No job at Riebe’s Machine Works is too small or too odd. If it’s metal, they can make it or fix it.
When people think of a machine and welding shop, they probably think blue collar, as in heavy equipment, automotive parts and tools. Big metal stuff. But a visit to Riebe’s will make you think outside the box, because that’s exactly what Bill Riebe does.
Riebe and his crew do plenty of the traditional blue-collar machining jobs, but they’re also not afraid to take on unlikely projects. One customer wanted a prototype pendant accessory in hopes of getting a patent. She got her wish.
Other customers have wanted modifications to surgical tools, rock-cutting machine prototypes and faucet parts. They all got their wishes too. Draw up a rough blueprint for Riebe and he’ll take it from there.
“They have ideas, I might have ideas,” Riebe said. “We go back and forth.”
Riebe’s Machine Works has provided machining and fabrication services to the Flathead Valley since 1969. Bill Riebe’s father, Allen, opened the business in a friend’s truck shop in Kalispell and then moved it across town to a location on U.S. Highway 2 in Evergreen. It moved next door to its current location, across the street from Charlie Wong’s, in the early 1990s.
Bill’s wife, Cindy, calls Allen an “icon” in the valley. Under his ownership, the shop developed a wide following from the blue-collar community and especially in the timber industry, where heavy machinery and mills are constantly in need of repairs. Riebe’s Machine Works has the tools and the talent to make those repairs.
When Bill took over in 1996, he continued to nurture the shop’s reputation and its close ties with the valley’s vital industries. A veritable metal master, Riebe has worked in the shop since high school in the 1970s. In those decades, his repertoire has grown to the point where, as a friend says, “no job is too small.”
“We’ve done quite a bit of everything,” Riebe said, adding, “within limits – we do have limits.”
But larger industry has always been at the heart of Riebe’s Machine Works. If a local timber company has problems at its mill or with its heavy machinery, a call is made to Riebe. Riebe’s crew will either do the repairs at the shop or head out in the field to conduct onsite repairs. His crew consists of himself, another machinist and a welder.
When the timber industry was healthier, repairs were often necessary. But even now, with significantly less activity in the industry, timber companies remain major clients at Riebe’s.
Riebe owns the machine shop with Cindy, who does the bookkeeping. The Highway 2 facility is 6,500 square feet, filled with lathes, CNC machines, mills, plasma and torch cutters and other machines. One lathe, a favorite of Allen’s, is from 1906.
Allen, at 79 years old, still helps out at the shop, when he’s not busy working on classic cars.
“You’ve got to see what that man can do,” Cindy Riebe said. “My gosh.”
Riebe’s Machine Works has a long list of repeat customers, some of them decades old. But because Riebe is creative and willing to accept a vast array of different job proposals, the shop frequently gets first-time customers. Cindy said that ensures the workday is never dull.
“There’s new people coming through that door all the time,” she said.