‘Last word’ in machining

From alpha to omega, Omega Manufacturing provides the complete “alphabet” of parts manufacturing services, including CNC and manual machining, grinding, honing, sawing, wire and sinker EDMing, prototyping, part design and assembly. Nonetheless, wire EDMing remains the heart of the business that President Ron Hunte established 17 years ago.

“I’ve always enjoyed wire EDMing,” he said. “I call them ‘miracle machines,’ because when you’re trying to do the difficult parts that a lot of guys are looking at machining conventionally, they just can’t do what a wire EDM does.” According to Hunte, that includes efficiently cutting hardened components, producing tight corners and creating “crazy shapes” as long as the workpiece material is electrically conductive.

Straight Out of Upstate

Hunte started his career as an automotive engineer for General Motors after graduating in 1985 from General Motors Institute. “GMI was a very rigorous engineering school that stressed ‘hands-on’ engineering,” he said. Hunte added that the institute produced Mary T. Barra, GM’s current and first female CEO, who also graduated in 1985 and was a sister of Beta Theta Pi, the same fraternity that Hunte belonged to. “I knew her very well, but I’ve lost touch,” he said. “It’s nice to have an engineer in charge of GM again instead of all the financial people.”

With machining in his blood, Hunte worked from 1989 to 1996 with his three brothers at their machine shop, Omega Consolidated Corp., Hilton, N.Y., which is near Rochester and the town of Greece. One of the shop’s customers was EDM builder Agie/Elox, so Hunte became more familiar with the technology by making major components for the machines. While visiting the builder’s facility near Charlotte, N.C., in 1996, Hunte became impressed with the area’s manufacturing vibrancy and growth, especially in contrast to the downsizing occurring at some of the large companies in and around Rochester.

Courtesy of All images: A. Richter

Ron Hunte, president of Omega Manufacturing, with the company’s newest wire EDM, a Mitsubishi BA24.

Hunte failed to convince his brothers to pull up their roots and relocate, but he wasn’t so firmly planted.

“I was kind of down for a while, and then I decided to leave,” he recalled. “So I parted with my brothers and started in Charlotte.”

Although the new shop has no official ties with Omega Consolidated, Hunte felt the indirect association would help launch his new operation. “I like the name,” he said. “Like the last word in the Greek alphabet—it’s the last word in machining.”

Targeting the Terible

To help get the word out about his company, Hunte sought challenging applications that would showcase the unique capabilities of wire EDMing. “When I first started, I prided myself on being able to do the difficult jobs, the jobs nobody else wanted.”

That approach generated business, but there were not enough “terrible” jobs to keep his employees continually busy, so the shop also sought out less-demanding parts. “Then it went much better,” Hunte said. “If I just go for the challenging stuff, I’m going to go out of business, so I have to get the other stuff to keep right on rolling.”

Dave Tenhengel, a journeyman machinist at Omega, turns a one-of-a-kind part on a manual toolmaker’s lathe.

Omega started as a wire EDM shop and continues to specialize in that EDM technology.

After Omega established itself as a high-quality wire EDM shop, people started requesting that it perform sinker EDM work, not understanding that all EDMing isn’t the same, Hunte noted. While he prefers wire EDMing to the oil-centric and “stinky sinker stuff,” Hunte nonetheless purchased a couple of sinker EDMs, as well as other types of manual and CNC machine tools, to meet demand.

Hunte said one of the shop’s bread-and-butter jobs for the sinker EDMs is purposefully creating simulated weld flaws on components for ultrasonic testing equipment. “You can’t really high-speed mill a tiny 0.020 “-wide, 0.200 “-deep flaw, simulating cracks in welded piping, for example, for nuclear power plants.”

Omega uses its AgieCharmilles Drill 11 hole popper, with its optional power supply attachment, for high-precision small-hole EDMing.