Precision parts rebuild bodies

Whatever happened to the armies of machinists employed by the California aeronautics industry before it tanked in the 1980s? Many of them went into manufacturing precision products used in the newly-emerging high-tech health care industry, says Red Sexton, owner of Jube Machine Inc.

in Mound House.

They still make machine precision parts: such as orthopedic bone screws.

Made of titanium, light and strong, the metal screws won't corrode but most importantly, won't be rejected by the body.

Expensive, the metal sells for $50 a pound.

Sexton sells to half a dozen distributors who sell directly to hospitals.

Insurance costs would make it prohibitive for the supplier to sell direct, he says.

So Sexton fills specific orders."Just," he says,"like any job shop." However,most machine shops don't keep the meticulous records required for medical parts.

The shop is inspected by both the Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency, agencies interested in traceability.

Each rod of titanium wears an identification tag from the foundry.

Every part made is laser-etched with an ID tag.

If a problem arises after a bone screw is inserted into a body, the product can be traced back to its inception.

"All this spinal stuff is new in the past 10 years," says Sexton, Rods are used to straighten curvature of the spine.

Pins can be put in a broken spine.

Large bone screws are used to support a broken hip.

Small bone screws are used to reattach a severed finger.

The parts are programmed on computer; linked machines execute the instructions to produce perfectly shaped and sized pieces.

Any burrs on the metal are removed by chemical bath or fine powder blasting process.

"Engineers can draw anything; when it comes to building it, that's the challenge," he says.

Sexton worked for years as a machinist on aircraft parts in the Los Angeles area before the riots of 1992 convinced him that it was time to get out.

About that time, he found an info packet in his mail, sent out by Sierra Pacific, touting the advantages of doing business in Reno.

Sexton drove up to take a look.

Reno looked too much like the city he wanted to leave, he says, but Carson City looked like just the thing.

Marketing is by word-of-mouth for Jube Machine, due to its long track record.

Most of his customers stayed with him after his move from California.

At his California shop, Sexton employed 15, but now appreciates the quiet life,without the headaches of being an employer.

Some of the two dozen machines on the shop floor stand quietly redundant.

The shop now employs just two: Sexton's wife Vivian and daughter Dawn.

After 26 years working with her father, does she plan to take over the business one day? "No," says Dawn,"he'll never retire."