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Laser Tools Aims High for Hi-Tech Antiques

1 min read

Little Rock’s Laser Tools Inc. has expanded its market area to include manufacturing parts for reproduction antique firearms.

According to owner Joe Wortsmith, Laser Tools in March purchased a new $267,000 EC-400 machining center to replace an older model. Between 30 and 40 percent of the new machine’s running time is being used to manufacture firearm parts.

The company’s traditional market area is laser alignment parts for the mining industry, but Wortsmith said that market is being squeezed due to rising popularity of alternative energy forms.

“The bottom line is, manufacturing lasers at high margins for mining interests has been really slam-dunked,” he said.

“I have to replace that margin, so this new machining apparatus is a new method to do that.”

The company’s major wholesale client for gun parts is Homestead Parts of Tucson, Ariz., Wortsmith said. Antique guns are “fashionable and profitable,” he said, and political pressures on gun owners during the past several years have caused sales to increase.

Overall, Wortsmith said the new market is about innovating in the face of declining manufacturing in the country.

“We’re going to turn that around and, hopefully, show people how you can manufacture products and goods effectively in the U.S. and don’t have to go anywhere else,” he said.

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