All in the foundry

COEUR d'ALENE - The claw of the machine dropped and grabbed at piles of broken down metal - bits and chunks of sheet and pipe.

The baling machine operator guided the claw as it lifted its load, swung to the side and dropped the items into another section of the giant machine, crushing and compacting the metal into square chunks.

At Hern Iron Works Recycling they call the baler, "Wall-E," after the waste-collecting robot in the 2008 Pixar film of the same name.

The machine is part of the foundry operation's recent effort to switch gears and weather the recession.

Located on Hern Road, off Atlas Road north of the Coeur d'Alene Rifle and Pistol Club, the foundry has been in operation since 1971, when current owner Jack Hern's father built it. It sits on 30 forested acres.

"It's been going fast or slow here for 40 years," Hern said.

In recent years, it became very slow, after the economy failed.

The business was operating with a skeleton crew and four day work weeks.

Then nine months ago, they decided to expand their recycling operation to include all types of metal. As a foundry, they had always recycled cast iron.

"We went from one flavor to 40 flavors," Hern says with smile. "If it's metal, we've got a price point for it, as many prices as there are flavors of metal."

They now buy aluminum cans by the pound, and much, much more. The baler can handle just about anything metal, including old stoves, washing machines and refrigerators.

"We're able to pay people money for them as opposed to them taking them to the dump," Hern said.

The public response to the service has been good, so good the baler is already paid for.

In mid-May they hit the million pound mark for the amount of metal they've collected, and expect to hit their second million within the next few months.

"That's how fast it's picking up," Hern said.

There is another recycler in town that accepts mainly cardboard, and some metal, mainly aluminum cans, Hern said. But no other operation collects the types of metal they do.

They're still using the foundry, he said.

His company's specialty and claim to fame is sprockets, large industrial sprockets. Hern points to a row of large metal gears resting near a building.

The Hern operation designed all the manhole covers for the City of Coeur d'Alene and several other local cities. They've designed tree grates and more.

Many of these items are now produced in China, Hern said, but they're still using his foundry's designs.

His eyes light up a little when he mentions the foundry's other product - cannons.

"We can shoot anything from a golf ball to a bowling ball," Hern said.

The Hern foundry's cannons are historical reproductions, and often used by civil war re-enactors.

"If it was 1860, we could be selling them to the government," he said.

The foundry operation has always been hidden away behind the trees that line the property, and that's how they've wanted it to be Hern said. But now, because

of the recycling operation, they want the public to know they're there.

There's a new sign out on Atlas Road, with the word "recycling" added to it.

Most of the recylables are coming in from people and businesses in Kootenai County, Hern said. But, he's begun to see some Washington license plates coming in with loads of metal, and a few with Silver Valley plates.

Hern's wife, Tami, said she's noticed a few piles of rusty old metal that she used to see around the area is gone. It's likely been brought to their facility, she said.

"They're making some good money off of it," she said. "It's cleaning up the community too. It's helping everyone all the way around."