Secrets Of The Masons Unlocked In Uxbridge | New World Stoneworks defines entrepreneurial
To say the collection of businesses along Industrial Drive in Uxbridge is interesting would be a little misleading.
Any industrial park that includes a church is automatically interesting in my book. When that church is called The Church of the End of Times, the industrial park has found its way to another plane, shall we say.
But neither the church, nor the next door paving business it owns is the subject of this week’s column. I just had to drive past them to get to New World Stoneworks, one of the most ingenious and entrepreneurial new businesses I’ve seen since the last time I traveled to Uxbridge to visit Sanderson Engine Development.
Inspiration Station
Everything about Ken Jackman, the owner of New World Stoneworks, says “entrepreneur.” He speaks fast, yet knowledgably and convincingly about the venture-funded company, its processes and its considerable prospects for the future.
And like many entrepreneurs, Jackman got the idea for New World while at home, away from his pursuit of an MBA.
By then, Jackman had already played a key role in the sale of Silver Platter Information to publishing giant Wolters Kluwer for more than $140 million. So, he had time, not only to earn an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, but to have some stonework done at his Uxbridge home.
But each of the four stone masons he contacted to do the job either gave some excuse for why he couldn’t do the job, said it would take a very long time to finish the job or that it would be very, very expensive.
The fourth couldn’t manage to show up sober.
Planning, designing, purchasing and installing stonework should be much easier for everyone involved, thought Jackman.
So, he enlisted the help of his brother-in-law, an aeronautical engineer from Connecticut with access to water jets used to cut metal in machine shops.
Could those jets be used to cut stone? The initial answer was a spectacular and very wet “no.”
But Jackman struck a deal for an internship at a machine shop near Wharton where he would work his normal shift and then be allowed access to the machines after hours.
The results were adaptations now covered by dozens of domestic and international patents that allow plain water-jet-cutting machines to quickly slice through stone.
Cutting Time
With the help of a CAD software system, New World can cut stones for any project, a chimney for example, with virtually no waste or dust.
Each stone is numbered and once on the job site, the project is merely assembled according to the number sequence.
Jobs that took two months now take a week. Architects love the system. Even masons love the system because their job is easier – no more chiseling away at stones not knowing whether they’ll break, how a finished project will look or how much it will cost.
Got news for our Industrial Strength column? E-mail Managing Editor Matthew L. Brown at mbrown@wbjournal.com.
Online Exclusive: Ken Jackman, the owner of New World Stoneworks describes how his stone cutting system works:
Check out New World Stoneworks automated stonecutters:
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