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ETW Inc - Company History

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1945:

The Elmer New Co (Enco Tool Works) was formed by:
  • Elmer Neu
  • Eddie Held (and wife, Jane)
  • Edwin Held (Eddie's father)
  • Elroy Raasch
  • Joe Frischman
The shop's first location was in a small metal garage in the area of Wisconsin Ave. and Barstow St. in downtown Waukesha.
At this time, Enco Tool Works, specialized in high speed steel; manufacturing stick tools and later carbide stick tools. The main customer at this time was Ladish. Later this year business slowed considerably after WWII, and so Enco began looking for production work. They found many companies willing to sell their machines and so Enco bought a turret lathe, drill press, and Cincinnati tool and cutter grinder from the Kholer Co. Shortly thereafter, Enco moved to a new building behind Olsen's Ace Hardware.
Problems with the building led Eddie and Enco to look for a new location. Elmer Neu retired and Harry Latus loaned Eddie the money needed to buy land on Ellis St. This land is located directly East of our current facility.

1956:

Eddie purchased the land just west of the shop (where we are now) for $3500. It was owned by a well driller, who also owned land across the street (present day Butterfield Trucking Co.)

1960:

Wayne Sr., Eddie's son-in-law, came to work for Enco and an addition to the existing building began. Jack Schickowski (a current ETW employee) helped build the addition. A time capsule was placed in the walls, but unfortunately was never recovered.

1980:

Jane Held retired. Times were very slow with the country being in recession. The future looked bleak.

1981:

Eddie Held retired. The recession continued to take its toll on the company. Wayne Sr. was forced to layoff employees in order to make ends meet. Business was very slow.

1984:

Computers were introduced into the office and a CNC milling machine was purchased. Business was beginning to pick up. The milling machine purchases was a Maho 4-axis milling machine with a universal table. This was the first Maho (now DMG) machine purchased by the company and the beginning of a long relationship that still exists today. Currently all of our CNC machines are from DMG.

1985:

Another 4-axis milling machine from Maho was purchased. This machine consisted of a rotary table and was purchased for manufacturing our own quick change tooling solution, Tri-Lock. It was at this time that Enco made use of Eddie's purchase of the land west of the shop. In the following year our present facility was built on this land.

1987:

The Company changed its name from Enco Tool Works, Inc. to ETW, Inc. The business was tagged with "experience.technology.workmanship"

1988:

During a storm over 4th of July weekend, lightning struck the building causing a power surge. The coffee maker in the lunch room started a fire and burned up the wall, which in turn burst a water pipe. The water put out the fire but the damage was not discovered until late in the weekend. Not long after this an alarm system was installed. It is now connected to the police/fire department and they are notified immediately with any problems.

1994:

Business continuted to grow. An additional 25ft. was added to the east side of the building. The black oxide tanks, which were on the mezzanine, were moved into its present location once the expansion was complete.

2001:

Wayne Sr. retired and Wayne Jr. took over the company. Due to the events of September 11th, business came to a screeching halt. Orders were few and far between. We were able to stay afloat thanks in large part to long time customers.

2004:

The front offices were remodeled, giving a more up-to-date and professional look. The engineering offices were soon to follow. Things also began to turn around since 2001. Business was picking up again, but now things were a little more challenging. Lead times needed to be short, prices needed to be lower and competition was fierce. ETW took a hard look at its own processes in order to make sure we provided the shortest possible lead times, at the lowest price to our customers.

Today:

Much has changed in the past couple of years. We are currently adding on to our facility again, building more space for our shipping department. We've also purchased two bar-fed milling machines from DMG, one with turning capabilities. Please review each of our machinges under the 5-Axis Machining page. Each machine has videos showing their capabilites and the type of work we are familiar with. We specialize in providing custom indexable cutting tools in a short amount of time at an affordable price.