Growing up, Jeff Barnes spent his days neck-deep in machinery. He and his father were into racing--circle tracks, with modified cars--and after working on the engines, frames, and bodies in their spare time, they would take to the racetrack on the weekends, putting their work to the ultimate, real-world test.

These days, Barnes is still doing the same thing, in a way. But the cars have been replaced by Fellows gear-cutting machinery, and the track by a long list of satisfied customers who purchase rebuilt and retrofitted machines from New England Gear, which Barnes established two decades ago.

These newer-generation Fellows machines are rock-solid, all they need are updated controls and electronics. So I went out and started buying every single machine I could find, and there were a lot of them out there. I'd buy them, do all the necessary upgrading and retrofitting, clean them up, paint them, and I had a machine that was ready for the customer to buy and go straight to work--and at anywhere from 40 to 60 percent the cost of a new machine, depending on the electrical package they chose. And with new machines costing in the neighborhood of $300,000, that's a pretty significant savings."

"I want people to know that, when they need something for a late-model Fellows machine, we're the guys to go to. We've got the machines in stock, we've got the parts in stock, we offer service, and we've got the technical knowledge that's required. If they call here, they can get real answers, because I know that product. That's the word that I want to get out there.