A&J Custom Metals on the Small Town Big View Podcast | Welding & Machine Shop in Graham, WA

We Sat Down with the Small Town Big View Podcast; Here's What We Talked About

A couple weeks back, Kevin from Ignite Studios and Jason from 1st Chance Towing pulled up to the shop for an episode of the Small Town Big View Podcast, put on by the Orting Business Association. They wanted to hear the A&J Custom Metals story straight from the source. Here's the rundown, for anyone who wants the highlights without hitting play, though the full episode is worth a watch if you want the whole conversation, geese included.

From Machinist to Shop Manager to A&J

Owner Aaron Feeney didn't walk a straight line into custom fabrication, he built it out of thirty-plus years of hands-on trades work. He trained as a machinist in high school, did auto repair, spent time in weld shops, and even built printing presses for seven years before the internet gutted that industry. From there he moved into heavy equipment, welding and hydraulic work on garbage trucks, which put him on track to run a crew. That eventually led to 13 years managing a production facility washing millions of plastic grocery trays a year, growing a team from three people to fifty across three shifts.

It was steady, valuable work. But somewhere in those years of developing people and running shifts, Aaron missed something specific: building things with his own hands. That's what brought him back to fabrication and what became A&J Custom Metals.

No Product, No Problem  "Your Vision Is Our Creation"

Unlike a lot of shops that lock onto one product and scale it fast, A&J doesn't have a single specialty. Aaron's built excavator buckets from scratch, installed hydraulic thumbs, welded headers on race cars, and taken on jobs where even he isn't sure what the final part looks like until the customer explains it. That's the whole point behind the shop's tagline: your vision is our creation.

It's a different growth path than the guys who find one product and sell it nationwide off the internet. A&J's approach is local and relationship-driven, the kind of hometown shop people used to be able to find on the edge of every small town, before most of them closed up or retired out.

New Equipment, New Capabilities

The shop recently picked up new equipment, with help from Jason and the 1st Chance Towing crew hauling it from the previous owner's shop to Aaron's. That acquisition pushed A&J to add machining to the lineup officially: the business is now A&J Custom Metals Welding and Machine, running a manual mill and lathe alongside the fabrication and welding work.

One niche Aaron's leaning into with the new equipment: reverse-engineering obsolete parts. A lot of shops are still running very old machines with zero manufacturer support left. When a part wears out or breaks, there's no catalog to order from,  someone has to build it from scratch or repair what's there. That's exactly the kind of problem A&J is set up to solve.

The shop is also gearing up for more work in the UTV and side-by-side sector roll cages, frames, and custom builds in aluminum, stainless, or steel. A tubing bender is next on the equipment list, which will open up chassis work for off-road builds, race cars, and one-off projects like Aaron's own cart sitting out front of the shop.

Rooted in Graham and Pierce County

A&J operates out of a 1,200-square-foot shop on five acres in Graham, just up the hill from Orting, deliberately out in the country, where the shop can spread out and stay close to the land. Aaron's been building brand recognition through the Eatonville Business Association, the Orting Business Association, and the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce, tapping into the industrial base around the Tideflats, in Tacoma.

Looking ahead, Aaron's not chasing rapid expansion. The goal is a sweet spot of five to eight employees, big enough to take on more work, small enough that he can still keep his hands on the quality control and stay out in the shop instead of buried in reports. That'll mean a bigger space down the road, something in the 15,000-square-foot range with three-phase power, but the philosophy stays the same: stay hands-on, stay local, and keep taking on the oddball projects that keep the work interesting.

Watch the Full Episode

Want the whole conversation, including Huey the goose making a guest appearance? Check out the full episode of the Small Town Big View Podcast:
👉 https://youtu.be/YIsSrlvAvD8

Got Something That Needs Building?

Whatever it is; repair, custom fabrication, machining, off-road builds, if it's metal, bring it in.

**A&J Custom Metals Welding and Machine** | Graham, WA | Serving Orting, Puyallup & Pierce County
📧 contactus@aandjcustommetals.com
🌐 aandjcustommetals.com