The CWB Association Welding Podcast
The CWB Association Welding Podcast
Episode 209 with Don Tansem & Jason Tansem and Max Ceron
The CWB Association brings you a weekly podcast that connects to welding professionals around the world to share their passion and give you the right tips to stay on top of what’s happening in the welding industry.
Dive into the captivating history of Eagle Alloys Ltd., a family-run business deeply rooted in the welding community. In this episode, we welcome Don and Jason Tansom, a father-son duo with a unique blend of experience, passion, and innovative ideas that highlight the evolution of welding techniques and technology. Tune in and discover how passion can drive innovation in an industry that continues to evolve, and how Don and Jason plan to carry this legacy forth. Don't forget to visit eaglealloys.ca to see what they offer and connect with the community!
Eagle Alloys:
Website: https://eaglealloys.ca/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eaglealloyswelding/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-tansem-b254a68/
Thank you to our Podcast Advertisers:
Canada Welding Supply: https://canadaweldingsupply.ca/
Canaweld: https://canaweld.com/
Josef Gases: https://josefgases.com/
There is no better time to be a member! The CWB Association membership is new, improved and focused on you. We offer a FREE membership with a full suite of benefits to build your career, stay informed, and support the Canadian welding industry. https://www.cwbgroup.org/association/become-a-member
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All right, I can check. Check, I'm good. So I'm Max Duran. Max Duran, cwb Association Welding Podcast, pod pod podcast. Today we have a really cool guest welding podcast. The show is about to begin.
Speaker 1:Attention, welders in Canada looking for top quality welding supplies, look no further than canada welding supply. With a vast selection of premium equipment, safety gear and consumables. Cws has got you covered. They offer fast and reliable shipping across the country. And here's the best part all podcast listeners 10% off any pair of welding gloves. Can you believe that? Use code CWB10 at checkout when placing your next order. Visit CanadaWeldingSupplyca now. Canada Welding Supply, your trusted welding supplier. Happy welding. Hello and welcome to another edition of the CWB Association podcast. My name is Max Serron and, as always, I am searching the globe and across Canada for the best stories I can find. You, our faithful listeners. Today we have a wonderful show with a couple of guests here, and if you're watching this on YouTube you'll see they look related, and it's because they are. We have the founding member and his son of the wonderful company based in Canada, eagle Alloys. Don and Jason, how are you guys doing? Doing great.
Speaker 2:Thanks.
Speaker 1:Thanks for having us, max, absolutely. So before the show I want to throw this to Jason real quick. You know we have done some work with Eagle Alloys in Canada. It's a very recognizable brand. I've been using it as a welder myself since the 90s when, I think you guys first started coming around. I worked in the mining industry so there was a lot of bucket repairs and deep field repairs. That was always the Eagle rods would come out for that. But you know, jason, in our working with you you said to us you got to talk to my dad. You know like you got to bring him on the show. So you know, thank you, jason, for connecting us with your father, who started the company and and getting this connection going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, max, it was. You know it's a. It was a little bit of some really good insight with dad and getting him in front of the video at at first, you know, when we're doing our YouTube or Tik TOK videos or whatever it is, he's like I don't know what to say. And then, as soon as you start that video, it's like dad, we don't got this much time, so so it was just, it was a natural fit to get him in front of the camera. He's well-spoken, so much knowledge and I'm very fortunate to be able to be on this journey with my dad. And this is this is pretty cool, this is really cool.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, don, thank you so much for coming on the show. I really appreciate it, my pleasure. Well, you know, I gotta, I gotta admit something to the both of you. My dad was a welder and the me and him worked together in the same company for almost a decade before I went off to start my own thing. So I know what it's like to have a welder dad and to come up in the world. You know seeing the trades. And let's start with your story, don. You know, let's start right from the beginning. Day one when were you born? Where do you call home?
Speaker 4:Where's the roots? Well, you know what, max? I was actually born in Dawson Creek, bc. Okay, know what, max? I was actually born in dawson creek, bc. Okay, back in 1953, okay, yeah, my mother moved us off to edmonton when I was nine years old. Mine, my, uh, my sisters and I grew up in edmonton. I started, uh, my welding apprenticeship at the years of 17 years of age. I met a gal very young in my life I was 16, 17, playing drums in a rock and roll band and I met this gal and she's still with me today, 55 years later. That journey started because she was carrying around one of my little babies.
Speaker 1:So how'd that baby get there before you?
Speaker 4:babies. So how'd that baby get there before you? So it was kind of magical, but it was a choice I had back then as a 17 year old kid what do, you do. And I was fortunate to know enough people. They were in the trades. There was electricians, there was plumbers in my family there was heavy duty mechanics. There were no welders or machinists or anything like that. But I had an opportunity to start as a 17-year-old sweep the floors kind of, due to the company in Edmonton called McCoy Brothers.
Speaker 4:I was green. I knew nothing. I had to get my hair cut, get rid of my leather jacket, be respectable and start sweeping floors. I actually was put into the part of the company where they were making all of the dyes for the big punch presses they had back in the day. Very intricate, very cool thing. It just wasn't really my gig because maybe it was too finicky.
Speaker 3:It just so happened.
Speaker 4:The two guys that ran that particular department were a couple of German fellows and they were really hard to work with. They were very particular, very particular. And then they got me started into the welding shop, you know, doing a bit of grinding and cleaning up a bit, and I kind of took a hankering to that. And I was lucky enough that McCoy Brothers took me on as an apprentice and they started my welding journey back when I was 17. Went through the apprenticeship system in Edmonton, came out as a journeyman first class welder when I was 21. And started banging around the different jobs that were available.
Speaker 4:And back in those days, you know in the 80s it was the Wild West there was no or very little wire welding. Everything that was coming out was pretty revolutionary. Not many shops had that kind of stuff, yeah. So I was fortunate to kind of get into that early and learning about the gases and the wire and how it would work. And I always liked that part of it because you know, running that big electrode you start getting a quarter inch electrode doing those browsers, man you gotta be two, three feet long.
Speaker 4:Yeah, oh it's uh, it's a whole different ball game. You know it was funny. I remember telling the guys one night that I remember sitting on the end of a da cat with this quarter inch electrode and we had to gallop. As soon as you ran the beach you would trigger the, the the track and it would move over one. So you could be welding everything in the flat. And that was really cool. Except the electrode holder was so hot. We dumped it in a five gallon bucket of water and guys would say you know, you're dealing with electricity and water and 400.
Speaker 1:You know it was just crazy. That's what we did.
Speaker 4:It was okay, it worked you know it was just crazy, but that's what we did.
Speaker 1:It was okay, it worked. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the the electricity is not going to jump that far.
Speaker 4:Nah, nah. It gives you a little bit of a buzz once in a while, but we're welders, we're tough right. I saw some stickers that said that somewhere.
