Always thinking

Bruce Matson, who owns the metal fabrication company Matson Design Specialties and operates it alongside his son Zack, admits he seldom stops thinking.

 

“I have to keep a notebook in my pocket to write my ideas down,” he comments.

 

The two-man shop, located about three miles north of Waseca along Highway 13, got its start 12 years ago thanks to financial support from the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF), the organization founded and led by Tim Penney for decades prior to his recent retirement.

 

“If it weren’t for SMIF,” comments Matson, “my business wouldn’t exist.”

 

With the starter loan from SMIF, he says he was able to purchase “three critical pieces of equipment for cutting, shaping and welding” metal. Along with that, he arranged an appearance at a Minneapolis home and garden show. “We made some key connections that have stayed with our business since then,” he says.

 

Matson graduated high school in 1974 and then attended the Brooklyn Technical Center in Hennepin; he learned to be a welder and went on to work at various metal fabrication businesses in the metro area for the next 35 years or so.

 

“But I always dreamed of having my own shop,” he describes.

 

Thanks to his connections with metro area businesses, Matson and his son have taken on some demanding projects. One that immediately comes to mind for him is a curving metal staircase which the customer wanted to lead from a second-level deck down about 13 feet to a patio and pool. For aesthetic reasons, it was planned without any support posts: only its connection to the deck above and its position on the ground below.

 

Matson describes using a laser-based measuring tool capable of determining distances in two directions simultaneously, then building a framework and stair treads to very tight tolerances, with the curved shape of the structure affecting every aspect of the work. He can’t help commenting, “Not every welder could have pulled that off.” 

 

Once built, the stair was delivered in pieces to D & K Powder Coating, a Mankato company Matson says he uses often for putting weather-durable coatings on his projects. With everything ready, he recalls, assembling the stair in place required considerable precision, since despite looking very much alike, each piece of the structure was made to set into one, specific fitted location.

 

Matson is also pleased to have been selected to build items used at some historically significant settings. Six decorative metal pieces his company made hang almost like banners from pillars at the University of Minnesota’s Grace B. Dayton wildflower garden. Matson Designs built a security gate carefully crafted to look as if it is an original part of the 1881 James J. Hill mansion in St. Paul. He and Zack also once crafted some custom light fixtures to match those in a home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

 

Perhaps the largest single project he has taken on was replacing the balcony railings at a downtown Minneapolis apartment building with more than 350 rental units. Matson was a subcontractor with a metro area renovation company rejuvenating the exterior brickwork and other features. Metal railings built decades ago were beginning to show their age and, once part of the project, had to be replaced with pieces which meet modern building code standards. Doing so required dozens of matching railings about 15 feet long and 5 feet high in various configurations–some were simply straight, some turned corners in one direction, some in the other.

 

Matson describes building them all to specifications, having them powder coated, then delivering them to Minneapolis to have union construction workers install them.

 

“When you work on large-scale projects like that, you have to remember you’re part of a bigger picture,” Matson mentions. “If you agree to deliver product by a certain date, you better do it. Otherwise you can throw off the timing of the whole operation.”

 

Matson says he thrives on the pressures of a demanding project, enjoying the fact that, after working for others for 35 years, his energy, creativity, and skill now allow him to work under his own name, building his own company’s reputation and strengthening its standing with customers and cooperating businesses.

 

Matson was found at a recent session of the Waseca area farmers’ market offering small-scale examples of his production skills: miniature smoker grills.

 

He admits they are an offshoot of many of the personality traits he brings to his business. “I saw some miniature grills on YouTube last Christmas,” he recalls. “It seemed like a fun idea.

 

“But I was completely disappointed with the quality of the workmanship.

 

“I said to myself, ‘I can do a lot better than that.’”

 

Since Christmas, Matson says he has used some of his spare time to build about 20 of the miniature smokers that “work just like the full-sized ones, but don’t cook as much food.” He says he has used one of the larger ones–which is mounted on a model of a fifth-wheel trailer–to prepare six chicken wings at a time.

 

Matson claims there is nothing odd about a form of “relaxation” which has him spending time at his workplace. “I’ve got one corner that’s just for me,” he says. “I sit down, start tinkering, and just get in the zone.”

 

Apparently true to his claim that he “never stops thinking,” he says he is often designing the next project in his head while still assembling the current one. “It’s what I do,” he can’t help observing. “I like the challenge of making creative things.”