Eric Weller

Eric Weller is president of Newport Tool & Machine, the family-owned CNC machine shop his father Ron founded in Newport, Pennsylvania in 1972. He joined full-time out of high school in 1989 and worked through the shop floor, estimating, and production before taking over. Eric is the second of three generations.

NTM has operated at 222 Red Hill Road since 1972. Eric Weller has been around the shop since he was four years old. Ron Weller started the company in the basement of the house Eric grew up in. Three manual machines, one man running them. Eric came on full-time in 1989 and learned the business in order. Machining first, then estimating, then production planning, then customer work. Today he runs the day-to-day operations. He still handles quotes and technical questions himself, so callers reach him directly. The shop sits on the same property where the family has lived for generations.

Eric works the front end of most jobs, from the first phone call through the first article.

• Quoting and estimating. He reviews pricing on new and existing work himself, rather than routing it through a sales layer.
• Print review. He reads the drawing before it goes to programming and flags anything that will fight the machine.
• Technical questions. Customers call with a process or feature question and reach Eric directly.
• Material selection. He talks through which material suits the part, the run size, and the finish the drawing calls for.
• Cost drivers. He points out where a feature or a tolerance is adding setups, so the customer can decide what matters.
• Prototype to production. He plans how a part moves from a first piece to a repeatable run on the same floor.
• Day-to-day operations. He oversees work across all seven processes in the Newport building.
• Hiring. Experienced machinists looking at NTM talk to Eric or Kyle, not a recruiter.

Have a part that has been quoted poorly somewhere else? Send Eric the print and talk it through with the people who will machine it.

Eric did not start in an office. He ran machines, then quoted work, then planned production, then took on customers. Each layer taught him what the next one costs. There is no engineering degree behind it and he does not claim one. What he has is an entire working life in one precision machine shop, covering CNC machining, estimating, production planning, and customer relations, along with the practical leadership that comes from running a family manufacturing business. That order is why a conversation with him moves quickly from what the drawing says to what the part will actually take on the floor.

The parts Eric enjoys are the ones other shops pass on. Thin walls, hardened material, a feature no mill can reach. He spends most of his attention on tight-tolerance work, material choice, and finding the machining strategy that takes cost out without touching what the print requires. Prototype-to-production work sits in the same category, because the first piece and the thousandth have to come off the same floor and match.

Eric answers process and feature questions himself, along with Kyle. There is no call center and no sales layer between a customer and the people running the job, so a buyer with a hard geometry or an unclear drawing usually gets to a real answer on the first call. Decisions about a job get made by people whose name is on the building and who live on the property. The shop and the family home sit on the same ground, so a customer’s success is personal here rather than a number on a report.

Quality at NTM starts with a record. Documented inspection and release records are maintained in accordance with customer and NTM quality requirements, and every order includes at least one fully inspected part, with documented inspection scaling to the size of the run. Eric’s view is that accurate parts are the baseline and trust is the actual product. Being honest about what a part will take, reachable when something changes, and willing to treat a customer’s project the way he would treat NTM’s own, is what has kept relationships going for decades.

NTM started with three manual machines in a basement and now runs seven processes across a 50,000 square foot floor. Eric has been present for most of that. The equipment changed, the industries changed, and the parts got harder. Work has widened into robotics and industrial automation, packaging equipment, energy, and OEM manufacturing, alongside the aerospace, medical, and defense components NTM has machined for decades. What Eric has worked to keep is the way Ron set the company up in 1972: do the work honestly, stand behind the part, and stay reachable. Growth that costs the shop those things is not growth he wants.

Eric spends warm months powerboating on Raystown Lake with family and friends. Spring, fall, and winter go to smallmouth bass fishing and to hunting whitetail with both of his sons. Watching the next generation take on the business has been one of the more rewarding parts of the job.

NTM has machined parts for aerospace, medical, defense, marine, and other demanding industries since 1972, from a floor in Newport, Pennsylvania, under ISO 9001 certification. More on the shop and the people is on the About page.

Start a conversation with Eric.