View Video in YouTube

Charles Blair and his father, Bill started Doraville Custom Machine Services (DCMS) while Charles was still working full time at another company. When his employer began downsizing, they decided to take the shop full time and incorporated in March of 2007. They relocated the shop from Doraville to its current location in Lawrenceville later that same year, but kept the original name. Charles is the only full time employee but Bill does help out, and a friend is available when they have extra work. DCMS started to service the requirements of research facilities and engineering new products. Most of this work has been for the medical industry or support industries for manufacturing. So far, these parts have mostly been jigs, fixtures and replacement parts, with a few new products thrown into the mix. These smaller projects have not been very profitable, so recently they have been trying to branch out into more production oriented parts.

Charles bought his first CNC machine used in 2007 - a small tool-room lathe. While it wasn't a bad machine, its limitations were made apparent very quickly. He soon needed a CNC mill and found a really cheap used machine. This also was a nice machine but it soon needed to be upgraded and in 2008 Charles bought a used Okuma Howa machining center. This machine really opened his shop to some new opportunities and he began to see the possibilities of a more production-oriented business. According to Charles, this is why he really wanted to enter the contest Okuma offered. His equipment wasn't the best kind suited for production work and the lathe that he had purchased at the beginning of 2009 had sat broken more often than it had run. He was in desperate need of a machine that would be reliable, accurate and have the technological edge over the other shops in his area.

Charles enjoys working with various industries and new products. Apart from the medical devices they sometimes repair or modify, DCMS has made parts for a lifting system used to repair and maintain wind turbines, new products used in law enforcement, LED lamp designs, parts for electric car projects, and several new and emerging technologies. They have worked with a wide range of materials but mostly stick to aluminum, stainless steel and polymers. Charles enjoys these projects and each one of them has some future potential but only if he has the right equipment at the right time. He is confident that the new machine tool from Okuma will help take his company to that next level.

www.dcmsinc.com