by Joe Romanowski
Chairman & CEO

I have a great “American Dream” story to share with you.  In 1989, Dennis Philopulous, journeymen tool and diemaker, employee of Twin Disc in Racine, WI was laid off.  Dennis explained, “At that time to receive an unemployment check, you had to actively look for a job.  I started calling on job shops and they kept asking if I could run a Mazak.  I couldn’t, but I thought it was something I should know how to do.”  Dennis was eventually called back to Twin Disc but he didn’t forget about Mazak.  His company would not send him to Mazak program training, so he took vacation time and paid for the programming course out of his own pocket.  He traveled to Illinois to attend class at the Mazak Midwest Technical Center in Schaumburg, IL.  When he returned back to work, he began to petition his boss for a Mazak.  Dennis had heard that the Production Department had an old M-5 that was just declared scrap.  He talked his boss into letting him rebuild it.  He did and then ran it for eight years.

He said his boss really liked him, so he gave Dennis confidential notice that Twin Disc would close down his department in 6-8 months.  That was the push Dennis needed.  He decided to start his own machining business, now called CNC V-Twin Machine Shop in Racine, WI.  As Dennis said, “it was all a gamble. I went on the internet and found a Quick Turn 15 with a T-32 control, borrowed $40,000 from the bank and moved the machine into the garage that I built with my own hands.  Business took off so quickly for me that I was able to pay off my bank note in six months.  I then found a Mazak VQC 15/40 with a M-2 control and paid cash for it.  I worked out of my garage for four years and just before I moved I bought a brand new  Mazak Nexus QTN250 with barfeeder.

“I love what I do!  I work 6 to 6 everyday.”  Dennis intuitively understands the impact of throughput.  He confidently states, “the faster I push the work out of my shop, the more money I make.  I specialize in short run, fast delivery.  Whenever the customer wants it delivered, I do it.  If it takes an overnighter, I do that.  You see I’m the owner and the president.  I wear shorts to work and I feel like I’m retired because the machines do all the work.  It’s easy.”

Dennis admitted that when he first started out, “I didn’t know what to do.  I didn’t know how to get jobs.  I didn’t know much about business.  But, I just figured it out.  I just started calling companies.  In fact, my first customer I found by calling a want ad.  It was a mold shop, and they asked me if I could do their core pins.  Now do all their core pins.  I just started to call companies and ask if they needed anything done.  It took me about a year to figure out what I had to do.”

“I’m super fast in programming a Mazak.  I can look at a print and know exactly how to program it.  When I’m programming, I often have to wait for the computer to catch up to me.  I’m really good at arcs.  Whatever leaves my shop is 100% right.  It’s exactly what the print says.”

Dennis claims that he didn’t get good grades in school.  He says he didn’t find himself until he decided that he wanted to be a toolmaker.  I’ve concluded that Dennis is a brilliant man, a genius.  Not only that but he’s got the entrepreneurial spirit that has continued to make his company as great as it is.  As Dennis said, “Twin Disc and Harley Davidson started in garage, so why can’t I?”  Earlier this year Dennis moved out of his garage and moved into a facility about a mile away.