512 S. Fifth St., Milwaukee
Neighborhood: Walker’s Point
Founded: 1942
Owner: Douglas Jordan
Service: Custom machine building and repair
What kind of parts does Jordan machine? Jon Jordan, shop manager: “We do custom machining and machinery building. So we actually don’t do any real production work. Over the years we’ve repaired … the industrial dryers at The Pfister, the freeway sign going over (I-94 at the Sixth Street exit). We fix great big stainless steel funnels for Usinger’s where the sausage goes in, we fixed the machines they were using for the deep tunneling project for the sewer, and over the years we’ve done things with Briggs & Stratton, Pabst, Schlitz, all the breweries.”
Why has the company decided to stay here as the neighborhood has changed around it? “Part of it is just because we’ve always been here and when (my grandfather) opened here it was centrally located because this whole area was industrial. We have realtors hitting us up more and more that want the building, but for right now, the amount of money it would cost to rebuild and move everything, I mean we’d have to be cranking out a lot of work to make that worthwhile. Taking it apart to move it would be about a week just for one machine.”
Are there a lot of companies that do what you do now? “Not as many in the Milwaukee area. One of our biggest competitors, Busch (Precision), went out of business two years ago. There’s still a lot of little job shops around. The advantage we’ve got is we’ve got some really big machines.”
Is it a specialty to fix really big machines? “The bigger stuff, it takes big equipment and the right knowledge because if you do something wrong, you’re going to destroy bushings or bearings. We’ve got machines where the bearings cost about $3,000 just for one bearing.”
