Background
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History

At the heart of Tool Makers International (TMI) is a founder who had a passion for life and an uncanny knack for the can business. TMI began in the early 1960's as the retirement venture of an old time "can man", Frank Burns.  In the beginning . . .Originally from Chicago, Illinois, Frank moved to San Francisco with his family when he was 13 years old. It wasn't long before he found himself working in his first machine shop as a 16-year-old apprentice for Compressed Air and General Machine. During that year, young Frank built a scale model of a Johnson J-type double seamer, part of a table top display of a complete Alaskan salmon cannery. The entire display was exhibited for one year at the 1915 Pan Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.

Founder Frank Burns 1898 - 1976

At the age of 20, Mr. Burns set out looking for adventure by hopping on a freight train bound for Detroit, Michigan. He had decided to further his apprenticeship in the tool and die profession and found a position at the Ford Motor Company soon after arriving in Detroit. Two years later, Mr. Burns was lured from the Motor City back to California by the warm weather and the opportunity to play baseball. Frank played in the tri-county Triple A Coast League, just one step below professional baseball. He relished having the opportunity to play ball with future Hall of Fame baseball players Lefty O'Doul, Tony Lazzari, and George Kelly.

San Francisco Seals semi-pro baseball team circa 1920. Frank Burns, back row, second from left. Lefty O'Doul, front row, far left.

A short time later, Frank was hired by the American Can Company (Canco), in San Francisco, to work in the manufacturing division and to play for their semi-professional baseball team in the Industrial League. 

It was common practice in those days for many of the corporations in the San Francisco Bay Area to sponsor Double A and Triple A-level baseball teams. There were a dozen teams in the league and, according to Mr. Burns, the unofficial headquarters for the semi-pros in the San Francisco area was Kaneally's Pool Room located near the shipyards in the China Basin section of the city. 

American Can "Canco" baseball team, Industrial League. Frank Burns, back row, far left.

Frank's playing career with Canco stretched to three years when he was offered the opportunity to manage the team. His goal was to build a strong enough roster to beat rival competitor, Western Can. He wasn't quite able to realize that dream, however, and the Canco team never triumphed over Western Can under Mr. Burn's management. 

In the early 1920's, Western Can was an upstart San Francisco can company that was bought by Continental Can years later. In the mid 1980's, Continental became Close Tech, and then changed hands with the Figge Corporation and is currently known as Pneumatic Scale, a Barry-Wehmiller company.

An early innovator ... During the 15 years Mr. Burns worked at American Can (1920 - 1935), he held positions as a master mechanic, draftsman and foreman in various departments. At that time, American Can's San Francisco plant at Third and 23rd Street was the largest of the 50 can plants in the company and was considered the largest can plant in the world. 

Ready for a change, Mr. Burns began working for the Pacific Can Company (which later became National Can), where he contributed to the design of the first flat top beer can on the West Coast. He then assembled a team of experts to set up the first beer can line in the West. One of the men on his team was Bill Petersen, who went on to work for Angelus Sanitary Can Machine Company, became their top engineer, and designed one of their most successful seamers in the industry - the 60L series. 

Within two years, Mr. Burns landed at the Continental Can Company (formerly Western Can) in their can manufacturing plant in San Francisco. For a period of time, he was Quality Control Supervisor for all of the plants on the West Coast, traveling from the Canadian border to the Mexican Border, visiting all of the Continental plants and monitoring their quality output. In the early 1940's, during World War II, Mr. Burns bought 100 acres of tomato crops in the Stockton/Central Valley area of California and ran a farming operation while working as a night supervisor for Continental's Stockton can plant. From a can industry perspective, he had experienced it all: from growing the crop to overseeing the can manufacturing process for the cans that would eventually pack the tomatoes he had grown.

Frank at the "Crosby Clam Bake"

Looking for new challenges, Frank joined Continental's sales division, stayed almost 20 years and became their top salesman in the company. His territory was in Northern California at a time when can packing plants were plentiful in the Santa Clara Valley, the Central Valley and the Monterey Peninsula.  Mr. Burns had a fairly colorful sales career. Part of his success was due to his early-day networking techniques which included hunting trips to Oregon, junkets to Las Vegas in a prop plane and golfing with the Bing Crosby family at the Crosby Clam Bake (now the AT&T Open) at Pebble Beach. When selling cans in the Monterey area, Frank crossed paths with the novelist John Steinbeck more than once when Steinbeck was writing his book, Cannery Row.

The start of Tool Makers International . . . After just a year in retirement, Frank found a way to stay connected to the can industry by supplying replacement parts to the seamer departments in the same canneries that had been in his sales territory in his previous career with Continental. In 1961, Mr. Burns created an alliance with a small machine shop in Sunnyvale, California where he had seaming chucks and rolls manufactured to exacting specifications. With his background in precision machining, Frank held a high regard for holding close tolerances to produce superior tooling. 

Early Innovations . . . Always interested in making a better product, five years after starting TMI Frank developed and patented the Adjustable Pin Seaming Roll Assembly, a product that reduces set-up time on Angelus 60L and 61H seamers. Mr. Burns took pleasure in using his life-long canning experience to improve productivity on the plant floor. Today, the Adjustable Pin is available to work with the most recent models of the Angelus 60L and 61H seaming machines.

Mr. Burns was also responsible for developing the Double Groove Seaming Roll Assembly, a time and cost saving product for all Angelus P-type seamers. Hours of time were spent in testing and perfecting his innovation.

In the early 1970's, Patrick Chronis began working with his grand father, learning the business after he had completed his college degree. When Mr. Burns passed away in 1976, Patrick invited his brother, Peter, to join the family business and together the two have been partners in Tool Makers International for almost 25 years.

During that time, TMI has grown ten-fold. Computer controlled machinery has replaced older lathes and mills. Tool Makers International has expanded its customer base beyond the borders of the United States to include customers in 47 different countries.

While modern machinery has replaced the relics once used in the shop, there is still one link to the past that has been preserved. Remember that scale model of the Johnson J-type double seamer that Mr. Burns built in 1914? Well it still exists and has a place of honor on Mr. Chronis' desk as a fond reminder of the legacy his grand father left behind.

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