Speaker 4:I don't know. Through there I just kind of evolved through it. I got to do a ton of doors for me. There wasn't much I couldn't do or go and work for, because I was pretty well taught. The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton was a wonderful place to learn. They're still going strong to this day, yep, and it was just. It was really good. It was really good and once I got to the point of really starting to understand and be able to look so far ahead as to what the finished product was going to look like, I really enjoyed working with the metal building rollover canopies for D8 cats and back in the day again being back to the time when it was the Wild West, there was no rollover canopies. Back in the day, guys were sitting on those D8 cuts and if they fell over, well, they probably died.
Speaker 4:And a few of those things did happen. So the next thing you know, the company I ended up working for at Arangas was sort of mandated to build these rollover canopies. And that was a cool thing, working with engineers and you know really what was going to happen. Sorry guys, at the end of the day, but that was a big learning experience for me also, um, realizing that maybe being an engineer would have been a better thing, because it seemed like we were building it and they were taking pictures of it when we were done, because we understood metals a little bit more and and how they reacted, and I think from there I just started to pay attention to a lot of things. And then I realized that all of these rods we were running and wires we were running, they were kind of unique to whatever that company was associated with.
Speaker 4:as far as maybe, the gas business, so I got to run Lincoln and ESAB and you name it. We ran them all and I found as we got farther into it that there really wasn't a lot of really magnificent welding rods. Now, even when you finished welding it still didn't look like you had a nice weld. You had to take out the grinder and you had to fix it up and paint it. But to find an electrode that would just run nice and smooth and the flux would come off easy, it was good out of position, I think. Once I got out of the actual welding part of it and decided it made more sense maybe to sell some of these products. We also found that we had to start looking for better products.
Speaker 1:And it was a big journey.
Speaker 4:So as I got more out of welding and more into possibly setting up my own distributorship and selling products, the offering that was offered to us at the time was very limited. Also, people weren't going to Europe or Asia to buy products or going to manufacturing plants. I was fortunate all through my process. I was at Lincoln, I was in Cleveland. We got around to a lot of the Harvac kind of programs and about 20 years ago I went to the Essen.
Speaker 1:That's a show in Germany.
Speaker 4:Show in Germany, and that to me it was like holy cow the Essen show in Germany, and that to me it was like holy cow this welding industry is a billion dollar industry.
Speaker 4:The products we saw there, the products we tested and ran with 20 years ago, people were looking to spread their word as to here's our products. Can we do something with them? We hooked up with a couple of very good products manufacturers 20 years ago and developed some hard-facing products both in the electrode and wire form, took it to the market and knocked on doors and demonstrated what we thought was a good product. And you know, here we are 35 years later and it's changed a lot it really has with the wires, the micro wires, the equipment that's available to weld with it.
Speaker 4:Welding is becoming very, a little bit more intricate, a little bit more fun almost to weld, because now you're not getting burnt up and sparks flying all over the place and getting into your ear and rolling around before it pops out now you're actually using welding rods that are nice to weld with and you feel good about your job when you're done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the machines too, the technology and the machines they build, machines now more conscious of the purpose of what they'll do, whereas before it was like here's your machines. They make power DC plus DC negative. Figure it out. Here's your machines they make power DC plus DC negative. Figure it out. And here's your rods. You have 7018, 6010 and 11 and maybe a 7024. If you want to do something big, that's it, figure it out.
Speaker 3:Right, good luck.
Speaker 1:And that's and that's all it was before and, like you said now, the amount of options and, and you know, I can buy a new Lincoln machine and it'll actually have the brand name of an electrode on there because they made a program setting specific to that electrode. Like it's wild the way they've kind of come together, like you said.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's been a learning curve for a lot of people, I think in the industry I know we spent a lot of time when we first got into the welding supply business teaching people how to weld with wire and the difference between running CO2 or an argon CO2 mix or even the flux cord, gasless wires.
Speaker 4:They were all different, all different, and all they really taught us in school was run that 70, 18, 60, 10 and 11 and do some bend tests and cut it in half and have a look at how it runs, and all of that. But at the end of the day we had to pick up production. We had to do that's right different things. We weren't sure if we could weld on manganese with stainless, or or if we could weld on t1 with stainless, or like what rod do we use for making all these steels?
Speaker 1:Yeah, 309 can't do everything these high alloy steels.
Speaker 4:That you just what do you weld with? And they can't break. And you're just supposed to be a welder. You know we're paying you 50 bucks an hour and you're like, hey, we got some rods now that do all of that. We've figured out the program that. I think we've got just about a rod in our arsenal. That can well just about anything, but the process has been crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's go back to a point that you brought up earlier. That, I think, is a very valid point today, and this is something that has to do specifically with Alberta. You know, I've worked with colleges across Canada. I've been a part of trades boards apprenticeship've worked with colleges across Canada. I'm a part of, I've been a part of, trades boards, apprenticeship blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:And one of the things that Alberta has always kind of been a little bit behind in is the adoption of wire processes. And this is not a new thing, you know. You're looking at other provinces create production line welding, red seal programs for wire motivated welders that are going to work in manufacturers and be successful. And in Alberta there's been sort of a resistance to go to wire Since I've been a welder I started welding in 92. And I've always felt this resistance to get away from the 6013 for the roots and I don't know why. And maybe as an Albertan with this industry, you know you're out there banging on doors trying to sell wire processes to these companies. Why is there this desire to not move into the wire world? And then how did you overcome that?
Speaker 4:or trying to I think I think at that point Max it was we had seen opportunities, we've. We saw the different welding equipment that was available. I really felt that probably the European-Asian market was ahead of us in so many ways with feedability, the drive roll systems or guns. I mean we were a whole different ballgame in North America from what they were doing in Asia. We were a whole different ball game in North America from what they were doing in Asia.
Speaker 4:Right, if you could ever marry those two together with the right equipment. That was kind of important. And it seemed like all of the manufacturers stayed within themselves. Like Lincoln is Lincoln? Yeah, they're a fabulous company. They've been around forever. If you've had a chance to go down to their factory in Cleveland and go through the boardrooms and stuff. You see the history of. These are the guys that took rivets out of the old tanks and started to weld those things up again.
Speaker 4:These are the guys. They've been around a long time, but that's good. They really do a good job welding where rivets used to be. But what about when you started joining two pieces of dissimilar metal and all the other things attached to? And they weren't into that, they were more into their lane, yeah, their lane, yeah. Whereas with us we realized in the hard-facing business and I guess Fort McMurray, everyone knows about that and the silicone sand up there and how abrasive that stuff is and how do you stop it from wearing. And you know we had electrode that could do that. But we couldn't get the same results out of wire and then, not only that, you can't be out in the field and have shielding gas for that wire. So as we went through that whole process, I think we had it figured out that the products we have now work good and all. Either it's an electrode or wire form. They both work well. Wire speeds up the process. That's the bottom line with that stuff and when you're working on heavy equipment, time is money.
Speaker 4:Well, you can't be doing multi-pass welding on three quarter inch material. You got to hit it with 116. You know the 564s to 332. You got to get the job done and wire is the way to go.
