Spinning for Love and Money
For three generations, the Brennamans have poured their hearts and souls into the business of spinning metal.

By Ellen Jensen

Entrepreneurs: Larry and Laura Brennaman
Company Name: United Metal Spinning of Kansas City
        813 Winchester
        Kansas City, MO 64125
        (816) 241-2222
        www.umspinkc.com
Type of Business: Metal Spinning
Year Founded: 1929
Number of Employees: 5 full-time plus 1 part-time employee
Keys to Success: “You have to love it. Spinning is a lot of hard work, but we love everything about it: the machines, the metal, the grease, the whole thing.”—Laura Brennaman


Spinning. It isn’t the latest dance move or exercise craze, although it does require fancy moves and some stamina. In this case, spinning is all about metal and grease and working with your hands. It’s about hard work and creating metal pieces that could wind up on an airplane, a popcorn machine or a spire atop Bartle Hall. Spinning is about family tradition, and it’s a labor of love.

Technically, metal spinning is a method of forming flat or pre-formed metal on a lathe over a revolving wooden or metal form (also called a “chuck” or “tooling”) into a seamless product by applying pressure with a spinning tool or roller. It’s an efficient method of forming circular or cylindrical shapes.
Artistically, you have to learn to feel the metal and know how far you can push without breaking it. Finding that “touch” takes years of practice—both Larry Brennaman and his son Larry Jr. have been spinning since they were 16. Four-year-old Daniel Brian, five-year-old Larry Robert and 16-year-old Kyle are just starting out, part of the next generation of Brennaman spinners.
    
New World, New Opportunity
The story begins more then 75 years ago when Otto Klemm, a master metal spinner in Germany, made his way to the United States in the mid-1920s with his knowledge, a few tools and some patents to prove that he could make it in the land of opportunity. In the late 1920s, he found himself in Kansas City, where he met Jesse Bell. He and Bell started their own spinning business in Klemm’s basement in 1929. In 1932, they moved the business to a larger space and incorporated it under the name United Metal Spinning Company (UMS).

When she was 11 years old, Klemm’s daughter, Elfriede, helped out after school cutting blanks, drilling holes in the metal spinnings and preparing wood to be used to anneal, or soften, the spinnings. After her father died, Elfriede and her husband, Carl Brennaman, took over the company where Carl had been an apprentice since he was 19. 

Carl passed away in 1999, and in October 2000, Larry’s mother and brother decided they could no longer hang on to the business. With two children in college, Larry was in no position to buy it, so after more than 70 years the business was out of the family’s hands. Larry, a retired Kansas City, Mo., police officer, stayed on to manage the shop, and Larry Jr. continued to work there as well.

“It’s difficult to own this type of business but be physically located somewhere else,” Larry said.

In June 2004, the owners approached the Brennamans, asking if they would be interested in buying the company back. In July 2004, Larry and Laura brought the business back into the family.

Heavy Metal
UMS starts with flat sheets of metal, including brass, bronze, copper, cold-metal steel, hot-metal steel, aluminum, silver and gold. The sheets come in varying thicknesses, depending on the type of metal. The aluminum they work with, for example, may be anywhere from 10/1000 of an inch thick to 3/16 of an inch.

UMS has started working with silver more often over the last couple of years as a subcontractor for silversmiths such as Robyn Nichols, who has UMS spin out metal into predetermined shapes.

“She takes the pieces we spin out and makes the most magnificent artwork,” Laura said.

Before spinning, UMS cuts the metal into squares. Then the square pieces go to the circle shear where they are cut into circles. They place the metal discs against the chucks on the lathe, turn on the motor and use various tools to coax and trim the metal into shape. UMS makes all of its own chucks out of iron or clear maple, which is hard enough to withstand the spinning and doesn’t have knots.

Endless Possibilities
Almost anything that requires a rounded shape is fair game, and the possibilities for their work are limited only by the imagination. UMS’s pieces have been used for smokestacks on mini trains, parts for heating and cooling systems, hubcaps for coal trucks, church goods such as baptismal fonts and chalices, art on top of Bartle Hall, goat milk strainers and light fixtures for City Hall in Kansas City, Mo., and in Navy ships.

For 75 years, the company has been a well-kept secret from the public, but the Brennamans hope to change that. They want to expand, offering more completed products instead of just parts that are the basis for larger works.

