Local company touts the value of tech education
Father and son, Doug and Jake Laskody, measure a piece of metal in the work area of D L Machine LLC, the family business.
Doug Laskody looks over a component from a project his company D L Machine of Waynesburg manufactured for a client.
WAYNESBURG – What if your son or daughter could graduate high school with a marketable skill, one that could immediately propel them into the workforce, or give them an edge into and/or help pay for their higher education? That option exists at the Greene County Career and Technology Center.
Doug Laskody has operated D L Machine LLC in Waynesburg going on 30 years. His son, Jake, 26, has worked all aspects of the business and currently serves as an operations manager for the company. Both are graduates of the precision machining program at the GCCTC. Jake went on to earn a degree from California University of Pennsylvaniain business management.
In a glass case hanging just inside the door, Doug displays several pieces he made while a student at the GCCTC, then known as the Greene County Vocational Technical School or simply vo-tech. Jake has a shelf in his office displaying similar work he completed as a student there.
“My brother is the one who got me into it. I said, ‘I’d like to go to there (the CTC). What do you think I should take?’ He said, ‘You like working with metal,’ so I decided to try machining,” Doug said. “It was full, so I did HVAC for a couple of weeks until an opening came up. I went into the machine shop, and I loved it. For some reason I just picked it up (naturally).”
Doug said Frank Bartuch saw his drive and let him go with it, creating all sorts of projects above and beyond what was required of the then-teenager.
“I was playing drums back then, and if something broke on my drum set I’d take it in and fix it. I just started to venture off on my own, and I guess I had the bug for it,” Doug said.
When he graduated in 1984 he had already been working in the industry at a local company with his brother. Upon graduation he accepted a job there, and it wasn’t long before he decided to purchase a metal lathe to do some work of his own.
“I set it up in my dad’s garage and started getting a little bit of work. The work started to increase, and my brother ended up quitting his job and eventually came to work for me down in my dad’s garage,” he said. “About a year later I decided I was going to quit (the other job) and go out on my own.”
Doug’s wife, Tina, began working in the family business after Jake was born, doing payroll and accounting.
“I’ve been around it (the machining business) my whole life, so I kind of grew into it,” Jake said.
Tina recalled her son being in the office at just 6 months old in a playpen. A picture in Doug’s display case is of Jake as a toddler looking ready to work.
The business is a complete family affair with Doug and Tina’s daughter, Katie, 20, doing deliveries and filling in where needed while Jake’s wife, Tara, is on maternity leave from the company.
Father and son said there is definitely an opportunity to be had by attending the GCCTC.
“It was definitely a good head start,” Jake said.
Doug, who has seen his fair share of prospective employees walk in and sometimes right back out of his door over the years, said, “It’s really hard to find people with a passion who want to do this stuff. I think that generally people are more job-ocused today and less career-focused.”
That “just-a-job” attitude is not what helped Doug build a business that has lasted three decades, he said.
“I’ve had the passion for the actual stuff I’ve made over the years. I enjoy the challenge of trying to get them (customers) what they need and the manufacturing process it takes to pull it off,” he said. “It’s a super opportunity (the CTC); it really is. There are a lot of manufacturing companies struggling to find people who are experienced who are forced to gamble on a person coming right out of the CTC to try to work with them.”
Doug said, “I ask people, what are your goals? I want it done right. I don’t want anybody to have anything that is less than great. Our slogan is quality manufacturing,” he said. “They (students) need to go there (the CTC) and take in all the goodness and greatness it can offer.”