Speaker 4:And the old welders who learned how to weld with the 7018, they never had failures with it, or very few failures. Why would we try wire where we're not 100% sure? Because they would do jobs that would take 50, 60 welding hours to complete and they're not going to mess around with some welding wires just because some punk said his is going to work. They want results, they want something going on here. So thank goodness we were actually to find people that would try some of our products and prove our point in the field that it was working. It will work, excuse me. It will wear the supposed to wear and all of that.
Speaker 4:So this 35-year journey it seems to me the last four or five years has really started to take off because guys believe in us. We've done the groundwork, the grunt work. I think the beauty of a lot of the products we're into now we don't have comebacks and failures and a lot of questions. That way it's us finding the application for our products and then going with those applications. There's always new ones popping up and we are still talking to other manufacturers about those problems and they're helping us with those solutions also. But at the end of the day, it was about trying to find products that people could actually weld with out of position, with gas, without gas, and enjoy the welding process. Because when you have all that set up and it's working, well, it is, it is nice, it's fun, oh for sure, and it just knocks and it knocks so much time off your day.
Speaker 1:You know, I can remember the first instances of Eagle alloy consumables coming into my shop. I was working for a mining company where we would build buckets for potash drag lines underground and like I mean, you're talking about corrosive. I don't know if there's anything more corrosive than hot potash because it basically well, it's a little bit radioactive and it's full of salt and it just eats through everything. And for a while, in the early nineties, a couple of potash mines got it in their head that they were going to convert everything to stainless because stainless was somehow going to last longer than mild steel underground in the potash mine. Well, a few billion dollars later, it didn't make a difference. It wasn't. Stainless got chewed up just as fast as mild steel underground and a lot harder to operate.
Speaker 1:And a lot harder to operate and it's heavy and it's all these other issues. So then we went back to mild steel but we started using hard facing and AR plates on the edges, QT100s on the backs, and then any repairs or surface leads would be done with some type of a hard ox wire. And that was the first time we brought in the Eagle alloy rolls. And I remember my boss, you know, and this is a while ago, I have no idea what the pricing is now, but I remember like a roll of flux core back then was like 80 bucks. It's like 250 bucks now, but back then it was like 80 bucks a roll. And I remember the Eagle wire was like $300. And we were like, oh my God, it's so much more expensive, why would we do this? And then we used it and then we're like, well, that was way easier.
Speaker 1:You know, and it actually works. So you know, the 30 hours that you would have wasted in man hours is now down to five Right and it, and it paid for itself Right Immediately before it even walked out the door. And, and you know, that's when you start realizing that there are some purpose built applications where you have to look for alternatives. You have to cause. You can't just keep making the same mistake over and over.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and ending up with the same result. That's right. That's right. That doesn't work very well.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that was part of in the quick snapshot of us getting to where we are within Eagle Alloys and some of the processes and why we even wanted to get into Eagle Alloys. At the time I spent some time with another alloy company running around and selling some of their products and there were holes in that line too. I felt if we could ever pull this off and end up with maybe a dozen products that we could take to the market and go with that, we realized that not only were those dozen products good, there were other products beyond that that we could go with and with the support of our manufacturers. I remember going to one plant in Korea, South Korea, and we went in there with our wire that they had been producing for us and we felt if we could smooth it out a little bit, maybe a little bit more silver or something.
Speaker 4:Ask their engineers what can we do? Just smooth it out a little bit. Maybe a little bit more silver or something. Ask their, their engineers, what can we do just to smooth out a little bit more? We've welded with it on a friday night and uh, we had six engineers there and we said could we smooth it out a little bit, you know, and a little bit out of position, and they went back to their research and development, and they came up with two roles for us the next morning to weld with like wow, who does, who does that?
Speaker 4:and we welded with it and we we signed a deal at that point and we kind of but didn't put a patent on it, but we did lock in that formula for that product that we're still buying today, and that was 19 years ago and it's only got better because it produced it faster and cleaner and you know, the metals are better, the processes are better and we're ecstatic because the same product that we were welding with there when we got it over to Canada and it finally showed up four months later and we took it to the marketplace.
Speaker 4:It was oh, I hope it's as good, because it was a time and it still is. You just don't order a hundred thousand dollars worth of product and when it arrives you try it and then you pay them. No, no, yeah, you pay for it up front, we'll send it to you. Good luck, yeah, and some people didn't have good luck. We weaved our way through that whole process and we ended up with some fabulous manufacturers, some people that are in tune to it. I know Jason now. He talks to a lot of the guys I talked to 20 years ago and they're still in it. They're still doing the same thing. It almost sounds boring, but I don't know. I guess when it's in your blood it's like everything else. It's pretty awesome what you can do out there with a welding rod or some wire. There's nothing we can't build or fix or repair.
Speaker 1:So how do you search those gaps? Because when you're in the industry, you have your personal issues with equipment, electrodes, machinery or jobs and you think, oh, I wish I would add something for this. Or and I'm sure you took that to to to your company when you decided to start it but then, 10 years in, you're not on the floor anymore, you're not out there in the field welding anymore, you're not having these challenges happen to you. So how do you start looking at the gaps that are out there in order to assess we need to fill this hole or we need to find something for that?
Speaker 4:I guess, I guess probably for me talking with you, max, being in the cwb business, we were so far removed from what you people were doing, because you're into the mouth steel, you're into the parameters that they kept some sanity in this crazy world, because at least there's an area where your 78 fits into, where your 60, all of these CWB products Control.
Speaker 4:And a lot of those products for us weren't quite. We had to go beyond those parameters to get what we wanted to get to, which then took us out of the CWB category which then closed a lot of doors for us, also because our products were not CWB approved and when we realized we had to start looking at that avenue, with the mild steels both electrode and wires to have the CWB certification on it was very important and there wasn't a lot of plants around at the time that were making those products outside of.
Speaker 4:Canada and I think now we sit on 10 or 12 products that we may have CWB approved and we're always looking for more, and that was kind of where we started is because I welded so much 7018 with with failures towards the end of the career, because they were no longer mild steel.
Speaker 4:They were, as we said, the cht 360s and and all these high carbon steels. 70 18 wasn't going to cut it. 80 18 wasn't cutting at 110. You know we're. We had the strength, we didn't have the elongation. We wanted the elongation and the strength. Well, in order to build that, we had to get outside the parameters of what norm was and then, convince people A it's going to work, but B it's more money.
Speaker 3:It's been a process.
Speaker 4:But I think the beauty of it all, max, is it was the success of the products and still is to this day. It works. If we say it works, hopefully, knock on wood. We probably hit 99.9% times of success. And our guys, the fellows that we found over the years that work for Eagle Outreach, are just dynamite. As technical reps they they've seen a lot of a lot of shops and the beauty is when you can repair one guy's problem, yeah, there's another 50 shops exactly like them looking for some kind of a result, and it just started to snowball after that.
Speaker 4:Go see Charlie he's got the same problem. Go see Mike he's got the same problem. They've all had the same problems, and I think the most interesting thing at the time, though, max was. There wasn't the internet, there wasn't Google I mean Jason and I now watch him.
