Rennline Shop Projects

Here at Rennline we are lucky enough to have a devoted customer base that understands our commitment to quality parts and dedication to customer service. This relationship has grown in size and breadth over the years; it saw us expand from a small industrial space in downtown Winooski, Vermont into our current building, and now it is allowing us to build on that foundation. Both literally and metaphorically. But none of this would be possible without each and every customer, so again, we would like to thank everyone, from the smallest order to the largest, for their support of Rennline Inc. and the parts we manufacture for your Porsche, BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, Mini and more!

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the most important aspects of this new space was what to name it. After a few days of deep contemplation, waterjet operator John Bombard emerged with the answer: his ‘office’ would henceforth be known as “The Jet Hanger.” Of course, despite completion of the naming process there was still much to do to finish the transformation of our addition. Plumbing and wiring needed to be run, drains, grates and filters installed in the floor to catch overflow water and filter our the garnet which is a super-fine abrasive that gets injected in small amounts to aid in water jet cutting.

 

 

 

Beginning to move the jets meant a lot of muscle was needed. These things keep about 10,000lbs of abrasive sand in the tank and about 8,000lbs of water (128 cubic feet)- PER JET! We had two that needed to be cleaned out, disassembled, moved and reassembled in the Jet Hanger. This was an all-hands-on-deck kind of day, but luckily we are a hearty folk up here in Vermont and the entire operation went smoothly and relatively quickly considering the shear volume of material that needed to move.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took this expansion as an opportunity for us to add some machining capability since we are going to have sufficient additional space. We have had great luck with Flow Waterjet, so we contacted them again for one of their newer units. This was delivered in a timely manner and we began setting up our newest toy… er… machine! This puts us up to 3 waterjets in house, two CNC mills and a CNC lathe along with a couple manual mills, two huge press/brakes, a CNC Time Saver and plenty of other odds and ends to makes sure we can tackle any challenge from any job that might present itself.

 

 

 

 

Things have progressed even a bit further than since these most recent pictures; we are almost back to fully operational waterjet status and the moving/reorganizing process has begun in the existing shop. This will be a lengthy one as we add additional storage racks and finalize the overall layout to maximize space and work flow. Although this operation has already been a huge amount of time and effort and there is still plenty of work to be done, seeing it all start to come together is bolstering us for the final push in getting it done!

 

The holidays are a great time to bring people together, and here at Rennline we try not to miss the opportunity to bring us together as a company. A cohesive environment is a productive one, so it is a perfect time to get together, have some fun and get to know everyone a bit better outside the bounds of the workplace. But this year was different than most. Instead of a nice dinner in nearby Burlington, Vermont, Rennline shop manager Joe DeSimone and owner Paul Jacques engineered what might go down as the ultimate holiday party.

 

 

For those not from the North East, Boston is a four hour bus ride from Burlington, so arrangements were made for a coach bus to transport the team to our destination and around the city of Boston after the main event. We rendezvoused at the Rennline shop at about 9AM Friday morning, some more prepared than others. Unfortunately there were several of our staff unable to make the two-day trip. Unfortunately, CNC Machinist (little) Jake, Manufacturing Engineer (big) Jake, and Master Fabricator Gene were unable to make the trek due to scheduling constraints.

 

The welcome we received at F1 Boston was warm and accomidating, we would highly recommend them for your next company outing, birthday party, or just as a way to get a little track time!

The plan was to head to F1 Boston (www.F1Boston.com) for some serious go-karting! In total we had 19 people with us, the invitation was extended to significant others and several girlfriends and wives were brave enough to make the trip. Our karting session consisted of six qualifying sessions, each session was a different, randomly selected group, and each driver ran three different qualifying races. At the end of the qualifiers, the top 10 drivers in points from the qualifiers started the final with their starting position determined by their standing in points.

