R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press | After Dave Konkel and Cliff Davis of WeldAll performed a complete firebox rebuild on Willie Bouthcher’s 1920 tractor made by Illinois Thresher…?, Davis tightens the bearings on the differential shaft while Konkel watches.

ESCANABA — WeldAll Industrial Co. in north Escanaba was founded by two former welding instructors and today fills a unique niche: providing training and certification to welders at other businesses as well as repairing boilers and pressure vessels.

Cliff Danis and Dave Konkel’s backgrounds are in different aspects of the industry, though both worked with pressure vessels. Danis was previously with the Boilermakers before moving into working for a private contractor and has worked on hydroelectric plants, power plants and chemical refineries. Konkel, an engineer, is skilled in code welding and worked on military vessels.

Konkel said that a lot of his past work was defense-based and “we do some of that stuff here (at WeldAll), too, contract for some local defense subcontractors. They send us stuff when they have a pressure vessel that needs repaired.”

But what brought Danis and Konkel together to start WeldAll was an influx of calls requesting welding engineering and training services while both of them were working as welding teachers.

Danis was the welding instructor for the Delta-Schoolcraft Intermediate School District and Konkel was the welding instructor for Bay College. They each worked in their respective roles for about eight years, Danis said.

“Obviously, in that world, being in a small town — he was post secondary; I was high school — we worked together a lot on projects,” Danis said. “And initially it started out for, like, welding engineering services. We both would get calls from local businesses.”

As both men possess the Certified Welding Instructor endorsement from the American Welding Society, people knew that they had the credentials “to train and qualify people to write welding procedures, to develop quality control personnel, and basically go in and qualify welders for someone,” Danis explained.

For companies who employ welders but don’t necessarily have a trainer or welding engineer on staff, bringing their workers up to a new level of welding certification or beginning to perform new techniques requires outside assistance.

“More or less, this started because Dave would get calls and he would ask me questions, and I would get calls and I would ask him questions and it made sense, ‘Hey, we’re both doing this together anyways; why don’t we just team up and do it?’ So that was kind of the beginning,” Danis said. “It was really focused on training and welding procedures and welding qualifications.”

WeldAll officially organized as a domestic profit corporation in August 2021. Both Danis and Konkel said it’s been hard work, with a lot of sacrifices, but they enjoy working for themselves and building a good reputation.

“I think it’s nice being the guys that people call, whether it’s other companies or other, you know, people looking to get qualified, somebody just needs to be trained how to stick weld — I like being those guys,” Konkel said. “That makes me happy.”

In addition to helping other businesses, WeldAll works with the Michigan Works Going Pro Talent Fund and conducts trainings for them. They also offer work study experience for welding students.

In 2023, WeldAll obtained its “R” stamp through the National Board of Boiler Pressure Vessel Inspectors. Such a certification means that the business is certified through to repair and alter boilers and other pressure-retaining items. That includes American Society of Mechanical Engineers tanks, which is any compliant container that holds an internal pressure of more than 15 psi.

Because they’re able to work on things many people don’t, and because Danis in particular has a passion for boilers and vintage machines, their work has become a “conglomerate” of tasks, as Danis put it.

“We do the welding training, the welding qualification, the welding engineering work, and then … the boiler side of it is just because we’re code guys and we know how to make it happen,” Danis said.

The work that WeldAll performs sets them aside from other local businesses that weld. The guys said that other companies in the area are beginning to recognize that WeldAll is not competition but a resource.

“There’s several companies around town that call us when they have questions about code, or if they need something inspected,” Konkel said. “We support other welding shops by qualifying their people, or training their people or inspecting their parts. If they need a certified welding inspector, that’s Cliff. He runs over there and inspects the parts for ’em.”

Occasionally people stop into the shop at 1400 Washington Ave. out of sheer interest because they see an old tractor outside or because they remember when the site used to house V. Groos & Co., the radiator repair shop that operated for about 80 years, most memorably under Jim Groos. But only a small fraction of WeldAll’s work comes from walk-in business.

Because their work involves steam engine repair and welding instruction, there aren’t many operations in the Midwest who do what they do.

“There’s not very many people in the country that work on them old steam tractors,” Konkel said. “By the time you get the licensure and the qualifications to do it, most of them are bigger companies and they’re going into mills and they’re not messing around with old steam tractors anymore.”

In the near future, WeldAll is aiming to secure its “S” and “U” stamps from ASME. The classifications will allow them to design and fabricate their own pressure vessels and parts, as opposed to simply repairing old ones. Konkel said that the duo and the shop are prepared to manufacture and have begun the process; they just have to go through inspection, paperwork and fees.

In the meanwhile, WeldAll will continue being a resource and hope that people know they are willing to travel across the entire Upper Peninsula to train welders properly so that they can perform jobs legally and safely.

“If you’re welding, you need to be qualified, period,” Konkel said, “and we provide that service.”

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EDITOR NOTE: The Daily Press will be featuring a series of articles on local businesses, highlighting their history and what makes them unique. The series will run on a regular basis in the Daily Press.