Speaker 4:He's finding stuff I never dreamed of. I don't have time to look for that, but that back in the day was get on the plane, go over there and find it yourself, Hook up with someone that can speak the language and let's see what happens. And so here we are. We found all of that and we've got those products still coming in. We've got those same manufacturers and we're adding a few more as time goes on.
Speaker 1:You know, I think you bring up CWB because that's something that I find that I think people have a misunderstanding. There are parameters in which CWB lives by and dies by, and, first and foremost, structural. That's the world. You're going to see most of the CWB classifications for structural, but you can be in a CWB-certified shop with CWB-certified welders and have lots of work through your door. That has nothing to do with CWB, right? And people forget that. They think that everything's got to be 718 because you know we're a CWB shop. That's not true.
Speaker 3:That's not true.
Speaker 1:Because if a greater bucket comes in, that has nothing to do with structural, or you're doing guarding for an auger or you're doing something like none of that is structural. If you want to use whatever rod, go for it and I know Eagle does this as much as, and also your competitors but it's that we meet and exceed the standards of you know the CWB classifications, which I think a lot of people you got to have that exceed in there for them to understand the price. Because you know what, I can buy a Honda Civic and I can get the superstore and I can buy that honda civic for 30 grand, but if I want to get to superstore in eight seconds in a ferrari, I gotta spend more money, and that's that. It is what it is right.
Speaker 4:It absolutely is yeah, yeah, I think. I think the whole market in the welding industry is massive. The companies that sell the various products, uh, and it always goes back to the electrode. Everyone's buying that $150 AC machine and a rod that's going to work on it, just so they can weld up something. We've been able to find some of those products over time that actually do work on lower voltage machines very, very well with good parameters, good tensile, good elongation and anybody can weld with it.
Speaker 4:And those are the markets we had to start to go after and look for and realize how big it really is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now for you, jason. You're following this. You're a kid Like. There's baby Jason here watching dad Do all this wheeling and dealing, you know, traveling around the world, chasing down products, trying to figure this out. What are you doing in the background as a kid growing up? Are you thinking I want to be just like that? Are you thinking I can't wait to get a heck away from this madness?
Speaker 2:Well, you know what I got tricked into working and you know dad was more was really into the retail, the welding supplies and gases. So I was away off at school and playing hockey and living that dream and every summer I would come back and I'd work in the welding supply store and I learned how to roll two cylinders, roll two cylinders and I learned what 7018 was 10 skids of it rolling in on Canadian freightways and Lincoln one eighth and Lincoln three, 32 and more Lincoln one eighth.
Speaker 2:And I just learned, I really learned the gamut of of what the business was about from the shop, from the inside out, and understanding what a T, what a tip was and what a liner was and what flux was, because I'd have to load up 30 bags of flux in one of the salesman's vans and say what is this stuff for anyway?
Speaker 2:So I really got to learn the business all the way around and to this day I could probably be the only one that can admit I was the first one to drop a brand new Ranger off of the back of the transport truck. I'm pretty sure I was. Dad had it sold, it was ready to go. I came off the back a little hawk and over she went. So I learned along the way about this business. I went in and did my schooling as far in business and kind of pursued my own dream and watched dad fulfill his dream and just see the excitement that he had with it and nerding out over welding rods and, you know, silver sawing and all these different things and just how dad always stepped outside the box and was different.
Speaker 2:Everything he did was different. He was the first one that had a telex. He was the first one that had a fax machine. He was different. He operated business different and I always had admiration for that and whether I was going to get involved with the business. Who knew? And one day I did. I helped establish the british columbia territory with eagle alloys.
Speaker 2:Uh, back in in the mid 90s, let's say, and it, but at that time max, it wasn't my passion, my passion was hockey, my passion was business, my passion was doing my own entrepreneurial thing. And I went out and said I left the company after about two years and said I need to do my own thing. And, with his blessing, I went off and did my thing. I owned a junior hockey team and a marketing company and magazine publishing company. And as time progressed I always thought, what if I did exactly what I'm doing in these other businesses, uh, in the magazine and publishing and marketing world for the family business? What if we? We turned Eagle Alloys into these magazines that we're doing? And traveling around the world with the Chevrolet, really building the brand yeah, that's right and and traveling with Chevrolet and Ford and doing exactly what we were doing for ourselves but for the family business Eagle Alloys, and that's, and that's where it was born.
Speaker 2:Two years ago, me and dad sat down and and, uh, and I just and I said it exactly like I just said it to you, max I said it's time. It I just, and I said it exactly like I just said it to you, max I said it's time, it's time for us to get rid of the fax machine in the office now. It's time for us you know, to make some changes to put our welding rods on the internet even Could you imagine yeah.
Speaker 2:And it was time and because I had been out long enough and it was time. And it was time to join up with the ideas and the experience, not just from one business but a bunch of businesses and, you know, convincing dad that people are ready for this change. And dad agreed that people are ready. And here we are today, and it's pretty special.
Speaker 1:And for you, don, as dad you know, son goes out, sows his oats in the business world, does some good stuff, proud of him, and then he comes back and says hey dad, let's, let's do this thing. You know, you got to give up a little bit of control to do that. You know, were you ready, were you ready to take a step back and say you know, all right, I mean, I mean, you're calling in from Mexico, so I feel like you're kind of ready, but you know. But but at that point two years ago, were you ready to have that put in front of you?
Speaker 4:Oh, I, guess you know what happened with me, max. I was lucky enough back in the day when gas companies were buying up gas companies and Lindy's were buying up whoever, whatever, wherever you know, they all were in that game and I went through that process twice. It was great because you would build up a business and they'd come along and they would buy it from you and they would do it differently than I would, because we were more hands-on and more personal.
Speaker 4:We're a family business. We understand our kids play hockey together, they play ball together in smaller communities. We we did all this in the interior of British Columbia and Kelowna, Kamloops, and yeah, they were our friends. So the larger gas companies couldn't get into the people we already had, Didn't matter what the price was, and once they realized that they said you know the easiest thing, they just buy them out. So I did that. I think my first sellout was around I was 45 or 50. Lasted about six months. Realized I was way too young. My golf game never gone any better.
Speaker 4:So I got back into business again in the welding supply business built that one up and sold that one, and then I was sitting idle for probably almost 15 years as a guy that kind of kept his eye on the industry and felt that maybe it was just time to retire and fade off into the woodwork. And then, as Jason was starting to change his ideas and maybe start in this racket, he knew a lot about it. It's a very complex, not only just the business side of things, but you're dealing with multiple provinces and multiple government issues, and it was. It was a lot of work. It was either you're in it or you're not. You can't sort of just dabble in it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is a the welding world's a wide curve. Yeah, it's a big learning curve in here.
Speaker 4:It's it's massive and you know what it it? I had to go into it with somebody that I honestly could feel had the same passion I did or the same idea. So it was really either I sell my company and live happily ever after, or I take the enthusiasm that Jason is showing and support it and work with him and build this that's going to even last longer. And once we started that process and realized what he had really learned in his life in the last 15 years 17 years he was doing his thing. It just it molded together so easily because it was really at the end of the day. It's why you're doing what you're doing.
