World traveling welder quietly continues 40-year business in Springville
Jeff Jackson works on a welding project at Hamblin Welding in Springville on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2015. The welding company has been open for 40 years and has been passed down from father to son. SAMMY JO HESTER, The Daily Herald
Larry Hamblin poses for a portrait at his company, Hamblin Welding, in Springville on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2015. The welding company has been open for 40 years and has been passed down from father to son. SAMMY JO HESTER, The Daily Herald
Jeff Jackson works on a welding project at Hamblin Welding in Springville on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2015. The welding company has been open for 40 years and has been passed down from father to son. SAMMY JO HESTER, The Daily Herald
Larry Hamblin works on a welding project at Hamblin Welding in Springville on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2015. The welding company has been open for 40 years and has been passed down from father to son. SAMMY JO HESTER, The Daily Herald
Jeff Jackson works on a welding project at Hamblin Welding in Springville on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2015. The welding company has been open for 40 years and has been passed down from father to son. SAMMY JO HESTER, The Daily Herald
Jeff Jackson works on a welding project at Hamblin Welding in Springville on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2015. The welding company has been open for 40 years and has been passed down from father to son. SAMMY JO HESTER, The Daily Herald
Jeff Jackson works on a welding project at Hamblin Welding in Springville on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2015. The welding company has been open for 40 years and has been passed down from father to son. SAMMY JO HESTER, The Daily Herald
<h3>Traveling welder
Larry Hamblin works on a welding project at Hamblin Welding in Springville on Nov. 17. The welding company has been open for 40 years and has been passed down from father to son. See more at http://bit.ly/1Q9m7ju.
Larry Hamblin never thought he’d be a world traveling welder, but he is.
Hamblin is the son of Wallace Hamblin, who started Hamblin Welding in 1971 in Springville. The elder Hamblin grew up on a farm in Payson, learning farm-related welding when he was 10 years old. After a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a stint in the Navy, Wallace Hamblin went to welding school on the GI Bill. He opened his welding shop in downtown Springville, and though the shop has moved many times over the years, it has stayed on that same block bordered by 100 East and 100 North for 44 years.
“I wanted to do something that would be around forever,” Wallace Hamblin said of his career choice. “Even if the economy got bad, you might not be building new things, but you’d be repairing things. And in a good economy, you’re building new things, while still doing repairs.”
The idea worked and supported the Hamblin family well. Larry Hamblin grew up in the shop, helping out and learning welding before most people take on algebra and geometry. Larry took over the shop about 10 years ago.
The shop has always worked with local and national fruit growers – building the tanks, boxes, processing tables and conveyors growers need for FDA food handling regulations. They specialize in Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) welding with stainless steel – a “tricky” type of welding that many welders won’t touch, Larry Hamblin said.
Wallace Hamblin spent many of his years in the business traveling around the nation doing custom builds for various fruit growers. This has been the Hamblin Welding niche through the years, but they also have been involved in almost every other type of welding.
“I love the variety of it, because when I do get stuck on one thing, I can do another,” Larry Hamblin said. “My favorite stuff is building the stuff people have a hard time getting anyone else to do.”
In addition to working with stainless steel, Hamblin Welding does railings, commercial beams and installations. They take on such a variety that recently Larry was creating a custom metal table a client had requested – working just from a picture. Off to one side of that project were metal barriers to protect the gas valves at a local gas station.
“It’s a lot of work, and it’s hard and quite dirty – it’s not a clean job to be sure. But there’s satisfaction turning a piece of flat metal into something useful. You have a sense of pride in what you’ve made,” Wallace Harding said. He has that same sense of satisfaction as he goes out for drives with his wife, and he can point out things he’s made.
Recently, the shop’s reputation for working with stainless steel earned Larry work on a specific type of bulletproof stainless steel. For about four years, Larry has worked as a contractor for Action Target in Provo, traveling to Slovania, Japan, Egypt, Germany, Dubai and multiple places around the United States. In each area, he builds custom parts for Action Target’s on-site installations, sometimes living and working on one project for months.
“It’s been really neat to see all the places I’ve seen. Never in a million years, I thought I’d see the world doing this,” Larry said.
Driving down 100 North in Springville, many people probably miss the welding shop tucked back behind some adjacent buildings. But that doesn’t bother Larry. Their shop always has plenty of work. The Hamblins have never advertised to bring in business, and Larry attributes that to the level of craftsmanship his dad taught him, a standard he’s expected from himself and his two employees.
“We take our time and do quality work,” Larry said. “We do a lot of work for local businesses and contractors, and it’s all about doing good quality every time.”
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