs” Over Dinner Result in Wisconsin Precision Casting 50 Years Later
What if...
t all started with “what ifs” over dinner more than half a century ago. Three friends asking “what if we struck out on our own? What if we
I
started our own investment casting business?” They all liked idea, but it was Leo Klemowits whose action resulted in today’s 50-year-old Wisconsin Precision Casting Corp. Klemowits said he had talked about starting his own foundry for some time. Finally his wife told him, “Leo are you going to talk about it or do something about it.” Klemowits found a property with a 2885 square foot building and showed it to his two friends,
Paul Jacobson
and Gus Shomos. They purchased the property in 1964 and opened for business. Klemowits commented on the early days in an interview
which is a part of a recent Investment Casting Institute history project. “We didn’t think we could make mistakes. What we
didn’t have in brains, we had in guts,” he said. “Wherever we thought there was work, we went there,” he said. During the remainder of the 1960s, the three built a business. Klemowits said he took in tool and die work to make ends meet. “In those days there was nothing automatic,” he said,
indicating the fi rst wax injection was done with a grease gun. But it wasn’t long before the operation was running one shift with 12-15 employees. The decade of the 1970s represented a period of
50 ❘ October 2014 ®
expansion for Wisconsin Precision.
The company
purchased a parcel of land next to the existing one and built a second building.
Likewise, the 1980s
brought signifi cant growth and change. The partners left, and Klemowits brought his children, Ken, Clyde, and Claude, into the business. The three brothers became owners. “Periodically, you examine yourself to determine what
you can do to improve,” Klemowits commented. This self examination resulted in recruiting more engineers and more professional people. Meanwhile, the company’s physical plant was expanded
again by joining the two existing buildings into one. The last addition allowed the company to go to a two-shift operation, and with room to grow, they were able
to purchase new
equipment. A machine shop and a warehouse were part of the building plan and a robot allowed automated dipping in the shell room.
Early in 2000, Klemowits decided to retire and his
children took over the business; the following year, current vice president Cliff Fischer joined the business. By the mid 2000s a third
production shift was added.
Continued growth led to offering machining and prototyping capabilities. Ken Klemowits retired from Wisconsin Precision in 2011,
Still located at its original location, Wisconsin Precision Casting Corp. has been transformed in the last 50 years by several land and building expansions.
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