Progressive Turnings' Legacy

Our history and plan for the future

During the 1940’s, Larry Niels learned the screw machine trade from his uncle. He stayed in the business and gained experience in every aspect of the work, particularly in Browne & Sharpe set-ups. Eventually, his son Dave also started working in the screw machine business.

In 1979, Larry and Dave started Progressive Turnings Inc., in Montgomery IL. Soon, Larry’s other son, Ken, joined the team. At this time, Progressive Turnings was a small shop consisting of Browne & Sharpe single spindle screw machines, and some manual secondary equipment.

In 1986, the company moved to a 6,000 square foot building in Aurora, IL. In 1989, Progressive Turnings got its first CNC lathe. The company realized the demand for such equipment, and began adding more CNC machines. Business grew, technology advanced and by the year 2000, Progressive Turnings added 4000 square feet to the building. Progressive Turnings was now in a 10,000 square foot, modern, air conditioned building, with both CNC and manual equipment. As business grew in 2008 we added another 4000 sq feet to our building so we could fit our new Swiss machine a 20mm CITIZEN SWISS. In 2016, we acquired the building next door, now housing 7 CNC's there. Progressive Turnings now has 22,500 square feet of modern, air conditioned space in our two buildings.

Today, our emphasis is on fully automated, high precision machinery to maximize the productivity of our highly skilled team. Our people are our key resource, with leadership from our third generation.

As our industry changes and grows, Progressive Turnings maintains our tradition of quality workmanship, building for a bright future of continuous growth and improvement.