Speaker 4:Max is trying to get to the people. Yeah, how do we spread the word? How do we show them what we are and who we are and what we can do for you? How can we save you some money and all of that? Well, social media is the answer. And back in the day in my companies we didn't have that or we didn't have the people that could take us to that level. And when I realize now stuff that kids are learning and taking it to that next level with hickok and facebook, and when you start to see doing a demo and jason says dad, you know, 70 000 people watch that video and say what, yeah, but how much did they spy? How many welding rods did they really buy? But you know what it's starting to happen Like wow.
Speaker 3:I guess when they see it, they start buying it.
Speaker 4:So I guess, kid you know what you were right. You were right they will buy welding rods offline.
Speaker 2:I want to intervene with one thing here, max, and you know it was a bit of a process with dad, because you know he's standing there and he's doing a little talk about something, and you know one of the videos we did is he lit his torch, he dug in his, everyone got a striker.
Speaker 3:Got a big lighter. I got a lighter Oof.
Speaker 1:You know that's not allowed, Don Geez.
Speaker 2:Dad's like hey, whatever, I'm old school who hasn't used the lighter with the torch, you know. And then, further down the line with our new battery welder that we've been demoing and running and trying, someone spotted that dad had his safety pole flip flops on. So you really realize you really realize there's a lot of people watching.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and I think that was a really big eye opener for him is that this is how we get the word out and quickly put out a post about welding aluminum with an electrode and instead of going door to door to door to door showing everybody. Next thing you know, you got 30,000 people that have watched you run it. Yeah, and that was a big eye opener for dad when he started seeing the comments and people chiming in and asking questions and just the interaction of it.
Speaker 3:It was.
Speaker 2:It was a really big eye opener. It was pretty cool.
Speaker 1:And that's awesome yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was pretty cool. Well, and that's awesome. Yeah, yeah, that was that was. That was cool. When it actually started to happen and then when we started to see orders pop up online on a Sunday and a Monday, it's like holy cow, guys actually do work 24 seven around the world in this racket. They do, they do.
Speaker 1:All right? Well, this is a great time to take our break for the commercials and when we get back here I want to continue with the story of what's going on with Eagle Alloys, Don Jason, your guys' careers, and I got lots of questions. I've been making notes here, so make sure you guys don't go anywhere.
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Speaker 1:But one of the things that I noted here throughout your career, don, is that and this may set you apart from a lot, a lot of people from your generation that have become successful is that you didn't seem to be scared of the technology at any point. You know, whenever the new toy would come out you would be curious about it, like I mean, even Jason was talking about the first Telex, the first fax machine. I mean, they may seem silly and slow to us now, but at the time they were brand new and they were the newest thing and they were the best way to communicate faster to other people. You're talking about looking at wires and the machines that were coming out. I mean that stuff is still in some places tough to catch on, you know. So in your personality, don, you have never really been afraid of technology, have you?
Speaker 4:Well, you know, I guess I like the welding part of it and for me it was. You better figure out what, why it works the way it does, why, why we can.
Speaker 4:It still is amazing to me sometimes the technology that they've come out with, and it really was just all about being hands-on and then not be scared to take it apart and get inside. It was one of the things we did when our first battery welder showed up in canada. It really was just all about being hands-on and then not be scared to take it apart and get inside.
Speaker 4:It was one of the things we did when our first battery welder showed up in Canada. We ripped it apart and I got in there with my screwdriver and I started poking around to see what was going on. Because how does this thing work? What makes it so good? Why does it weld so good? Never did find out, because it's all sealed up, but I'm still willing to stick my screwdriver in there somewhere. But even though the processes are so similar, it seems like the operating side of it, the size of it, the electronic side of it is so different.
Speaker 4:Everybody has their own idea idea and when you have that idea, when you're in the manufacturing business, when you make a commitment to start building something, you're talking millions and millions of dollars to by the time it comes out at the back end. Yeah, I didn't have quite that ability to to invest that much, but going to these factories, these welding rod and wire factories, we could end up with the product that we wanted to run, and then it was up to us to show people how to run that on their machines. So we had to learn. We had no choice and we would hear all these things oh no, you can run a bigger size contact tip. If you're running 035, go to 045. Don't do that.
Speaker 1:All these engineers.
Speaker 4:They develop this stuff for a reason.
Speaker 3:When I explain it to people.
Speaker 4:Why do you think it's called a contact tip?
Speaker 3:That's where all?
Speaker 4:the contact made. So why would you want to have a bigger one making less contact?
Speaker 1:It'll just be arcing around inside of there, Like you know.
Speaker 4:So it's an 89 cent piece of material on that $4,000 welding machine. If you don't treat that one wait, the whole thing's not going to work. And we discovered that really early and we have lots of contacts, tips to sell back in the day in liners and stuff because very important components Some guys don't see it that way you know you're running wire.
Speaker 4:You don't drive over the welding gun. That's 15 feet long with the forklift, it's just. You shouldn't be doing that. It just doesn't work. I like it because I sell a new gun, but there was just a lot of things that, yeah, to teach people, because when you're running an electrode, who cares if people drive over your welding cables?
Speaker 1:still, not good, so technically no like, so we take it apart.
Speaker 4:We see how easy it is to change stuff. Can you change a liner easily can? We no it, I had to figure it out and I didn't have Google. I had a pair of pliers and tin snips and get at her. And now with Google, this morning funny story I bought an electric bike down here, Jason, by the way, you haven't seen the bill yet, but it's coming. And some assembly may be required and, of course, everything's in Spanish.
Speaker 3:Oh, no problem.
Speaker 4:Even with us going to Korea, going to Taiwan, going to you know the time the different provinces within China and their factories, everything is in different language and we have to convert it over to our language and our way of doing things. But we're there, we're here, it's been fun and we keep doing it, and I guess you just have to have, as my wife said, don, you had no fear, you just went out and got at her and somehow it's going to work out.
Speaker 1:And it has worked out. That's key. That's key, not having fear. I mean, what's the point of fear? How does that help you? How does that solve anything? I'd rather be wrong and I thought that I was smart. I'd rather be wrong than afraid, Cause at least you know you're wrong. That's something to work with. You can work with wrong. You know what I mean.
Speaker 4:Well, you only learn, I think in the welding industry I I remember as a young apprentice I was on the floor and, um, my foreman said don't go over and change it to straight polarity. And it wasn't just a big click, you had to undo the bolts two cables over, and so I was going to speed up the process. So I took this cable and stuck it on that. Then I took this cable and stuck it on that, and when I did that and I flew across the shop floor on my a** and looked up and thought I guess you're not supposed to do that. And you learn. You never do it again. And so much of that was a learning process. It's about wiring up equipment. We're not going to wait for an electrician.
Speaker 4:It's only single phase. How hard can it be?
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's only two wires.
Speaker 4:You burn up a few machines and you figure stuff out along the way. But that's all part of it. No fear guys. Jason has no fear.
