News and event information for Williams Lake, BC - as it happens.

By LeRae Haynes 

Derek Berry at the Fab Shop is in the business of transforming. He does welding and fabricating in steel and aluminum, taking his customer’s ideas and turning them into reality. 

The Fab Shop at 20A Hodgson Road (behind the old Peoples store) designs, repairs and builds everything from truck equipment and mill machinery to lawn mowers and outdoor furniture.  It has been in operation for five years, but owner Derek Berry has been subcontracting in the welding business since the late 1980s. 

(Photo: Derek Berry at the Fab Shop takes on welding design and repairs in a wide range of innovative projects.)

He has years of mechanical experience---worked as a mechanic since he was 16 years old and rebuilt his first engine when he was 14. His metal designs have included wrought-iron coffee tables, a custom mail box stand, garden and driveway gates, roll cages and sub frames for stock cars. 

“If you’re welding behind construction crews, it’s pretty basic—it’s gluing stuff together. The fabrication end is the creative end,” he said. “People tell me their ideas---what they need to make something work faster or more efficiently—and I build it.” 

He recently installed a trailer dumper at Pinnacle Pellet to help make their operation more efficient, and has built stairs, cranes and safety equipment in various locations throughout the community. 

Derek also builds any suspension modification, track bars and bush bumpers for four-wheel drivers, as well as a wide range of industrial projects. “The mill had some export lumber they needed to ship to Japan and in order to put it in the containers, they needed it all kiln-dried, certified and stamped,” he explained. “They needed a machine, operated by one person, to stamp the information on a single board on the outside of the bundles.”  

In three days, he designed, built and installed a machine that accomplished just that---a single board, cut to length for the bundles, was sent on rollers, caught on the drive, pulled through and stamped.

At the Fab Shop there is an emphasis on high quality, versatility and customer satisfaction. “I repair trucks and heavy-duty machinery like loaders, skidders and Cats---pretty much anything with a weld, I can fix. The thing I like to do most is build things: draft a drawing, get a pile of material and get busy,” he said. “When I build, I build for life.” 

 For more information about the Fab Shop, phone 250-392-9624 or visit his Facebook Group.  

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