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And on that farm, he had a…Diamond Cutter

Third-generation farmer finds a more glittering future in high-tech business conducted from family farm.
TOWNSEND — Just outside Russ Scoffield’s office is a $130,000 combine, standing idle as the farmers wait for another harvest.

By CHRISTINA QUINN, IR Business Writer – 03/19/02

Inside is an entirely different scene.
A few years ago, Scoffield, 32, took a tipped-over garage on his family farm and turned it into Big Sky EDM (electronic discharge
machine), a small machine shop packed with high-tech equipment worth a quarter of a million dollars.
Farming is the family business, but it’s not Scoffield’s future.
Because of the high operation costs, low grain prices and estate tax farmers have to deal with, Scoffield’s father, Ward Scoffield,
believes the family farm won’t be passed on to the next generation.
So today, while Ward Scoffield farms the land his parents worked in the 1950s, his son is indoors cutting synthetic diamonds for
companies including Honda, which just bought a set of robot grippers.
Scoffield’s machines cut diamonds into various tools that he sends to clients throughout the country.
It doesn’t matter much what the parts are for, just that he gets to make them, Scoffield said, as he removed the pieces of synthetic
diamonds that one of his machines cut overnight.
He replaced the diamonds with another set and, with a push of a couple buttons, the machine began cutting again.
It’s a little less demanding than harvesting wheat, Scoffield admitted. And, it’s more profitable.
Basically, the EDM machine works itself, filling a tank with water until the liquid surrounds small pieces of synthetic diamonds.
Then, the machine moves the pieces into the center of a tank where electricity follows a wire path and creates a pulse strong
enough to cut the stones.
Scoffield programs his $10,000 software to move the electricity, which cuts the diamonds into parts for oil rigs, robots and other
high-tech equipment.
“I still sit amazed,” Ward Scoffield said of his son’s work.
It’s a process that has also grabbed the attention of Helena’s business community.
“I just see him as a smaller version of where Summit (Design and Engineering) was five years ago,” said Ron Mercer, manager of
the Helena Regional Airport and the person who drew Summit to its airport location.
Like Summit, Scoffield’s business fits into plans to create an aeronautical industrial center near the airport. There, Summit builds
tools and parts for the aerospace industry, often contracting people out of state for work that Scoffield does down the road.
Now, Mercer and others are looking into helping Scoffield move into the aeronautical industrial park and gain work with Summit.
Being close to Summit, Scoffield could use the aerospace company’s $250,000 machine that verifies measurements, which in a
few cases would make his job easier. At the same time, Summit managers could walk across the street to order parts.
“This stuff complements them very well, and vice versa,” Scoffield said.
The move is something he is considering.
“At this point, I want to take this to the next level,” he said.
He started learning his trade eight years ago by making round blanks out of synthetic diamonds for Utah’s Smith Megadiamond.
After four years, his boss at Megadiamond encouraged Scoffield, a graduate of Brigham Young University, to work for Sandvik
Group, the business that buys the blanks from Megadiamond and turns them into tools and machine parts.
Megadiamond saw an opportunity to better relations between the two businesses and Scoffield saw an opportunity to learn new
skills.
He agreed to take the job and moved to Houston, where for two years he learned about EDMs.
“I gained everything at Sandvik. Everyday the floodgates were open with information,” Scoffield said.
In two years, he was ready to start his own company, hoping to subcontract work from his former employers.
“It all came down to money. I just wanted to make more money,” he said.
But to make money, he needed money.
Scoffield sold his home and moved his wife and children back to the farm he grew up on in order to take advantage of the low rent.

He became the marketer, the accountant and the engineer of Big Sky EDM.
But, when he opened in 2000, the economy plummeted and he had no work.
So, not interested in joining his dad on the farm, Scoffield went online. He found about 40 businesses, printed out their information
and stuck it on a clipboard. Then he phoned them one by one.
Business was slow for the first four months, but day by day the work started coming.
Because he’s a one-man operation, it doesn’t matter that he works off a farm in rural Montana.
“Having a fax, Internet, I can compete with anybody,” Scoffield said.
In fact, there are some advantages to being on the family farm, at least for his father.
“We like having the grandkids close by,” Ward Scoffield said.
And, sometimes, Russ Scoffield is there to give his dad a hand on the farm.
Reporter Christina Quinn can be reached at 447-4075.

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