Speaker 1:We're moving ahead here Now. Another item that you brought up earlier was the Essin and Essex show in Germany, and you know there's shows in China that are massive. Shenzhen has a huge show now every two years. Fabtech's in the US. You know we do our CanWeld Wailed Industry Day here in Canada.
Speaker 3:It was a good show this year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they've been pretty good. They've been really good. We're looking forward.
Speaker 1:We've got Red Deer coming up this year's show is Red Deer, June 11th, so put that on your calendars. It will be right in your backyard there. But one of the things that we were talking about at the break is that and you just alluded to it these companies that are trying to come up with some new technologies, a new angle, a new little thing to make welding better. It's huge investments on their part sometimes for for a very difficult market to break into. And I said, you know like I'll buy machines from these little, no name Chinese manufacturers that are trying something new, because I'm curious and I just, you know, like Lincoln is Lincoln, he's had busy sab for only says for only. That's cool, we know what we're getting, we know what it is. You know, like Lincoln is Lincoln, he's had busy sab for only says for only. So that's cool, we know what we're getting, we know what it is.
Speaker 1:But you know, when I'm getting it from some little company out of Southern Korea, there's something about that that's fun to me. It's like what is this experiment that they're trying? What is their angle? You know, because to to wheel and deal their little products. And I love to buy them. Now I'm a consumer, I'm buying them to play with them in my garage or to take them to a local school for to have the kids play with them, because it's fun. But for you as a business owner, as a distributor and even as a person who's looking to develop their own patents and their own products, how do you attend these shows and start to filter out the madness of all these companies that are trying to do their thing? How do you find that partner? How do you whittle that down to the usable list?
Speaker 2:I think I think I can. I'd like to chime in on this. One Is trade shows has been, has been, a big part of my career over the past of the while, notably the SEMA show, which is a specialty equipment and manufacturers association, everything vehicles in Las Vegas massive show, and what I've learned over the time is dealing with people, manufacturers, factories. Who's got vested interest, who has passion about what they're doing, who has some skin in the game, who really gives a care.
Speaker 2:Yeah, gives an F, I know we can put some beeps in here, but I wasn't going to say it. Who cares?
Speaker 3:Yeah, right.
Speaker 2:Who truly cares, who is beyond a paycheck, who really cares about this electrode or this wire, and we've seen hundreds of different suppliers and manufacturers. Whether it's the battery welders that we were after, the new electrodes, the new wires, it's the guy that has passion, and has passion when he's talking about a seamless wire he talks about his seamless wire like he's talking about his newborn, that's who we align with, because if it's just a guy that's getting a paycheck and he works eight to five, it's not our style you know, we're a couple welding nerds and me and dad can drive from the interior of british columbia to edmonton in 10 hours and it's like wow, did that ever go fast?
Speaker 3:Because we've talked the whole time about the exact work we're talking about, and it's awesome.
Speaker 2:So that really for us. You could tell pretty quick when we stopped by your booth in Toronto you can figure out really quick who has passion and you're A-plus passion and that's who we like to align with are the guys that have the same passion as us, and you send them a text on a sunday night.
Speaker 2:You know, like one of our sales reps, I was texting her sunday night hey, can you line up a meeting with for me tomorrow morning and so and so yeah and the best part is that she replies because it's the passion and the people and the relationships in this business that separates and it's no different than the trade shows and the audience and the passion that you have, that you've engaged with, that makes all the difference and that's the proof and that's exactly why we like this situation and working with you and with CWB is just because there's the passion. There's more than just a job. It's the hunger in the belly that you can see and you can feel and it's contagious.
Speaker 2:You're contagious with your excitement.
Speaker 1:And Don do you feel the same way about your journey in this twisted market?
Speaker 4:I think what we learned back in the day, max again, we didn't have all the social media to figure out where we wanted to go and we walked in the front doors. And that's when the first time it was like, oh, where do we start? Then you realize that there's just more than just manufacturers in these shows. There's manufacturers, reps, there's export reps. There's a million different guys trying to. We had to get to the factories. That was the deal at the end of the day. And once we got to that level and we realized that they were willing to spend time with us to break into the Canadian marketplace, because 20 years ago there wasn't a lot of that going on. The ships weren't coming over very often and in those containers were everything but welding products.
Speaker 4:Believe me, there was some stuff coming, but it was exactly what we thought it was. It was just a little off center. And so finding those suppliers at those shows even the Toronto show we spent time with ESAB and Forneus and get around and talk with their technology and see what's going on, and we're not looking going into a show looking for a specific item.
Speaker 4:And what we found at the Toronto show and has allowed us to move forward with another line is awesome because we just spent time and talked to these people that have come all this way with their products in their little kit and they are the manufacturer and they just want to tell you yeah, and by the time you you decide to move forward with that, you have to make a commitment. It's going to take a little bit longer to get some of the products, to get the information you want. We have to break down sometimes, uh, a little bit of a language barrier and, um, and even some of the technical talk is different, so it, but once you start, it's it's a financial commitment, it's a time commitment and, um, there's not many products that we started with that we've taken off the shelf because of of getting into it too fast, if anything.
Speaker 4:we sometimes maybe move a little slow, getting into it too fast, if anything we sometimes maybe move a little slow getting into it, but we want to be sure and these guys that come to the shows, we like to hear what they've got to say and that's half the fun is. We do that, we twist off and a lot of boost. We get home, we have so many brochures and back the first show. It wasn't all here. We'll just swipe your card and we'll send you some. No, no, it was like we had to take everything we had to take the catalog.
Speaker 4:You're carrying bags full and you didn't want to carry that guy's bag because then that guy will know you're at that booth. So we're going to change bags and go to that guy's booth, and it was a bit of a game we played too, but all they want to do is sell stuff. They have a passion. We want to find those guys.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now what about today? Let's bring us up to the current day. Where's the company at today? How's your growth been? Where's your stores? What's your reach? What's your cool new products Like? Let us know what's going on.
Speaker 4:I'll bring up the speed up to two years ago. Okay, we'd been in business for 32 years. Eagle Alloys it was run basically through Alberta and Saskatchewan a little bit. We had a good thing going there, it was solid. There's a lot of stuff going on in Edmonton, alberta, calgary, the tar sands.
Speaker 4:There's manufacturing, heavy construction, road building, right up our alley.
Speaker 4:We didn't have to go a long ways to find potential customers, which was good, but we've done a very good job in that province for the last 30 years and even still we haven't got to a mall, and the only way I could ever get to those people was to go and knock on their door Right, or my sales rep or whoever the case may be at the time, whereas now, with Jason coming on board and me, the way to get to these people through social media, with the social media, the videos, the demonstrations, the hands-on kind of stuff, has just opened up doors at a remarkable speed for us, where people are now phoning us and want us to come to them, and that is so refreshing because I'll tell you, you know, I don't care what you're selling.
Speaker 4:You get your doors closed a lot of times and when you finally get one opened up, at the end of the day you're so happy. But you know there's days you go where you get nothing. It's like we're busy. Come back next time, you're so happy. But you know there's days you go where you get nothing. It's like we're busy. Come back next time you're in town, we'll see.
