Fledgling machine tool company looks to take wing, fly

From left, Ben Brown, Tom Lamontagne and Ryan O'Connor. (Courtesy photos)

LEBANON - While Lebanon's not exactly thought of now as the machine tool hub of New England, three intrepid entrepreneurs are looking to at least put it on the map in the very near future.

Element Machine Tool of Lebanon is owned and operated by Tom Lamontagne and Ryan O'Connor, both of Lebanon, and Ben Brown of Milton.

A machine tool by definition is a machine for shaping or machining metal or other rigid materials, usually by cutting, boring, grinding, shearing, or other forms of deformation.

Lamontagne, a 2003 graduate of Noble High School, further explains that "Everything you touch see or feel around you was made with equipment similar to what we make."

The three owners comprise the entire workforce of Element, but their individual backgrounds cover all the necessary bases for a successful venture.

And a successful venture it has been already. The company, which last month celebrated its first anniversary, recently sold two of its machines - at a retail cost of just under $40,000 apiece - to a Rochester production facility that cannot be disclosed due to contractual agreement, Lamontagne said.

Tom Lamontagne preps two Torrent-R Vertical Machining Centers for delivery to a customer in Rochester.

Lamontagne, who some may remember as a standout saxophone player in Noble's jazz band, received his bachelor's in mechanical engineering at the University of Maine and is a licensed engineer. He went on to work at several manufacturing companies in Maine and Vermont before co-founding Element last year.

Brown, who lives in Milton, worked in sales at Tyler Machine of Seabrook, N.H., for 23 years before joining the team.

And O'Connor got his master's in accounting at Southern New Hampshire University after doing undergraduate work at Slippery Rock College in Pennsylvania.

While Element's corporate headquarters are at Lamontagne's Lebanon home on Lower Guinea Road, he does most of the actual building of the machines at a facility owned by Newfangled Solutions machining in Livermore Falls, Maine.

It is there that Lamontagne fashions the machines. Much of the initial assembly of the machine takes place in China, but all of the electronics, software and controls are then completed in Livermore Falls, he said

While Lamontagne stays busy with outfitting the machines and O'Connor runs the business side, Brown works to make contacts for sales and develop a distribution network.

Right now the team is focused locally to ensure they can support their clients, but to make money they know they have to grow, too.

Brown said they were in discussions with distribution outlets in Maine, New York and Florida as well as internationally in the United Kingdom and Brazil.

Lamontagne said the plan was to lay low and work on prototypes the first year, but now they're ready to take it to the next level.

"We're in our second year and we've already sold a quality machine," Lamontagne said. "Some take three years to put out an inferior product."

And while the company spent its first year in the red like most machine tool startups, they hope to turn a profit by the third or fourth quarter of this year.

"By adding distributors we hope to see sales skyrocket, plus we'll begin R and D (research and development) for our next machine to be built from the ground up right here in Maine," said Lamontagne.

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