Magill family keeps it metal at All-Steel Fabricating

Inside All-Steel Fabricating’s sprawling Creeper Hill manufacturing facility is what appears, at first, to be a small shed.

It’s not a shed and it’s not small — the sheer size of the company that literally grew up around it creates the optical illusion. Built in 1969 by Jim Magill, Sr., to house the company now run by his sons, Kevin Magill and Jim Magill, Jr., the company has since expanded to 30,000 square feet, containing machines that cut what used to be hours of work to mere minutes.

There’s a high-definition plasma cutting machine. A press that rolls a bar of steel into a thinner, longer bar as easily as rolling out a sheet of pasta — and rolls it into a hoop. There are cranes that can hoist up to 20 tons, and racks of steel in the back. And unlike many businesses, it kept on going all through COVID-19, since its work is deemed essential.

“You all use our products every day,” said Kevin Magill as he led state Rep. David Muradian and state Sen. Michael Moore on a tour. “We make machines that go on and make K-Cups, baby wipes. For Revlon, they make the tubes for their makeup. Virtually everything you can put your hands on, we make the machinery that did it.”

It’s not just the little things — if you ever drive over the Bayonne Bridge in New Jersey, you can take comfort that the I-beams were crafted in Grafton. The same can be said for projects around the world, Magill said, noting that All-Steel has shipped as far away as South Korea.

All-Steel Fabricating was recently honored with the Legislative Manufacturing Caucus’ 2021 Manufacturing Award, nominated for the honor by both Muradian and Moore.

“This is a great example of a local company that has international impact,” Moore said.

Along with the growing business is an increasing need for employees to join the now 26-person crew — but they can be hard to find, Magill said. This is due in part, he said, to vocational schools’ changing student focus..

“Blackstone now has a 95 percent rate of kids going on to college,” he said. “The kids are not graduating Blackstone and going on to enter the job market. The kids who need the trade programs are not getting into the trade programs.”

Something went wrong!

Help support Grafton’s only independent source of news with a donation!