 

The final was a much longer race than the qualifiers and provided several surprises. The first of which was veteran PCA instructor, experienced track driver and Rennline owner Paul’s absence. Due to a rash of penalties resulting from aggressive passing, Paul found himself sidelined for the final race, having missed qualifying for the final by a few points.

 

The real-time position display provided the spectators with the ability to watch the exchanging of positions on track, despite most racers being unrecognizable in their race suits and helmets. By the midpoint in the race, Engineering Consultant Jamie was holding off the rest of the field, but it was not to be. Sales and Marketing representative Shawn Christianson capitalized on a mid-track pile-up, pulling a quick maneuver to avoid the pile up and gain two positions, taking first place. With a clear track ahead, he went on to set the fastest lap of the day along with the highest top speed of the day, and clinched the overall win.

 

 

As the karting came to a close, we retired to the bar for a post-race drink and to exchange stories and glories from the time on the track. The anonomity provided by the suits and helmets made for some awesome post-race banter, with some coming clean regarding questionable passes, “gentle nudges” and penalties that should have been.

 

 

From F1 it was time to hit the hotel for much needed showers, more banter, and for some a couple more drinks before dinner. Paul and Joe pulled out all the stops and booked the entire crew at W Boston, a beautiful hotel in the heart of downtown Boston. Although it was a task in and of itself to find a restaurant able to accomidate the entire group, Joe again knocked it out of the park securing a table for everyone only minutes walk from our hotel.

 

 

 

Unfortunately, the details of the rest of the evening belong to our crew, but know that nobody was wanting for more fun: we won Boston. No one was harmed in the making of these memories, and no damage of any kind resulted, so we can at least assure you the night was an unequivocal success. One last time, from myself and the rest of the Rennline crew, we would like to thank Paul Jacques, Rennline owner for making what will go down for many of us as the most epic holiday party to date. A huge thanks to Joe DeSimone for not only having the idea, but for taking his time to ensure that everything ran flawlessly. It would be hard to imagine a better group of people to enjoy this kind of an event with!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to all of our loyal customers who continue to support our pursuit of top-notch Porsche, Audi, VW, BMW, Mini and more parts, we are lucky enough to need more space! Our existing building in Milton, Vermont was built so that we could make the move from a cramped city space to a larger facility capable of handling our new machining centers, second waterjet, and rapidly expanding staff. Now, four years later, we have reached the same point where expansion has become necessary, again thanks to all of our wonderful customers.

 

Initial construction of our current facility circa 2011

This is going to be a significant improvement for the Rennline shop. As anyone who has run, worked around, serviced, or even seen a water jet can tell you, they can be a little messy! This new shop space is going to be almost solely committed to ‘jet operation, which will free up a huge amount of space and allow us to spend less time scrubbing. We are also adding a third water jet, bringing our total to three in-house, which will massively improve the speed with which we can turn out your favorite parts!

 

 

 

 

We are hoping that this additional space will allow us to carry a larger supply of current Rennline parts and also to continue expanding our line of parts for Porsche models as well as Audi, Volkswagen, BMW, Mini and others. In the past year we have been able to significantly expand our offerings, specifically for VW models by releasing our RS Style Door Pulls, billet license plate mounts, tow hooks and GoPro mounts and more for the MK4-7 Golf, GTI and Jetta, and we cannot wait to flex our engineering muscles on some more parts for these cars!

 

 

 

 

 

We hope to be moving into this space in January if everything goes smoothly, just in time to begin stocking up on parts for the race season. This also means that with our increased production capability we should be churning out a host of new parts for the new year! Look for continued development of the new 991 chassis and new lines of VW products to lead the way.

Last, but certainly not least we would like to take the opportunity, once again, to thank all of our customers who have made Rennline’s success possible. Since our opening we have worked hard to bring the best parts possible to market, and luckily we hit a niche with a lot of great enthusiasts who are passionate about speed and quality. Whether you’ve ordered $10 or $10,000 worth of parts from us, we would like to thank each and every customer for supporting us and making this all possible!