Drasgow, Inc. is a Production Machine Shop. I, Karl W. Drasgow founded Drasgow at my home in the town of Sheldon. I graduated from High School and BOCES in 1980 and obtained an entry level job at a local machine shop. I then worked on the shop floor for the next 23 years running: CNC Mills, CNC Lathes, producing proto type parts on manual machines and ending up as a Leadman in a Multi Spindle Screw Machine Department. I left the Leadman position to start my own company producing Screw Machine parts for assembly. In 2003, Drasgow was incorporated.
During the time that I had worked as a machinist, I established a small farm business, raising beef and pork to be sold for consumption. Eventually this farm was successful enough to build an agricultural repair shop. It did not take long after that shop was built to buy a Manual Mill and Lathe to do machine work there. This shop is where I set-up my first 2 Screw Machines. The Machine Shop business soon outperformed the Ag business. I weatherized the pig barn and set-up 2 more Screw Machines in it. I also revamped my beef barn; installing an overhead crane system to increase my steel storage area.
Drasgow soon outgrew the Sheldon facility. In 2007, we underwent a major expansion and constructed a 6,570 sq. ft. building on Poplar Tree Rd. in Wethersfield. I expanded the business here in Wyoming County, New York because of my employee base. Machining is a skilled trade and it takes years to build up an experienced work force. The Wethersfield property was picked because of its access to good, clean 480 volt electrical power; much of which is generated by Windmills. Shortly after the move; Bryan Schabloski was promoted to Production Team Leader. He had been working at Drasgow learning the Screw machines since 2006. Bryan also had a great background in CNC Machine Tool programming. His degree is in this field from Monroe Community College. In 2008, we purchased a CNC Lathe and in 2010 we purchased a CNC Mill. We used these machines to diversify our company and started machining castings. During the first 5 years in the new plant we also doubled our Screw machine capacity going from 4 to 8 Screw machines.
In 2012, Drasgow started a 3 phase addition to our existing building. We added 4,000 sq. ft. on the North End creating a Steel Warehouse and installed a 60 X 60 ft. free standing 10,000 pound Over Head Crain System with 16 feet of clearance under the hook. The North End is also used as a shipping area for the parts we produce. We added 4,000 sq. ft. to the South End creating our new Tool Room. We now have the ability to bring in a used Screw machine and do all necessary repairs to get the machine up and running. We can also take care of any required maintenance in this area. We moved our CNC Mill and CNC Lathe into our new Tool Room and purchased a Wire feed EDM as well. We can now build our own Fixturing, Gaging and make our own Cutting Inserts for the Screw machines as well as machining castings in this area. We added 1,300 sq. ft. of office space in the rear of the South end including a new Training Room. This allowed us to re-organize the old Office area to double the size of our Quality Assurance department to keep up with the increased volume of inspection. Since the addition; our original manufacturing area has gone from 8 to 15 Screw machines and also includes our Broach machine. This 3 phase addition brought our Plant to 15,800 sq. ft. total. In 2013, Drasgow bought an adjoining property and started the renovation of a 2,200 sq. ft. storage building in 2015 bringing us to about 18,000 sq. ft. total of building space.
Drasgow now goes through about 50,000 pounds of steel per week and ships out about 300,000 small parts per week or over 15 million parts a year. We have also maintained doing our Job Shop business with smaller companies and still do agricultural repair work. I have also continued my education by graduating from the University at Buffalo School of Management’s Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) and High Tech. Rochester’s The Entrepreneurs Network (TEN) program.
Drasgow, Inc. manufactures parts for assembly in the Automotive, Truck, Utility and Plastic Industries. We use the internet for PO’s & Prints to come in. My employees can afford to live well here in Wyoming County and benefit from reduced travel costs. I believe this is the future of Small Business in America. Drasgow uses Lean Manufacturing Principles and Just in Time Delivery to compete in an international marketplace. The parts produced at Drasgow are shipped all over the world. Traditionally, my biggest end user is Toyota. However, last year Chrysler was on top. Navistar International Truck is also rapidly becoming a large part of our business. On shoring is much more competitive now than it was 10 or 20 years ago. Drasgow is a Nitch industry producing high Quality parts here in the USA that consistently outperform lower quality, less expensive, overseas parts.
1998 – Drasgow’s original agricultural repair shop (started production machining in 2003).
2007 – Drasgow’s 6,570 sq. ft. building on Poplar Tree Rd. in Wethersfield.
2012 – Drasgow adds on 9,216 sq. ft. for a combined total of 15,786 sq. ft. in Wethersfield.