HEI buys Edgerton Machine Shop

Jack Tinklenberg, owner of Edgerton Machine Shop, has sold his business to Hulstein Excavating, Inc. (HEI). He will be open for another week or so at his location on 4th Ave., north of Fey Industries. By the end of this month, he will be working full time out of the HEI location. 

Jack has owned Edgerton Machine for the past 20 years. He bought the business from Kevin Krosschell who owned the business until 2004. Jack had worked for Kevin for 15 years prior to that and for Chandler Machine prior to that. 

“I have always enjoyed working with metal, Jack said. “As a young boy, I enjoyed playing around with things in my dad’s shop.” Jack’s dad taught him how to weld with a stick welder and a torch. He learned all his welding skills on the job working for his uncle in Chandler and for Kevin in Edgerton. 

For the past couple of years, Jack has been considering his “exit strategy.” He had hoped to hire an apprentice welder and train that person to take over the business. His full time employee decided to make a career change last spring. 

One day in June, Travis Hulstein, one of the owners of HEI, came in to ask Jack if he would considering selling to them. The timing was right and Jack knew he had to think hard about the decision. 

“It was a difficult choice,” Jack said. “I feel bad leaving some of my customers hanging with no welding shop in Edgerton.” But there are several other welders in the area who can serve the Edgerton community.

Jack has heard that some people assume he is retiring, but that is not the case. He turned 60 in June, and has no plans to stop working just yet. He will be the welding shop manager at HEI, where the work will include much of the same work he does now: fixing equipment and manufacturing parts for HEI. Although he will not be working for the public, HEI will have steel and welding supplies that the public can buy.

Once the welding shop is moved to HEI, there are plans to put SuperTurf in the former Edgerton Machine Shop building. SuperTurf is a hydroseeding company managed by…..

Jack and his wife Davonn recently moved to Luverne. Davonn works for Ophthalmology Limited in Sioux Falls. Their daughter Emily and her husband, Cole Bosma, live in Luverne. Their son Shane lives in Sioux Falls.