In 1950 the population of Jackson, Wyoming was just over twelve hundred hardy souls who chose to brave the sub-zero winters under an average six feet of snowfall in order to enjoy the beautiful but short alpine summers. Snow King Resort was celebrating its twentieth anniversary (Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Teton Village and Grand Targhee would open over the next two decades). And, John D Rockefeller Jr had just purchased and donated over 30,000 acres to expand Grand Teton National Park.
One of those hardy early 1950s Jacksonites was a man named Norm Meller. Norm founded Teton Machine Company in the basement of his home and began producing tooling and machined parts for manufacturing companies in Utah. Norm would witness the quadrupling of Jackson’s population, an explosion of recreational tourists and the steady growth of his business in both size and complexity over the next three decades. In the late seventies Norm would sell his business to one of those recreational tourists and watch Teton move from Jackson, Wyoming to Payette, Idaho. That move would allow Teton Machine Company to better serve its newest and largest customer, Hewlett Packard.
The next four decades would see Teton switch from cam operated screw machines to CNC Swiss lathes, dual spindle CNC lathes with live tooling and CNC mills including a horizontal cell with two machining centers sharing a sixteen pallet automated system. Rick Rupp, the man who bought Teton Machine Company and moved it to Payette, would sell the company to the employees through an ESOP plan. The customer base, which still includes some of those original Utah companies, would grow to include aerospace component manufacturers, medical device companies and even NASA. Teton Machine would outgrow its original Payette facility and build a new one with double the floor space next door.
Norm
On the morning of October 24th, 2019 the employee/owners of Teton Machine Company assembled to witness another company milestone. Teton’s first robot was removed from his crate, mounted to his cart and christened Norm in honor of our founder. Norm is the newest member of our production team. Norm will be performing simple repetitive production tasks freeing up our production team to do more creative and interesting work. Norm will also be working nights, weekends and holidays while the rest of us enjoy our free time.
Happy Birthday Norm and Welcome Aboard!
Located in Payette, Idaho, Teton Machine provides a wide range of precision machining services for leading companies across the United States. As an employee-owned company, all of us have a vested interest in providing the highest quality service in our industry. Companies who work with us recognize and appreciate this commitment, which has played a major role in our ongoing growth.
Whether you need CNC milling, CNC turning, Swiss machining, product consulting, or are unsure what machining process best suits you, we’d love to hear from you. We know and understand manufacturing, and will be happy to share our industry knowledge with you.