Metalworking Beginnings
Ever since he was small, Tony Ratcliff loved to create things. He would draw and design and do woodworking, but it wasn’t until he’d found his dream truck that he decided to learn metal fabrication. He owned a 1971 Chevy C10 pickup and wanted to shorten its bed, which required him to learn how to weld. That opened the door for him to continue to make things out of metal.
Fabrication was never more than a little side work for him, something he did in his garage after work and on weekends to make a little extra money. It was while he was doing design work for a cabinet company in Meridian, Idaho called Greyloch that the stage was set for him to begin his own fabrication business.
Greyloch would occasionally buy small metal parts like brackets from local fabricators, and that prompted Tony to offer to make the parts himself. To put him on the books as a vendor, they needed him to officially start his own company. TratFab was born, with the name based on his nickname of “T-Rat,” a shortened version of his name that some of his friends used.
A Decade of Growth
Begun in 2016, TratFab was operated out of Tony’s garage as he continued to work for Greyloch full time as their CTO (Chief Technology Officer), designing cabinetry lines and developing their automation.
His clientele was limited at first since he was a part-time one-man shop. Through the cabinet company he developed relationships with builders, and they often needed custom metal parts, so he’d do work for them. “If somebody wanted something really cool and unique, then that’s what I would do, and that’s how I kind of built my brand,” he said.
It was when Greyloch opened their new state-of-the-art facility north of Meridian in Star, Idaho in 2023 that TratFab’s business really took off. His boss had suggested that the new building could also house a fab shop for Tony’s business. The two of them sat down at Tony’s computer and designed a building to meet the needs of both companies and they sent the plans to their architects to build.
With 4000 square feet of dedicated space, Tony began to hire employees of his own. “We’ve gone through a lot of people to try and find the right team members,” Tony said. They currently have ten employees who manage the day-to-day operations of the shop while Tony continues his work for Greyloch, checking in on things at the shop as needed.
His team consists of a shop foreman, who also fabricates and welds along with managing the shop, three fabricators, a full-time laser operator, a full-time press brake operator, two full-time installers, and a shipping manager. Rounding out the staff is Justin, the main designer. “He’s been with me two years now,” Tony said. “He’s amazing. He does all of the designing for the company, sends out the drawings. I couldn’t do without him. So, he’s my main guy.”
Tools of the Trade
“My first big purchase was an Ellis 1600 bandsaw,” Tony said, “And then I bought a 4×4 plasma because I could only fit in my garage space.”
Once he was able to move his operation into the new building, he loosened the purse strings a bit. “I knew that I had to take a chance. I didn’t have the work—all of my work was always by word of mouth.” He saw that doing more day-to-day fabrication and not just focusing on custom projects would be needed to pay staff and keep the doors open.
He started doing larger projects for the builders he knew, such as fabricating railings, and began to enlarge his machine inventory. “I would say our biggest purchases were the six-kilowatt laser and then our press brake,” a 135-ton 10′ model.
He knew he would also need a bigger band saw.
Enter RMT
Tony had heard of Revolution Machine Tools (RMT) and would see their booth at the FABTECH show. RMT regularly sponsors a drawing to win a small bandsaw at FABTECH, so Tony entered it one year. “We won that bandsaw,” he said, but instead of taking the small saw, “I paid the difference for the bigger bandsaw” that he now has in his shop, an RMT S-FAB™ PDM 13-18, a semi-automatic pivot-type double miter bandsaw with a 13″ by 18″ rectangular cutting capacity at 90°.
When asked what Tony likes about RMT, Tony replied with a laugh, “Well, first of all, I love the colors because match mine.” Continuing, he said, “So far the quality of the machine has been great.” He also noted RMT’s commitment to their customers. “I’ve had a couple of small issues. They’ve always returned calls quickly or answered them on the first ring,” he said, “so I think customer service has always been outstanding.”
Regarding the purchase of his saw, he stated, “Their salesman Brad has been awesome. Anytime I ever need anything or have a question, that guy’s money.” In looking over RMT’s line up of other machines, he says that it seems like they do a good job, and he’s heard great things about RMT equipment from others in the industry. He’s recently been looking at tubing rollers from them, and when it comes time to replace his press brake or laser, RMT will be his first call. “My experience with them has been good.”
