Article by: By Molly McMillin, The Wichita Eagle / Photo Credit: Jerry Siebenmark, The Wichita Eagle
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It’s been two months since Don McGinty, president of McGinty Machine, closed the deal to buy facilities formerly owned by Big Dog Motorcycles.
Already, he’s readied the new space for use as a parts fabrication shop.
McGinty has added three vertical milling machines, which will be in operation next week.
In September, McGinty will add a fourth machine – a computer numerical control machine.
The expansion is needed to take on new contracts from Spirit AeroSystems, McGinty said.
McGinty has also bought – and razed – a former car lot at Hydraulic and Douglas, once owned by Big Dog, to make room for a parking lot.
The expansions, near McGinty’s current location at 222 N. Hydraulic, increase the company’s overall production capabilities.
Its current location will continue as a blue-streak shop, producing small quantities of precision-machined parts with fast turnaround times.
The new facilities will be used for regular production work and warehouse and office space.
That way blue-streak work and production work will be separate “so production doesn’t interfere with blue streak and blue streak doesn’t interfere with production,” McGinty said.
In all, the company will now have about 100,000 square feet of manufacturing and warehouse space.
McGinty has invested about $3 million in the buildings and machinery and equipment with plans to invest another $2 million in the next year or two, he said.
In the meantime, McGinty is in the process of hiring more staff.
“It’s not an easy job,” he said. “We’ve been looking.”
It needs to hire up to five machinists for first and second shifts and three office staff.
McGinty has added about 15 employees in the past two years and now employs 49.
McGinty was founded in 1948. Don McGinty took over the operation from his father, John, in 1980.
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