(charming music) (rhythmic tapping) (acoustic guitar music) - Somebody orders a given model number.

And if we don't have enough in stock, we have to get out that stamping die which looks just like the finished piece, obviously.

It's a metal, three or four inch thick stamping die.

We stick it on the drop hammer bed, which is the bottom part.

We then pour a top matching reverse die that hooks onto the movable head of the drop hammer, that goes up and down.

We put in, as that top half is up in the air and stopped, we put in a piece of sheet metal flat against the bottom die.

And then we gradually, lightly stamp, and then gradually from higher heights, those two dies together to turn that smooth piece of sheet metal into the design that's been ordered.

- A lot of the machines are still the original machines.

We have five drop hammers that we use to press out the tin.

They've just got a drum that we got rope wrapped around, and that drum will get hot with that rope, from the friction.

So we run water through there.

We have a cistern that cycles water all day long through that hammer, so it keeps it cool.

And it's just a hemp rope that's wrapped about five times, that way the friction will help pull.

When you pull on that rope, it cinches up on that drum, which assists you on pulling.

- The weight of the die and the head of the hammer is about 3000 pounds.

Once they pull on that, it pulls the head up, lets go of the stops that were holding it up a few feet above the bottom one.

And not from that highest height, but from, they can control how high they drop it onto the metal and you don't want to drop it all at once, or it will tear the metal.

Gradually they'll stamp 'em from a little higher, and it'll become the design that they're stamping in the male-female set.

Once they've stamped it, there are maybe two or three inches all the way around that need to be finished and trimmed, so it's taken to a press called a beading machine that puts a perimeter, overlapping channel on the panel where one overlaps the other during installation, and then it's square, all four sides.

It's sort of got a dot and dash with the little nail button every six inches.

And then they take it to a shear, which is a big metal scissors and cut off the excess.

And it's really, from there, it's ready to go.

The biggest traditional size of a tin ceiling is two by four, But we do have designs that are two by two and one by two and one by one.

And then all the cornices and moldings are no longer than four feet.

The reason for the four foot limit is that's the length of the machine, 50 inches or so.

We can't make something eight feet or 12 feet, just by pulling it through.

It's gotta be that one size, the maximum size of the drop hammer.

But it's basically like going to the frame shop with a diploma, buying a frame, but there's also matting between it and the frame.

So the frame is the cornice, the middle, in even increments, is the diploma in the middle and then the matting is what's left over between the two.

And it's not gonna be equal all the way around, but it's gonna be equal on opposite sides.

So if your room is 11 and a half by 16 and a half, you're not gonna get these two by two panels to fit in there, even with the cornice taking up a few inches.

You're gonna, with a drawing, center it and put the cornice in on your drawing.

And then what's ever left, equal and opposite sides, is this small print that you can cut that looks good as a, it's called a filler, but we got this design and some other little flower designs.

They're almost always some kind of generic embossed, but something that no matter where you cut it, it looks pretty good.

And it gets under lapped under the middle piece and overlapped over the cornice and all that, so you really don't see where it starts and where it ends.

- Well, when I started in 1992, I ran a press and I did that for like six years, and then I ran a die grinder for another six years, and then we lost our electrical maintenance guy and I took over for him, 'cause I had experience.

So then I kinda started floating from job to job.

I did several different ones.

Wherever they needed me, really.

My last 10 years here was really interesting, because I did so much different stuff.

- [Neal] I think our employees like working with historic metal and historic products.

We are sent pictures or given pieces to replicate, and I think our employees take a lot of pride in working on a state capital building or a historic hotel.

Seeing, in a photograph, how a building used to look, having before them a damaged piece that they're gonna replicate and really, I really think take some pride in.

As opposed to just making parts and not really knowing where they're going or what the finished product is, I think they take a lot of pride in working on things that are historic and then seeing often the finished product.

- [Brad] We do everything in here pretty much like they did at the turn of the century.

I mean, with the exception of electricity.

It's like you're stepping back in time every day.

- [Neal] These are real tin ceilings; as real as they were 115 years ago.