Speaker 4:Yeah, holy cow, it's get time, but now the social media goes out and everyone who's contacting you back is interested yeah it is enough for jason's picking up the slack, because the massive amount of inquiries and products and things that we have to deal with now is you got to be. It's a young man's game. I think I've done enough where I want to pass the torch and it's being passed to a young fellow that's got a lot of ambition, a lot of great history behind him and how he gets to the marketplace, and I'm excited about where this is going and I'm I'm looking forward where I can just sit back and uh, travel around and just listen. I don't have to learn anymore. I've learned enough.
Speaker 1:And what about you, jason? What's your perspective now? You know current state Eagle Alloys, you know, is there? Is there? Is it going to grow more locations? Is there? Is there? What's going on?
Speaker 2:Well I think, yeah, naturally it's, it's we're in a we're in a situation where we just need more product available all over the place.
Speaker 2:You know, when we, when we have somebody that contacts us and they want some whatever products and flux core wire, because somebody has tried it or they saw it, we need to make sure that's accessible, whether it's in Kamloops or whether it's Fort St John or Saskatoon, wherever we need to have it accessible, because up until now we've had the odd little dealer here and there and we ship out of edmonton and. But you know, generally guys me included, probably all of us we procrastinate and when we need something we usually wait until we need it right now, right and um. So you know, a big part for me is making sure that we have our products accessible, and all of the products, not just if we ship through a shipping company from edmonton. So if you are in colona you can go into our dealer there, or camoops or vancouver or winnipeg, like I was saying, and that's been that's, that's been a very big um opportunity for me is to get to see these dealers and explain to the dealers. Our job is for people to come into your store and ask for it.
Speaker 2:One of my very, very first jobs it was like an internship I was selling beer for this brewing company in Kelowna and I'll never forget. I went to this pub and I kept going back. It's like when are you going to start buying my beers? I'm in here all the time. He says, jason, when people start asking for it. And I've never forgotten about that. And you know, now we can go into some of the big guys across the country because they're phoning us and they're saying guys are walking in wanting to buy your gouging electrode because they've never seen it before.
Speaker 1:Thanks, tiktok, I got to play with those. I got to play with those.
Speaker 2:Those 188s are cool, you know thanks, tiktok, but that's really our job is to get the product accessible for people across the country, and that's been the growth mode and that's how the growth has happened, because guys can walk in. You know, generally, if you need silver solder, you probably need it today because you broke something that requires it.
Speaker 3:You know the two or three days to get up there, it just doesn't work.
Speaker 2:And so then guys, try different products or products that aren't going to work. We know the situation, we've all been there. So we really want to have product accessible and there and ready, so when guys need it it's available Awesome.
Speaker 1:Now I want to ask you guys both the same question, because we're getting close to the end of the interview here. But you know what? What's, what's five years old. Let's go. Five years old Jason where do you see a future state for for you and the company you know? And and the forward movement, what's on the wishlist within the next five years for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and in five years, having full coverage across Canada, we were working with some partners south as well, some master partners and master distributors, because there is a need, I believe, not only for our products but for our service. There's a lot of great companies out there that have great products. Dad talked about Lincoln and the ESABs. There's some really good great companies out there that have great, great products. You know dad talked about, you know, lincoln and the East abs. There there's some really good, great products out there. Where we, where we want to be, is, we want to be dealt with, because we are the best company to deal with and that starts from us, right inside this office.
Speaker 2:and our and our attitudes and our how we want to have appearance and how we treat people, you know, and really being known and differentiated by the fact that we are a really good company to deal with. You know, if somebody needs, whatever it is, we will do our best to accommodate them. If it's something specific, we'll get engineers from our factories involved, we'll get the right people involved and if we can't do it, we can't do it. I'm a big believer in transparency and working with welders and suppliers and customers just to ultimately enjoy what we're doing and enjoy what we do every day, enjoy the welding game and enjoy working with people. So in five years, the ultimate goal is to have coverage right across Canada and in the US because the opportunity is there.
Speaker 2:People like to do business face-to-face, they like to do good business, they like to talk with people and we're really getting to those roots and getting to the people to assure them we're here for the long haul and we want. We, we value your business. We're a small company, we're a family company. You know, dad can make a decision, like you said. I like that quote that you said. We can make decisions on the fly. We don't have a big ladder to go up. Yeah, something about begging, forgiveness or something like that, dad, you know, but but, but you know, and that's, we can pivot, we can have it right now now we do that and almost daily.
Speaker 4:It's amazing how we'll change, not direction, but you know just your attitude. You can help along the way.
Speaker 1:So same question to you then don you know what's five years out for you? Like you said two years ago, jason comes back and you're starting to be like you know what. I'm gonna start taking a backseat. I'm buying electric bikes on the beach in Mexico. Decisions are being made Serious ones. Right. Where are you in the next five years, Don? What's your dream?
Speaker 4:Well, I think every probably every month I tend to. I said two years ago I said I only want to be banging around for another two years, but you should be able to pick up most of what we've done. We've started to do the traveling to a lot of our major suppliers already and sit down with them and sort of outline what we're looking at doing. We have to continue doing that. We want to have our supply line so solid that we know that there's container loads on that boat coming over for delivery in two weeks.
Speaker 1:We know that if there's a port that's having a strike issue that we have another plan B behind it, or it's, I think.
Speaker 4:For me, the geography and spending time to help Jason put it all together is part of the process, but I think where Eagle Alloys is today is going to be a carbon copy, moving forward only at a bigger pace, where we've got to more people with more success stories and we surely need to have our welders. If you've been onto our website, you've probably seen a lot of the different applications they've done with some of our hard facing.
Speaker 1:They're getting very artistic at it and I really get a kick out of that, the swirls and the. I mean, we weren't allowed to do that when I was a welder. You don't get to be fancy or make it pretty. You get the damn checker.
Speaker 4:But but but, max, that was because the welding rod was so bad. Welding rod was so bad, all you could see was smoke and you saw nothing until that thing settled down.
Speaker 1:I said, hey, they're good that was close and you had to back away for a couple of feet while the flux shot at you to try to kill you. Oh yeah, Take your eye out.
Speaker 4:You know the only other thing in closing on this Max, we did take on a line called Optrail.
Speaker 3:And when Jason got onto that.
Speaker 4:It was probably because I sold off trail 20 years ago in my welding supply store when there was everybody else coming out with the electronics helmets and also the air makeup, the air packs, all of that. Hey, welders guys, I'm 71 years old, I have 20, 20 vision. I watched my big 70 inch flat screen. I listened to my really cool old rock and roll because I protected myself, I wore the right helmet.
Speaker 4:I wore the right equipment and when you're welding on some of this stuff, as you referred to earlier, that the smoke coming off of that and the welding process is happening. Guys, protect yourself.
Speaker 4:And we have those products. We're into it also. We're more than just welding. We're trying to make our program and our company the company that welders want to deal with, because we're looking after the welders, we're not just looking after the bottom line. Here at Eagle Always, we want to help these guys to be a long-time friend in this industry. Yep, that's what I keep saying to people.