“Now, people want a finished product from one place,” Larry said. “They don’t want to get something spun here, then take it over to another place to get it finished.”

To that end, the Brennamans have started working on their own line of bakeware, which they plan to market as Klemmware, after Otto Klemm. They currently have 9-inch and 10-inch pie plates, a round baking tray that can be used for a variety of things, including pizza, rolls and cookies. They also are working on producing muffin tins.

“They are heavy aluminum pans—sturdy, good-quality baking pans,” Laura said. “I have been using the pans for 30 years, but mine started out as truck parts. Larry has since redesigned them.”

They also are working on a lazy Susan for kitchen cabinets. The goal is to have all of the parts completely finished, ready to be assembled before they ship them out.

Marketing
The challenge is for a company that’s been almost solely a subcontractor for 75 years to learn how to market themselves and their finished products. They have been talking to some cabinet builders about the lazy Susans and are considering cooking magazines for the bakeware. Trade shows are on their list of possibilities, and they are counting on the Internet as a marketing and sales vehicle as well.

“We know the spinning part of the business, no problem,” Laura said. “It’s getting the word out to the public that’s hard. We’re flying by the seat of our pants.”

The company has been making strides, however. They have had two open houses—one on Feb. 23 and one last fall, shortly after they bought the business back and moved to their new location. One of the artists they work with regularly, May Tveit, assistant professor of industrial design at the University of Kansas, held an open house in the old location. She displayed her work, and the Brennamans demonstrated spinning.
Another of the Brennamans’ sons, Matthew, is in the process of developing the Web site, and the company takes part in First Fridays in the Crossroads Arts District.

“We are trying to figure out what to do next, marketing-wise,” Laura said. Several family members have backgrounds in business and marketing, so the Brennamans get lots of support and advice from them.

“For 75 years, word of mouth worked well, but in this changing society, nobody talks to each other anymore; they are all sitting in front of computers on the Internet,” Larry said.

Lost Art
Although UMS is hoping to expand its presence and make some changes in its product lines, there’s one thing that isn’t going to change.
“It was instilled in me from a young age to have pride in your workmanship and that if you made a nice product, the customer would come back to you,” Larry said. “Now we are being raised to push buttons, not do hard physical labor and get dirty.”

This raises the question of whether metal spinning is a dying art.

“My father had been saying spinning is a lost art for years,” Larry said. He added that many companies are moving away from spinning metal by hand and going fully automatic. There still are many spinning companies around the country, mostly up north toward Chicago, as well as back east, Larry said, but some of their employees don’t know how to spin by hand.

UMS still does about 85 percent of its spinning by hand, giving them flexibility. Larry said customers come in and say they had tried to get a job done somewhere else, but they were told they had to order 1,000 pieces, and they didn’t want 1,000 pieces.
“We can do one piece or 1,000 pieces,” Larry said.

For art students, understanding metal spinning is still an important part of their education. Jon Havener, professor of metalsmithing and jewelry at KU, has been bringing his students to tour the shop for 20 years. He said it’s crucial for his students to know about metal spinning, as well as about various metals and their working properties, including how they are annealed and hardened.

“We don’t have the necessary equipment to do it, so collaborating with UMS is the way to go,” Havener said. “They are a great company and generous with their time and sharing their skills.”

Support System
The wonderful friendships they have made along the way are one of the most rewarding parts of the business, Larry said. During the years when the business was out of the family, one customer offered them space in his building so that Larry could start his own business. When Larry and Laura were looking for financing to buy back the business, another customer said he could get them money that day, and if they needed more, he could get it to them the next week.

“They offer these things because they know what kind of man Larry is,” Laura said. “They know he is honorable and that they can depend on him.”
The Brennamans also were amazed at how many people came to help them move. Family, friends and customers showed up out of the blue. After spending just a few minutes with the Brennamans, it’s easy to understand why. Their love for their business, as well as their customers, is evident.
“There’s something about watching that metal flow into a part, being able to see a finished product, and know that you made that with your hands that gives a real sense of satisfaction,” Larry said.

“Wanting to be creative and work with our hands is in the blood,” Laura said.

Ellen Jensen is the managing editor of Kansas City Small Business Monthly magazine.