Few of the more modern industrial materials are of serious concern to the home model engineer with a light lathe, and virtually all turning will be done using either carbon steel, high speed steel or tungsten carbide tipped tooling.
The idea of using disreputable materials for serious purposes appealed to me".
The Online Home of the Station Wagon (www.stationwagon.com) has scads of material for serious wagon wonks, with such regularly updated sections as Station Wagons in the News, which tracks press sightings on the subject, and a hefty collection of Web links to pages celebrating wagons of all kinds.
Kevin Surace, the president and chief executive of Serious Materials of Sunnyvale, Calif., says the product his company is focusing on — drywall — has essentially been produced the same way since its invention in 1917: gypsum is mined, then subjected to intense heat.
The Chicago factory is an important element of the future plans of Serious Materials, a private company whose rise was highlighted when Mr. Surace was named 2009 Entrepreneur of the Year by Inc. magazine.
In an interview this month, Kevin Surace, the chief executive of Serious Materials, said he had not rehired many workers because it took longer than expected to get the factory running again because much of the equipment was missing or damaged.
Much depends on the success of Serious Materials, the California-based company that bought the factory last February, which brought with it the favorable publicity from the company's promise to put all of Republic's employees back to work.
I would do a lot of serious material — murders, labor disputes, that kind of thing — and it was nice every so often to have a looser story.
Firms such as Serious Materials of California provide energy-saving windows and environmentally friendly plasterboard.
The California company, Serious Materials, of Sunnyvale, says it is talking to creditors of the Chicago company, Republic Windows and Doors.