Speaker 1:Like if you, when you support someone, you support them from the cradle to the grave, there's no, there's no part time. You know, like uh, and that's what I, when I got hired at CWB. They're like you know what would you? And I say, well, you got to get out there, you got to be on the street, you got to be your feet on the street and you got to be in front of people when you talk to them. You can't talk to them from the ivory tower, that's not going to do nothing.
Speaker 4:No, no, no, and that's where you get your information from. Our guys are on the field every day. They come back and they tell us stories.
Speaker 3:It's like really want to go down that road now walk away from that one, get on to the next one, yeah there's so many opportunities out there for companies like ours if they want to take the time and go after it.
Speaker 4:But good luck. We've been doing this for 35 years. I think we got the formula down awesome, awesome.
Speaker 1:And in terms of you know the relationship between the two of you, I gotta ask you know, has this brought you guys closer together as father and son? Because, let me tell you, I worked with my dad for 10 years and after I stopped working with him, I didn't talk to him for a couple years.
Speaker 4:I think the best thing that Jason did and I did is I went after my thing and went at it wholeheartedly. Jason went after his, learned that side of the business I think I knew my side of it very well, Jason knows his side of it very well and to merge those two together, we're not banging heads because it just flows together so nicely right now that it's all. So positive there's not really a lot of negatives out there that would want us to not talk anymore because he realizes I'm still the boss. So positive there's not really a lot of negatives out there that that would want us to not talk anymore because he realizes I'm still the boss.
Speaker 4:Well, he did call you the Don, so for another few months and then I will pass the torch and I think my son will become the the real dude here in in Eagle, Ice, Eagle Alloys. As we move forward, I'll always have my fingers in there a little bit, but I'm proud of. I'm proud of what we've got going on today for sure.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm glad that I got to get both of you on the show. I'm glad I got to meet you and talk to you at length. Like I said, I'm in Saskatchewan and I've been able, I've had the privilege of using your guys' products for decades. You know, and I actually, until this podcast, didn't know that it was not available in other provinces or easily available, because, as a Saskatchewan person, it was like, yeah, just call up. You know they'll send a couple of boxes down and we'll fix this up. And I didn't realize that. You know people in Ontario. They're like what the heck are you talking about? So thank you, guys. You know for being around and taking that time in a market that that is a niche market that needed attention, that no one really was giving it the attention you know.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think. I think that's a big thing because there's there's a lot more to welding than 70, 18. There's, you know, there's your cast irons, the maluminiums, the manganese, this, this, all of them and of him, and I think we've got a fairly good product offering that we really enjoy showing because it works and when it works that's what you want.
Speaker 1:That's what you want. Any last words, jason, any shout-outs or anything you'd like to say to anybody?
Speaker 2:No, I don't really.
Speaker 2:I just you know what I was talking with some of the staff, with some sales meetings on Monday and back to my dad, and my dad will always be the boss of this company yeah, and if we ever need to go into a home to see him and figure out he doesn't know who we are he's the boss, this was his passion, this is his baby and for for forever, he's the boss and I have that respect for that and for what's been done and what's been established with this company, and I'm only hell, I'm only here to bring it to a different level, not a new level, just a different level. And uh, and it's just, and I, we, just, we appreciate the relationships I like with you, max, and the people we've met along the way. Like dad referred to, just those relationships are so important. Even if you don't do any business together, relationships are still worth a lot of money and a lot of value and we appreciate, uh, we appreciate all of that. We haven't lost sight of what's important in business, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:And Jason, how do people find Eagle Alloys?
Speaker 2:Eaglealloysca is the best way to find it.
Speaker 1:Awesome and Don, thanks so much for taking time to be on the show here today. You know I really appreciate that you taking some time out of your your trip in Mexico here to get onto the to come on the show.
Speaker 4:Well, you know what, if it wasn't for the hard work of all those guys and gals back at Eagle Alloys and my son keeping this whole thing together while I'm down here looking for?
Speaker 4:the next margarita happy hour, but that's what it's at. I even addressed the sales meeting the other morning, said hey guys, keep doing what you're doing because it allows me to do it and you don't sometimes see that in business that there is at the back end really a cool time, and that's where I'm at, because I'm enjoying what I'm seeing. I can now see it on social media every day and be a part of it, when I don't have to be a part of it. I just like what I see. It's awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, I just had this conversation with my wife this morning. It's so funny you say that because you know 31 years I've been welding. I started welding when I was 17 as well. I'm coming up on my 32nd year and and uh, and it's, at some point you start thinking I, I feel good about what I've done. I'm I leave for chile in two weeks for a month, so I'm getting on the same train here.
Speaker 4:Pretty nice, because that's what it's, and you'll be looking for things that you'll be looking for a welding rod fat yeah, hey, if you find one come back and tell us I already found one to add, to be honest, and they're actually I'm already talking to them, they're they.
Speaker 1:I actually got a tour of their plant and they still make some of the electrodes by hand. They still have like a visual quality control in Dura, a very neat company in Chile that makes electrodes.
Speaker 1:That's cool story we want kids to know too. Like, get into welding yeah, it's cool, you can make your money. But fast forward 35 years. You're going to retire, you're going to be fine, you're going to have a good career, you're going to be able to buy the house and the boat and the trailer and travel, and you'll be able to have retirement time in Mexico or Cuba or wherever you want. That's what it's for. It's not just to make money, it's to have a good life, right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, welding is more than a job. It's a heck of a career, and I started off in welding and here I'm in the sales side of it at a very high level, but welding is the passion that's where it all started. There's got to be a better way.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Well, thanks to the both of you for coming on the show. I really Well.
Speaker 4:Thanks to the both of you for coming on the show. I really, really appreciate it. Thanks, max. Look forward to meeting you or seeing you in person. Have one of these shows, it's always fun.
Speaker 1:We'll see you soon.
Speaker 1:And for all the people that have been stay on. Stay on just for a second, but for all the people that have been watching and downloading, thanks so much. Make sure you check out eaglealloyca, make sure you download, share and comment on all of our uh content that you've been watching and also on our buzz sprout. Now for our podcast, we have a new feature called fan mail, so if you want to go on there and send us any messages or requests, feel free to use that feature. And we have welding industry day in red deer, june 11th, uh, so make sure you mark that on your calendar, because we're going to be in alberta, we're bringing the whole down, we're going to have over 20 speakers, suppliers, and we're working with Red Deer Polytechnic as well to do some open house stuff and get some tours there and show off the college that they just invested into. So hopefully I'll see you there. But until then, catch you at the next episode. We hope you enjoy the show.
Speaker 3:You've been listening to the CWB Association Welding Podcast with Max Cerone. If you enjoyed what you heard today, rate our podcast and visit us at cwbassociationorg to learn more. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions on what you'd like to learn about in the future. Produced by the CWB Group and presented by Max Hulken, this podcast serves to educate and connect the welding community. Please subscribe and thank you for listening.