Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 13, 1995 TAG: 9504200022
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-17 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: AIMEE RATLIFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``It's something to see fit, form and function before it goes to production. We work with different engineers in different industries designing things,'' said Donnie Cloeter, who manages HUB Pattern with his brother, John Cloeter.
``A lot of times, people will come in with an idea and just throw some thoughts out on the table, and we'll try to go from there.''
One company that works with the medical industry sent in an MRI scan of a human skull with a gunshot penetration. HUB Pattern made a model of the skull and will develop a pattern to ``plug'' the gunshot wound.
HUB helped with the restoration of Hotel Roanoke by making molds for decorative column caps found in the hotel. Other examples of HUB's work include patterns for robot and automotive parts.
HUB Pattern originated as a pattern shop for the foundry industry in 1957. Herb Cloeter, Donnie and John's father, started the business as the Red River Pattern Shop in Moorehead, Minn. He learned the pattern-making trade in the Navy during the Korean War.
In 1960, after seeing an ad by Herb Cloeter in a foundry magazine, Joe Keith, owner of the White Foundry in Roanoke, advised Cloeter that Roanoke needed a pattern shop.
After two visits, Cloeter moved his family and his new business partner, Clayton Thomas, to Roanoke. They called their business the HUB Pattern Corp., named from the idea that "a wheel will never run any truer than its hub," said Donnie Cloeter. "The same goes for patterns."
Thomas later started his own shop, the Pattern Shop, in Salem, where he has been for about the last 10 years. Herb Cloeter ran HUB until about three years ago when he went into semiretirement and turned control over to his sons, who had been involved in management since 1985.
Herb Cloeter, who sometimes works with his sons, admits one of the most difficult tasks was finding capable workers.
``We hired juniors and seniors mostly from Jefferson High School and then put them through a five-year apprenticeship program. Overall, I thought a couple people would be the best we could do, but now we have around 20 people.''
``One of our successes has been finding the right people, because it's hard to find pattern makers these days.''
HUB Pattern Corp. is at 2113 Salem Ave. S.W. The phone number is 342-3505.
by CNB