Relight the Forge joins independent American machine and fabrication shops into one network, so the work that left this country has somewhere to come back to.
America's machine shops average about fourteen people each, and between them they can make almost anything. Relight the Forge gives them a way to go after big work together.
One dot for every ten machine shops. In ten years the country lost about two thousand of them, and the dark dots are the ones that are gone.
BLS QCEW, NAICS 332710.
In ember, the shops that would be run by owners 55 or older at that national rate. Each of those owners will need someone to take over.
Gallup, 2024.
Each dot is now a hundred small businesses. In nine years, 43% fewer of them won defense work, and the hollow dots are the ones that dropped out.
GAO, small business contracting, fiscal 2011 to 2020.
Relight the Forge brings independent shops together under one standard, one contract and one set of tools, so they can win that work back and stay open.
Jobs come from American manufacturers and from the federal government, starting with spare parts for the Defense Logistics Agency.
One shop rarely has the time to chase federal bids and big buyers on its own. Together, with one company doing the bidding and the paperwork, independent shops can take on work none of them would get alone.
We're signing up independent machine and fab shops, and each one is matched to the jobs it runs best.
Every order is made to one short written standard, so a buyer can trust a part from any member shop.
Montoya Heavy Industries bids, signs the contract, handles the paperwork and pays the shops.
The first work is federal spare parts. The Defense Logistics Agency posts more than 2,000 requests for quotes every business day, and most are small orders scored by computer.
We send the drawing and our price. You quote parts with no price history, or pass.
We bid at a price that can win. When the job is ours, you get a purchase order with every requirement spelled out.
You run the parts in your own shop. We send the packaging and marking rules and handle the customer's paperwork.
We invoice the customer and pay you within two business days of their payment.
Send us your drawings. We place each job with a shop in the network that runs that process, hold every shop to the same inspection standard, and ship with the paperwork your program needs.
The 2026 defense bill set up a Civil Reserve Manufacturing Network, modeled on the airline fleet the military can call on in a crisis. On August 25, 2026, the SBA and the Department of War created the [Smaller War Plants Commission]. The last time America leaned on its small shops like this was during World War II.
Your shop keeps its name, its prices and its customers, and joining is free. We'll call, come see the shop, and send the first drawing when a job fits.