Aggregates Manager Digital Magazine
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/85660
Rising out of the depression Mason grew up during the Great Depres- sion and, with only an eighth-grade educa- tion, went to work in the gold-mining town of Bodie, Calif. He spent his life working mining, highway, and railroad jobs, earning an education that he would never find in books. During World War II, he overhauled engines for the 8th Air Force in Warrington, England, and helped set records for horse- power achievements. There, he met his wife, Rose, who drove an ambulance during the blitz of London. Returning to the United States after his service was up, Mason sent for Rose and his newborn son, Neil, as soon as he had put down roots in New Mexico. Rose, upon stepping foot in New Mexico, said she was so overwhelmed by the beautiful blue skies that she knew instantly she would never call anywhere else home again. Together, the family grew and traveled throughout the Southwest living in construction camps as Mason worked building roads and bridges. It was an exciting time of development in the West, and the Hise family enjoyed be- ing a part of the progress. However, with that life came a lack of stability. In 1962, Mason Hise learned that a company by the name of Crusher Service Co. had been listed for sale. Filled with the entrepreneurial spirit and motivated by a desire to provide a more stable life for his family, he decided to purchase the com- pany. Equipped with rugged machines, an ever-increasing demand for repair services, and an even greater amount of sweat and determination, Mason and his son provided crusher repair services to customers in a 400-mile radius around Albuquerque. Us- ing trucks and portable, manual-welding rigs, the Hise family found the hours long and the work plentiful. Rose served as the accountant and office manager, handling all the details necessary to support the growth of their fledgling business. It was demanding work using unso- phisticated equipment and requiring the men to travel endless miles on dirt roads to service the aggregate industry day and night. Equipped with only hand tools and welding rod, they disassembled, welded, straightened, and reassembled crushers countless times. Growing idea into reality In their quest for a solution, Neil and Mason discovered existing vertical shaft impact crushers, but quickly realized their design failed to offer a practical solution. The castings simply weren't sound enough to handle that hardness of material. The two options available, the Tornado and Simplicity D'cintegrator, consumed a significant amount of parts and eventually self-destructed. Neil R. Hise, Ty Juana Hise, and Mason R. Hise stand in front of the Cemco facility in November 1992. Facing the abrasive hard rock common to the Southwest, roll crushers were in con- stant need of repair, and those repairs often lasted only a week before additional service was required. Mason and Neil believed there had to be a better way to crush rock into chips and sand. In May 1965, they had just wrapped up an 18-hour shift of weld- ing hard-face repair to a roll crusher that was providing material for the Heron Dam project near Chama, N.M. The roll crushers were in need of continuous repair, sparking through the night while they attempted to crush the hard New Mexico granite. As the pair lay in their sleeping bags staring at the starry night, they agreed there just had to be a better way. "There are few things harder than New Mexico granite," Hise says. "It's why our repairs would only last a week. We knew we would need to find the right design and ma- terial to create an alternative option." Mason and Neil asked Les Edminister, owner of West Coast Alloys, if he could construct a new style of crusher wear parts from the same alloy as the hard-face welding rod he provided for the Hise's repair shop. Les didn't hesitate and quickly brought in other management at the found- ry to tackle the challenge. Meanwhile, Neil took pencil to paper and, using his educa- tion and experience, began drawing bearing cartridges, shafts, and crushers in an effort to change the design concept that existed to a more practical solution. In 1966, Neil sketched a shaft design and took it to a local machine shop. He asked the crew to build three shafts: one for the concept, one back-up in case the original broke, and a third to be used in a second crusher, if there was ever going to be anoth- er. Two weeks later, he returned to measure the results; all three were different sizes. Realizing that success required consis- tency and accuracy, Neil and his team pur- chased a used lathe and began making the parts themselves. That's how Cemco began its transition into manufacturing. AGGREGATES MANAGER DIGITAL EXCLUSIVE September 2012 47D