Milan Popik, owner of Metal Tronics in Mississauga, Ontario, joins The Fabricator Podcast to discuss transforming a family-run prototyping shop that started in his parents' basement 40-plus years ago into a highly automated metal fabrication business.

After growing up in the shop and learning fabrication at an early age, Popik eventually purchased the company from his parents and began modernizing its operations through investments in laser cutting, robotic bending, laser welding, automated finishing, and digital manufacturing technologies.

The conversation explores family business succession, automation, AI-enabled equipment, continuous improvement, and the people-first culture that has helped Metal Tronics grow while maintaining its family roots. Popik also discusses the company's "AIM Forward" philosophy, its side business manufacturing traditional Italian spiedini grills, and its plans for future growth.

This episode was recorded at FABTECH Canada 2025 in Toronto in partnership with

Bolu Ojo joins The Fabricator Podcast to discuss SparkDefy, a startup developing fire-resistant welding head coverings for people with long or thicker hair.

She shares how a welding job inspired the idea, the challenges of bringing a new PPE product to market, and her mission to make welding safety more inclusive with more products. Ojo also discusses launching the business, learning how to sew, and honing her welding skills while studying industrial design at Iowa State University.

Email us at [email protected] with any comments, questions, or suggestions. Learn more about SparkDefy and the 2026 FAB 40.

Wisconsin-based metal artist David Groenjes joins The Fabricator Podcast to discuss building detailed wildlife sculptures from scrap metal, turning a side hobby into a full-time business, and finding inspiration in conservation, welding, and the outdoors.

He also talks about what it takes for a metal artist to break into galleries, participating in the Tadweer (Recycling) International Art Exhibition Invitational in Doha, Qatar, and building a 10-foot-tall mosquito sculpture for the Anastasia Mosquito Control District in St. Augustine, Florida. Along the way, Groenjes shares how social media unexpectedly helped grow his audience and why birds, reptiles, and other wildlife have become some of his most popular subjects.

Email us at [email protected] with any comments, questions, or suggestions. Learn more about BLM Group.

Jake LeGrand of Missouri-based LeGrand Metal Works balances a full-time structural engineering career while growing a fabrication business focused on handheld plasma cutting, custom metal art, welding, and fabrication projects.

A graduate of the University of Kansas architectural engineering program, Jake shares how he first learned welding while working in university research labs and why fabrication became a creative outlet beyond engineering. The conversation covers rural fabrication culture, entrepreneurship, early-morning shop work, and the realities of growing a fabrication business while raising a family.

Jake also talks about using social media to grow LeGrand Metal Works, building an audience around fabrication content, and the business side of online creators, including brand partnerships and sponsored content within the manufacturing industry.

Email us at [email protected] with any comments, questions, or suggestions.

At 23, Emme Hughes is already running a 10,000-square-foot fabrication shop.

In this episode of The Fabricator Podcast, she shares how she built EH Metalworks in Enid, Okla., from scratch, starting at 18 with no formal plan, just a passion for metalworking and lessons from her grandfather’s 50-year career.

She breaks down the early projects that shaped her small business, how she taught herself design and plasma cutting, and what it’s like managing employees, quoting work, and leading a modern shop.

Hughes also talks candidly about hiring challenges, earning respect as a young owner, and finding work beyond a small local market, plus why mentorship and relationships have been critical to her growth.

Email us at [email protected] with any comments, questions, or suggestions.

Learn more about BLM Group and CMC.

Jon and Andrew DeWys of Michigan-based DeWys Metal Solutions join The Fabricator Podcast to talk about growing and managing a 50-year-old family-owned manufacturing business.

The father and son duo talk about how over the last 15 years, DeWys Manufacturing has added to its family of businesses with DeWys Stainless Solutions, Wyze Designs, ReFab, Shoreline Powder Coating, and American Grower Resource. They also talk about the calculated business decisions behind the metal fabricator's growth.

They also talk about focusing on a being an employee-friendly company, the importance of workforce development with its DeWys University training program, the value of appearing on The Fabricator's annual FAB 40 list, and operating in the furniture-manufacturing hub of West Michigan.

Email us at [email protected] with any comments, questions, or suggestions.

Learn more about Fulcrum.

Lori Tapani, co-owner and co-president of Wyoming Machine in Stacy, Minnesota, joins The Fabricator Podcast to discuss what it means to think differently when running a small manufacturing business.

Alongside her sister, Traci Tapani, she has led the more than 50-year-old company for over three decades, following a unique succession plan that transitioned leadership from their father.

A longtime FMA member and vice chair of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Council, Tapani also brings a small business perspective to broader industry and policy discussions.

She shares how their approach to leadership, culture, and growth has evolved, and how their job shop operates across diverse industries. A major focus is workforce development, including partnerships with local communities and technical schools to attract and train the next generation, an effort recognized nationally with the W.O. Lawton Business Leadership Award.

Email us at [email protected] with any comments, questions, or suggestions.

Learn more about Fulcrum.

Lisa Wertzbaugher of Iowa-based metal fabrication shop Wertzbaugher Services returns to the podcast to discuss the realities of running a small manufacturing business and offer practical advice for shop owners.

She shares lessons on planning, investing in equipment, building a sales strategy, training a workforce, and using data to evaluate risk.

Wertzbaugher also discusses the value of hiring younger workers and knowing when to move on from approaches that aren’t working.

Her company specializes in custom welding, steel fabrication, equipment repair, and material-handling products such as racks and baskets, along with trailer and farm equipment repair.

Email us at [email protected] with any comments, questions, or suggestions.

We’re joined by Chicago-based metal artist Eric W. Stephenson, founder of LunaBurn Studio and a fifth-generation craftsman. In addition to his own extensive career creating metal sculpture, Stephenson spent the final 23 years of Richard Hunt’s life working alongside the legendary artist, helping bring ambitious abstract metal sculptures to life.

Stephenson talks about how Hunt’s career spanned more than 70 years and helped shape American metal sculpture, from his early civil rights–era work—including his response to the murder of Emmett Till—to major public commissions. His work appears in collections at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., and at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Stephenson reflects on the craft, the collaboration, and what it means to help carry forward Hunt’s life’s work today through the Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation.

Email us at [email protected] with any comments, questions, or suggestions.

Jeanette Vecchio Smith and Ken Pecho from Chicago Metal Rolled Products join us on our 100th episode to talk about CMRP’s role in shaping the Las Vegas Sphere. Ken, lead project engineer at Chicago Metal Rolled Products, and Jeanette, a manager at CMRP, walk us through what it took to bend and form massive tube and beam sections and how that capability put their shop at the center of a world-class project.

Ken also shares how his love of art led him to a career in fabrication engineering, along with stories from some of his favorite projects, including the Royal Caribbean headquarters in Miami and the Nashville International Airport expansion. Jeanette dives into CMRP’s family history, which began in 1908, and explains how the company continues to set the standard for major structural fabrication projects.

Email us at [email protected] with any comments, questions, or suggestions.